Creighton and Southern Illinois was one of the country’s fiercest rivalries in the late 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, so much so that ESPN’s College Gameday visited one of their battles in 2008 — a rare feat for a game outside of the power conference structure. When they last played in 2013, the teams had combined for seven of the last 12 MVC regular-season championships, boasted six of the last 12 MVC Coaches of the Year, seven of the last 11 MVC Players of the Year, and won eight of the last 14 MVC Tourney titles.
CU and SIU played for the MVC tourney title four times (1989, 2002, 2003 and 2007) with CU winning all four. Along with Wichita State, the three schools ruled “America’s Renaissance Conference” for the better part of 25 years.
And now, in the midst of the Jays’ ninth season since leaving the Missouri Valley Conference for the Big East, Creighton and SIU are set to renew acquaintances this afternoon in the third place game of the Paradise Jam. Amazingly, it’s the first time since they left that Creighton has played a team who was in the Valley when they were a member.
How fitting that it’s against the hated Egyptian Dogs.
So what have the Salukis been up since we last saw them? They’ve been in a prolonged downward spiral, missing the postseason in all eight seasons since CU headed to the Big East; they missed it in CU’s final five seasons in the MVC, too, and have not earned an invite to the postseason since the 2008 NIT. That’s not to say they’ve had bad teams all of those years — they were 22-10 in 2016 and 20-13 in 2018 — but life in the Valley is not easy, as CU fans know well.
They’re led by Bryan Mullins, now in his third season as the head coach. Yes, THAT Bryan Mullins. The point guard of their famed “Floorburn U” teams, the two-time MVC Defensive Player of the Year, and the thorn in the side of Bluejay fans over a four-year career. He still holds the career record for assists at SIU, and is second in steals. That guy.
SIU under Mullins has started to return to that DNA, a tough, physical, defense first team. They’ve been done in this weekend by long scoring droughts, a problem that plagued them a year ago, too. But they’re a veteran team picked to finish middle of the pack in the MVC, and look like a program back on the rise.
Lance Jones, a 6’1” junior guard, leads the Salukis in scoring at 19.5 points per game thanks largely to being unstoppable in the paint — he’s 20-of-26 on two point shots so far. Nearly half (9) of those have been in transition, where he wastes little time taking the ball directly to the rim. Jones had 21 points in last night’s loss to Northeastern, a game where SIU as a team scored just 47. He was 8-of-13 on two-pointers in that game and 5-of-6 from the line.
Here’s the scary thing: Jones is doing all of that despite being 8-of-30 (26.7%) from three-point range through four games. He’s 4-of-17 in this tournament, including 0-for-6 last night. Last season he made 43% of his threes (51-of-119) and lit up Loyola-Chicago twice in a huge late February weekend series — he was 4-of-8 in Game One and 5-of-8 in Game Two. It’s just a matter of time before Jones gets hot and/or returns to his shooting form of a year ago. It’s imperative that CU ensures it doesn’t happen on Monday.
2020 MVC freshman of the year Marcus Domask led the Salukis in scoring a year ago, is second so far this year at 12.8 points per game, and leads them in assists with 14. Domask has done the bulk of his offensive damage near the basket the last two seasons; he’s 6-of-20 on threes so far this year, and was 12-of-41 in nine games last year. Much like Jones, though, his history suggests he’s much better than that. Two years ago when he won Freshman of the Year, Domask shot 52-of-134 (38.8%) from three-point range.
Steven Verplancken, a 6’4” junior, is their third player averaging in double figures at 12.3 points per game. He’s been their only real threat from three-point range this year, making 11-of-20 (55%). And he doesn’t shoot from anywhere else unless he has to — 20 of his 31 shot attempts have been threes this year, and 99 of his 156 attempts last year were threes. Verplancken is the classic mid-major “run to the corner, lull the defense to sleep, and fire away” sharpshooter.
SIU in 2021 isn’t exactly the ferocious, defensive juggernaut they were at their heydey under Bruce Weber and Chris Lowery. But their style of play also isn’t totally unrecognizable. Their adjusted tempo is 66.3 — one of the slowest in the country (326th). Their average possession lasts 18.7 seconds (301st). They’re a physical team, and they’re generally sound fundamentally on defense.
They do run a bit in transition, and Jones is a good scorer when they do, but most often SIU prefers to work the ball around and wait for a defensive breakdown to attack. Verplancken’s threes have generally been a result of inside-out play. Guarding the dribble and being prepared to defend for 20-25 seconds while maintaining focus is a must. That’s not always easy for a young team.
- Tip: 4:45pm
- Venue: Sports and Fitness Center, University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas, USVI
- TV: None
- Webcast: ESPN3
- Announcers: Brad Wells, Kevin Lehman
- Streaming on the ESPN app on phones, tablets, and smart devices (Roku, Amazon Firestick, Google Chromecast)
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Ben Coupet, Jr. has been the Salukis’ sixth man, averaging 7.5 points and a team-high 5.3 rebounds through four games, all off the bench. Kyler Filewich averages 4.3 points per game, and beyond those five (Jones, Domask, Verplancken, Coupet and Filewich) the rest of the team has only scored a combined 28 points and taken 31 shots. This is a very top-heavy roster. That could be a factor in the third game in four days.
- The 2021-22 SIU team returns 97% of its scoring from last season and seven players who started 10+ games last season. The Salukis were picked fifth in the preseason Missouri Valley Conference poll of coaches, media and sports information directors. KenPom and Bart Torvik also rank SIU fifth, while Norlander ranks SIU sixth in the MVC.
- Marcus Domask and Lance Jones were named to the preseason All-MVC teams. Domask was named to the Second Team and Jones was named to the third team.
- Since the 2002 MVC Tournament final, Creighton is 12-0 against Southern Illinois when scoring 70 points or more, but 3-10 when scoring less than 70 against the Salukis.
- Creighton shot 55.0 percent from the field on Sunday night vs. Colorado State, yet still lost 95-81. Greg McDermott entered the night 207-17 in his Division I career when his teams shot 50 percent or better, and 153-10 when that happened and he was on the Bluejay sidelines. In fact, since 1994-95, the only previous time that Creighton has shot better than 53.5 percent from the field and lost had been Feb. 17, 2018, when it shot 56.1 percent but lost 90-86 to Marquette.
- Creighton held its first four opponents under 40 percent from the field, the first time its started a season like that since at least 1980-81, before Colorado State shot 53.0 percent from the field on Sunday. After holding foes to 26.5 percent shooting from deep in its first four games (all wins), Creighton allowed Colorado State to shoot 20-for-34 (58.8 percent) from downtown on Sunday. The 20 three-pointers were a Paradise Jam single-game record (was 17) and a Colorado State single-game record (was 19). CSU’s 20 three-pointers are the most ever allowed by Creighton in a single game, surpassing the mark of 19 set on Feb. 1, 2018 by No. 1 Villanova. That Wildcats team went on to win the NCAA title.
Creighton leads the all-time series against Southern Illinois 53-36 in a series that dates to 1970, but has not been played since 2013. The teams were fierce rivals in the Missouri Valley Conference from 1977-2013 until Creighton departed for the Big East.
Creighton has won 11 straight meetings in the series, which came not long after snapping an eight-game skid to SIU from 2004-07. The Jays are also 6-0 all-time on neutral floors vs. the Salukis.
Greg McDermott is 10-7 in his career against Southern Illinois, including a 6-0 mark as Creighton’s head coach. He was also 4-7 as head coach at Northern Iowa against the Salukis.
The game time they met, Creighton won 59-45 in Omaha on February 19, 2013. It was a grinder in the way so many SIU battles over the years were.
The Bottom Line:
The Bluejays and Salukis are playing on the final day of a tournament. Time to break out your little plastic Sundeckers glasses (if you happened to borrow one or four in 2013 and conveniently forget to give it back to the bartender, not that you know anyone who did that — present company excluded) and a bucket of Bud Light to properly pregame.
Jays 70, SIU 62