Once upon a time, Southern Illinois was what Wichita State is now — a Valley powerhouse and chief nemesis of the Creighton Bluejays. But five seasons of diminishing returns following their 29-7 team in 2006-07 (18-15, 13-18, 15-15, 13-19, 8-23) led to the dismissal of Chris Lowery as head coach, after the team bottomed out in a dismal ninth-place finish a year ago.
Enter Barry Hinson, the longtime Missouri State coach, to attempt to resurrect the once-proud Saluki program. Working with a roster comprised of no starters and only one active player taller than 6-foot-5 (forward Davante Drinkard is 6’9″), Hinson used a relatively easy non-conference schedule to pile up a lot of early wins. At 8-11, they’ve already won as many games as a year ago, and have some nice pieces in place to build around.
One of those newcomers is Wyoming transfer Desmar Jackson, a 6’5″ guard who leads the team in scoring (16.3 points per game), steals (38) and three-pointers (25-75, 33%). He also averages 6.1 rebounds a game, second best on the team, and was named MVC Newcomer of the Week after he made the game-winning three-pointer with 12 seconds left to beat Fresno State on November 28. But more impressively, he reeled off three consecutive 20-point games at Wichita State (28), vs Indiana State (29) and at Bradley (21). Why is that impressive? To find the last Saluki to score 20+ in three consecutive games, you have to go back more than ten years — way back to the fall of 2001, when Kent Williams scored 20+ in four straight.
Another newcomer is true freshman Anthony Beane, Jr., a 6’2″ guard who averages 10.1 points per game, third-best on the team and tops among freshmen in the MVC. He has scored in double figures in all but two conference games, though they just so happen to be the last two. Beane, a native of Normal, Illinois, originally committed to hometown Illinois State, but when his father Anthony Beane, Sr., took a job as an assistant on Hinson’s staff, the younger Beane opted to go to Carbondale with him.
As was the case a year ago when he was named to the MVC All-Freshman Team, forward Dantiel Daniels has been injury-plagued. He missed six games last year and has missed four so far this year with various ailments, though when he plays he’s been terrific. The 6’5″ Daniels leads the MVC in field goal percentage (66%), and is seventh in the league in blocked shots (1.0 bpg) after leading the league in that category a year ago. He averages 10.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, and interestingly for a player his size, has yet to attempt a single three-pointer all season.
Unfortunately for the Salukis, Jeff Early, a fifth-year senior who leads the team in rebounds — in fact, he leads the entire nation in rebounds among players 6’1″ or smaller — will not play Sunday night. He was ejected from Wednesday night’s loss to UNI after picking up a Flagrant-2 for throwing an elbow on Jake Koch while the two were running down court, and was suspended one game by the MVC for his actions. His absence is a massive loss for SIU, as they’ve struggled to stay competitive on the glass even with Early.
Because of their small stature — they play just one player taller than 6’5″ — they regularly play four or five guards at once. It leads to some ridiculous looking lineups, and gives opposing coaches fits. Wednesday night against UNI, the Panthers had difficulty running their offense against the unusual alignment, and it showed in the 58-45 score. After the game, Jacobson told the media, “You don’t practice against five guards and you don’t play against five guards except in this game. When they have four or five guards on the floor, it changes the way you can run your offense. But we were able to get a few more touches (inside) in the second half and that jump-started us.”
It will be fascinating to see both how the Salukis choose to defend Gregory Echenique and Doug McDermott, and how the Jays defend the Salukis — ideally, they don’t want Echenique chasing guards and smaller forwards around, but since everyone SIU plays is undersized, there’s not much choice.
Given the matchup problems and the talent gap facing SIU Sunday night, it’s tempting to think Creighton should win easily. But after losing in ugly fashion to a Drake team they were superior to on paper, nothing should be taken for granted. If the Jays shooting slump continues, and SIU does what Drake did — crash the offensive glass, use second-and-third opportunities to create extra possessions, and hit just enough outside shots…well, let’s not think about that. It’s too unpleasant.
About the Salukis:SIU scores 65.9 points per game and yields 65.7 per contest … The Salukis shoot 45.7% from the field and 31.5% from long-range … SIU has been out-rebounded in every conference game except Indiana State (perhaps not coincidentally, their only conference win) … The Salukis are dead last in free throw shooting in MVC games, making a dreadful 65.5% of their shots from the charity stripe … Southern Illinois ranks last in the MVC in three-point shooting defense (36.6%) this year, after finishing last a year ago. You might recall that last February, Indiana State made an NCAA record 12-of-12 shots from three-point against the Salukis in Terre Haute, and then three days later Creighton made 12-of-14 shots from three against SIU — a school record and ninth-best in NCAA history.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Sunday’s tilt will be the 2,400th game in Creighton history;
they’ve previously won their 2,000th, 2,100th, 2,200th and 2,300th games played … Since the 2002 MVC Tournament final, Creighton is 11-0 against Southern Illinois when scoring 70 points or more, but 2-10 when scoring less than 70 against the Salukis … Two of Creighton’s last three trips to Carbondale have been overtime victories, and both of those wins featured late-game heroics by former Bluejay guard Antoine Young — in 2010, he had a then-career-high with 22 points, including six of CU’s last eight, of an 83-78 victory, and in 2011 he scored six points in the final minutes as the Jays overcame a 50-43 deficit to win.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott leads the nation with 476 points this season, just 24 points away from his third straight season of 500 or more points. The only three men in Creighton history with three straight seasons of 500 or more points are Paul Silas (1961-64), Bob Harstad (1988-91) and Rodney Buford (1996-99).
The Last Time They Played: Last February 14, Creighton beat Southern Illinois 88-69 in Carbondale behind a shooting performance for the ages. They missed their first shot and their last shot, but just seven others in between to set an MVC record by making 77.5% from the field (31-40). The previous mark had lasted nearly 30 years — since January of 1984 — when Bradley made 74.5% vs. West Texas State.
Creighton shot 75% (15-20) in the first half, its best half since shooting 18-of-23 in the second half at Drake on Jan. 9, 2007. Unlike Bradley’s mark, this one lasted about an hour as CU made 16-of-20 shots in the second half (80%) to eclipse it.
The Series: Creighton owns a 51-36 all-time lead in the series against Southern Illinois, but the Salukis own the 22-18 edge in Carbondale. Creighton has won the last nine meetings and 10 of 11 since an eight-game losing streak to Southern Illinois was snapped in 2007.
Greg McDermott is 8-7 against Southern Illinois (4-0 at CU) and 6-7 vs. Barry Hinson. Hinson is 8-16 against Creighton all-time, going back to his days at Missouri State.
Gratuitous Linkage: Todd Hefferman of the Southern Illinoisan has some typically great quotes from Barry Hinson in his postgame recap from Wednesday night, among them his pointed criticism of Dantiel Daniels for grabbing just one rebound in the game.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On January 27, 2001, Creighton jumped out to an 18-5 lead to open the game thanks to six points apiece from Kyle Korver and Ben Walker, and held on to beat Illinois State 78-69 at the Civic. It’s a game better remembered for the back-to-back dunks from Terrell Taylor in the second half, both off turnovers, though — especially the second, a 270-degree dunk that brought the crowd of 8,371 to it’s feet.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: The inimitable “Angrydan” from the Bluejay Underground suggested this video in the thread about the SIU game, and after playing it, I couldn’t resist using it here. Such a tremendous song. The time has come to end this losing streak!
The Bottom Line: Creighton shoots somewhere in between the hideous percentage they made in Des Moines, and the historic performance they had last year in Carbondale. Going out on a limb here, I am.
Creighton 76, SIU 63