After a quick turnaround from Saturday night, the Jays welcome the Leathernecks of Western Illinois to town tonight, meaning that the frustrations of Saturday night — the ones that darn near overshadowed the debut of Gregory Echenique — are still fresh on everyone’s mind. Namely, the worst passing game of the season from a team whose hallmark the last couple of years has been making bad passes. Its not something you can easily fix, which is why Greg McDermott told the media following Saturday’s game that the only way to solve the team’s poor passing skill is to “recruit.”
He told Steve Pivovar in the Omaha World-Herald today that “Sometimes it’s like we’re a sixth-grade team. We have four guys yelling that they’re open and, because they’re yelling, we just throw it to them. We don’t make the read where the defense is. Some of the reads we make are ridiculous.” That’s not exactly a surprising statement to anyone who has watched this team the last two or three years; one of the things that plagued Dana Altman’s final teams at CU was horrible turnovers and bad passing reads. That Greg McDermott and a new staff would suffer through the same struggles with many of the same players is not a shock.
Those passing woes figure to continue tonight, as Western Illinois — despite an RPI hovering around 300 and next-to-no expectations — does one thing well, and that’s play defense. They’ve allowed just two teams to score as many as 70 points in a game this year (Oral Roberts had 71, and Morgan State had 72). They held 15th ranked Missouri to a season-low 66 points, nearly 20 fewer than their season average. They rank 26th nationally in scoring defense (59.1 points per game) and 24th in 3-point percentage defense (.275) in Division 1, and though they’ve struggled to win, that’s largely a product of offensive futility, because their defense has been stout. That’s been their calling card during all three years of Jim Molinari’s reign as head coach, just as it was during his long tenure at Bradley, where Jays fans saw his tenacious defensive style first hand for the better part of a decade.
With that said, the defensive Player of the Year in the Summit League last year, Ceola Clark, has missed the Leathernecks previous three games with an injury and is questionable to go tonight. He’s a big loss and if he’s unable to play, their chances of slowing the Jays down decrease precipitously.
The Leathernecks’ team leader is a natural two-guard who has been asked to play the point, Matt Lander. As the radio voice of the Leathernecks told WBR’s Patrick Marshall, the senior likes to dribble-drive and get into the lane to create shots either for himself or for his teammates. They’ve got some decent shooters from the perimeter, namely 6’7″ Jack Houpt (38% from long range) and Lander (41%), but they’re undersized and have used team defense to try and neutralize an opponent’s advantage in the paint.
Molinari’s laser-like focus on hard-nosed defense, combined with the Jays propensity for low-scoring affairs anyway, probably means we’re in for a slugfest played in the high-50s or low-60s. Oh boy.
Meet the Leathernecks: Western Illinois is 5-5 on the season, including victories over St. Francis (Ill.), Savannah State, Prairie View A&M, Centenary and Culver-Stockton … The Leathernecks are 3-1 at home, 1-3 on the road and 1-1 on neutral floors … Their RPI is 337 and their strength of schedule, so far, is 344 despite taking on 15th ranked Missouri … Matt Lander leads WIU in scoring, averaging 17.9 points per game, and also tops the team with 12 steals and 61 free throws made and is second with 12 three-pointers made and 25 assists … Ceola Clark III, who scores 10.7 points per game and tops the club with 30 assists and 14 steals, is the reigning Summit League Defensive Player of the Year but the preseason all-league selection has missed the last four games with a dislocated toe … One player whose name you might recognize is Emeka Okafor Jr., the third cousin of former UCONN standout and #2 overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft Emeka Okafor. Okafor Jr. began his career at Toledo before transferring to Western Illinois last season, and is now a solid role player off the bench for the Leathernecks … Head Coach Jim Molinari owns a 250-228 record in 17 years as a head coach, including 12 years at Bradley (1991-2002) and a term as interim head coach at Minnesota in 2006-07 … As a team, Western Illinois averages 62.1 points per game but allows just 59.1 per contest to the opposition.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton has scored 8,990 points all-time at Qwest Center Omaha, making it a virtual certainty that it will reach 9,000 points in the building on Monday … Creighton has currently outscored the opposition 8,990-7,637 in 122 career games in he eight-year old facility … Creighton made its first eight field goal attempts from the field to open Saturday’s win over Idaho State, with six of those shots coming from long-range, the second straight game that Creighton had a stretch of six straight three-point attempts that were all made, having done it on six straight possessions vs. Saint Joseph’s … Creighton is 51-for-122 all-time in its first shot of the game at Qwest Center Omaha, including a 3-for-7 mark this winter … Antoine Young’s 4-4 shooting from downtown was a Qwest Center Omaha record for three-point shots without a miss by a Bluejay, eclipsing previous 3-for-3 displays by Johnny Mathies, Pierce Hibma, Dane Watts and Booker Woodfox … More ammo to shoot down the preposterous Antoine Young Haters Club: Young entered this season a career 25.6% shooter from three-point range (23-90), and already this season, he’s at 37.5% (15-40) from downtown. At the line, Young entered the year as a 64.3% shooter (101-157), and he’s currently at 74.5% from the stripe (38-51). This team has problems. Antoine Young is not one of them. So please, stop it already, haters … Need more proof? Young continues to lead the MVC in assists (46), minutes played (355) and assist/turnover ratio (2.19). He led the MVC in assist/turnover ratio last season, as well … Kaleb Korver’s six assists on Saturday made him the first Bluejay with consecutive games of six assists or more since March 1-7, 2008, when Cavel Witter did it in consecutive games vs. Bradley.
The Last Time They Played: Creighton opened the 2000-01 season with a resounding 96-50 thumping of Western Illinois. The Bluejays used a stifling press and three treys by sophomore forward Kyle Korver to open up a 15-0 lead at the 16:05 mark, while redshirt freshman center Joe Dabbert helped CU to a 46-35 advantage on the boards by pulling down a game-best nine, including six on the offensive end of the floor, and also scored 13 points in his college debut. It was the 100th win at Creighton for Dana Altman.
The Series: Creighton has won both of the previous meetings with Western Illinois, though the teams have not met since that 2000 meeting. Greg McDermott is 2-0 in his career against Jim Molinari, but has never faced Western Illinois. Both previous match-ups with Molinari came during the 2001-02 season when Molinari was at Bradley and McDermott at Northern Iowa.
Molinari is 13-11 all-time against Creighton, including a 4-7 mark in games played in Omaha. Notably, he coached a 61-58 win on Jan. 17, 1998 over Creighton that represents the last time Bradley won in Omaha.
Gratuitous Linkage: So they’re making a Ouija Board movie, which apparently “will have influences from The Mummy and Indiana Jones” and Michael Bay is somehow involved. Of course he is. Anyway, the AV Club has a much better take on it than I have time or space to write here.
Out of Context Simpsons quote: “Can’t you people take the law into your own hands? I mean, we can’t be policing the entire city!” -Chief Wiggum
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On December 20, 1999, the first of Creighton’s two prior meetings with Western Illinois took place in the first round of the Nike Classic in Honolulu. Trailing 37-36 at halftime, senior Nerijus Karlikanovas scored Creighton’s first eight points of the period and gave the Jays a 44-39 lead. The win moved Creighton to 8-0 on the season, its best start at the time since the 1963-64 squad finished 22-7 overall and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: The Boss gets you ready for Christmas the way only The Boss can.
Prediction: Gregory Echenique and Kenny Lawson finally get on the court at the same time to try out the much-anticipated Twin Towers approach. The bad passes from the wings continue. So do the struggles.
Jays 64, Western Illinois 57