“Now when we fought, you had the Eye of the tiger man, the edge. And now you gotta get it back. And the way to get it back is to go back to the beginning. You know what I mean?”
Like most guys who grew up in the late-70s and early-80s, the Rocky movies were staples in my cinematic diet. So when someone on the Bluejay Underground suggested that this season was starting to remind them of Rocky III, it intrigued me. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself it made sense. At the beginning of Rocky III, the champ is caught up in his success, believing his own press clippings, and even has a statue dedicated in his honor. I don’t know if the Jays have spent too much time reading their own press lately, but it certainly seems plausible given their play the last ten days.
Back in the movie, Clubber Lang shows up at the statue dedication, mocks the champ, and challenges him to a duel. The hungry Clubber trains in a back-alley gym by himself; Rock trains before a live band and adoring fans. While Creighton was rolling up 102 points in front of a near-packed house against Illinois State, playing laxadaisical defense because they could get away with it, and having feature pieces written about them in Sports Illustrated, Wichita State was pounding opponents into submission on both ends of the floor in virtual anonymity — earning no national press, garnering few votes in either poll, and getting a disrespectful draw in BracketBusters.
The ill-prepared champ shows up over-confident to their fight, and gets absolutely demolished in front of his hometown fans. Suddenly, the media turns on him. “Balboa WAS a great champ,” a TV news anchor is shown commenting on air. “But his time has passed.” Meanwhile, Creighton shows up against Wichita State, plays the sort of defense that only an over-confident team believes they can get away with, and gets knocked out cold with 15 minutes to play, leaving Clester Johnson to mock them on TV Sunday night.
Enter their former rival, an ex-champ in their own right, offering an opportunity at redemption.
“See that look in their eyes, Rock? You gotta get that look back, Rock. Eye of the tiger, man.”
Media darlings all season, following the devastating loss the Jays are suddenly in the crosshairs of the ESPN firing squad. The standard advice is not to listen to it. In the movie, Apollo Creed has other advice. “No, do listen to it Rock. Because when it’s over, everybody’s gonna owe you an engraved apology.” The old rival helps him get his swagger and his confidence back, and in the rematch, fools are pitied, pain is dished out, and the tables turn.
***
Tuesday night in Carbondale, a staggering Creighton team takes on an old rival who has fallen on hard times. It’s the perfect chance to get some swagger and confidence back — the Salukis are ninth out of ten teams in the MVC in both offense (63 ppg) and defense (68.3 ppg), they get outrebounded by nearly 2 boards a game, and have a 1% chance of avoiding the Thursday play-in round in St. Louis according to MVCFans.com. In the first matchup, Creighton dominated from the opening tip, never trailing and ultimately prevailing 90-71.
The once-raucous atmosphere of SIU Arena has been reduced to a place where an average of 3,279 fans show up each night, and the once-unbeatable-at-home Salukis are 6-6 on their home court this year. Even mired in the midst of a three-game shooting slump, it would take a stretch of the imagination I’m not not willing to make to envision a Creighton loss.
SIU is led by Mamadou Seck, a terrific post player that averages 12.3 points and 7.7 rebounds a game who had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in the January meeting in Omaha. A talented group of freshmen has shown improvement as the season has progressed, with Dantiel Daniels leading the way, averaging 8.7 points and 1.8 boards a game. They’re a deeper team that you’d expect, with 11 players getting 13 or more minutes a game. JuCo transfer Jeff Early, a 6’3″ guard, averages 8.5 points to rank third on the team, and three other players average more than seven a game. Not bad, right?
Those numbers are deceiving, unfortunately for SIU. They’ve rarely had a night where all of those scorers were hot at once and they’ve had three — THREE! — games in the last month where they’ve scored fewer than 50 points (49, 43 and 40.) Combined with atrocious defense, the Salukis have earned every bit of their 8-18 record, leaving Chris Lowery very much on the hot seat.
Daniels was still working his way back into the lineup the first time the teams met following an injury, and was largely ineffective in that game. Talking to the media on Monday, SIU coach Chris Lowery mentioned him as a potential X-Factor in Tuesday’s game. “Before the injury he was really playing well, and we really missed him because we didn’t have a post presence for so long when he was out. We knew how talented he was, we knew that he would be a good player for us early just because of how hard he worked. The best thing about him is the second time he’s seen people, he’s been really good.”
Asked if the Salukis could have success getting the ball inside, he expressed pessimism. “(Echenique is) big, he’s strong, he gets you off the block. Most people in our league allow you to post up on the block. He makes you post up 10-feet off, so you’re already at a disadvantage at that point. And then, he has good timing and he doesn’t foul. I think we have to move our guys. We have to move Dantiel (Daniels) especially. He can’t just be posting up on the block because (Echenique) will wear him out just trying to establish a post position, as opposed to moving around and trying to get Echenique in ball-screen situation and make him run.”
The Jays blew out SIU on Valentine’s Day in 2009, and while I don’t think they’ll blow them out on Valentine’s Day in 2012, I do think they’ll win. By 9pm Tuesday night, the shooting slump will be a thing of the past, and Creighton will on their way to a nice winning streak to wind down the regular season schedule.
Catching Up with the Salukis: Eleven different players have made starts this year for SIU, and the only player to start every game has been Mamadou Seck. They tried their 13th different starting lineup in last Wednesday’s loss to Missouri State … Mamadou Seck has seven double-doubles on the season, giving him 14 in his 57-game career at SIU. He has led the team in either scoring or rebounding in 20 of 26 games … The Salukis lead the MVC in three categories — offensive rebounds (12.0), steals (7.7) and blocked shots (3.8) per game … Individually, Mamadou Seck leads the league in offensive rebounds (2.4), and Dantiel Daniels leads the league in blocks (1.8) … JuCo guard Jeff Early (6’3″, 185, Jr.) has scored in double figures in seven of the last 10 games and is the team’s leading scorer at 11.0 points per game during that span, converting 50.0% of his shots … SIU has made just 59.9% of its free throw attempts during conference games. Mamadou Seck has been the team’s top free throw shooter in MVC games at 77%, but his teammates have combined to make just 56% of their freebies … During six seasons from 2001-02 through the 2007-08 campaign, SIU posted a 62-2 record against MVC opponents on its home court. The last 3+ seasons, however, the Salukis are 15-19 at home against the conference.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton hasn’t lost four straight games since Dec. 23, 1999 – Jan. 6, 2000 and hasn’t lost four MVC games in a row since 1995 … A victory in Carbondale would mark the first time in 29 attempts that Creighton has played at, and won, at all three MVC Illinois schools in the same season. This is the fifth time that Creighton has won its first two games in Illinois, but the Jays lost its third such game while attempting to complete the sweep in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2011 … Creighton is 7-0 this season against teams from the state of Illinois, having gone 2-0 against Bradley and Illinois State, and 1-0 versus Southern Illinois, Northwestern and Chicago State. The last time Creighton played a season without a loss to a team from Illinois was 1973-74 … Since the 2002 MVC Tournament final, Creighton is 10-0 against Southern Illinois when scoring 70 points or more, but 2-10 when scoring less than 70 against the Salukis.
The RUN-DMD Show: This season, Doug McDermott has 595 points, passing Rodney Buford (581 points in 1996-97) for most points in school history by a sophomore. McDermott’s 1,176 points to date are just 19 behind Bob Portman (1,195) for most in school history by a player in their first two seasons.
The Last Time They Played: Doug McDermott had 25 points and 11 rebounds while surpassing 1,000 career points in a 90-71 win over Southern Illinois on January 15 of this year. The Jays made 20-of-22 foul shots in the opening half as they raced out to a 48-36 lead at the break, and never trailed in the game.
The Series: Creighton leads the all-time series by a 50-36 margin, and has won eight in a row. The two teams have played one overtime game each of the last three seasons — with Creighton winning all three (a 2009 OT win on Omaha, and OT wins in Carbondale each of the past two seasons.) Antoine Young had starring roles in each of the last two, scoring a then-career-high with 22 points, including six of CU’s last eight, of an 83-78 victory in 2010 and scored 13 points in 44 minutes of play, including six points in the final 11 minutes, of a 72-66 OT win last year.
Greg McDermott is 7-7 against Southern Illinois (3-0 at CU) and 5-3 vs. Chris Lowery. Lowery is 7-9 against Creighton all-time.
Gratuitous Linkage: Todd Hefferman of the Southern Illinoisan wrote a great piece about Mamadou Seck’s off-the-court life with his wife and eight-month-old boy. A computer science major, he’s taking 16 credit hours this semester, is on track to graduate in May, fights the sleepless nights that go along with being the father of an infant…and is the Salukis best player.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On February 14, 2009, the Jays went into Carbondale and walked out with what has colloquially become known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre. The 82-60 victory is their largest road win over the Salukis in 39 trips to SIU. After giving up a three on the first possession, the Jays scored 12 straight, and then poured it on, ultimately building a 42-19 lead at halftime. Creighton maintained a healthy double-digit lead throughout the second half while continuing to bury its longtime rival and quiet the near-sellout crowd. Creighton’s largest lead came at 49-21 early in the half.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: “See that look in their eyes, Rock? You gotta get that look back, Rock. Eye of the tiger, man.”
The Bottom Line: All season long, I’ve hoped the Jays were tuning out the accolades and the adoration heaped on them by the press and fans. Now, with people piling on and writing them off, I hope they’re reading every word. When it’s all over, they’re going to owe the Jays an engraved apology…with a giant Valley logo on it, in St. Louis. An old rival will help them get back on track tonight.
Creighton 77, SIU 68