In the days leading up to the start of practice for the 2012-13 season, White & Blue Review will look back on the top five games, performances and moments of last season, as voted on by the editors of WBR. Today is the third in that series.
The goodwill generated by a 10-1 run through the first two months of the season evaporated in two short hours when the Jays were upset at home in the MVC opener by Missouri State. The 77-65 loss was devastating not only because it came at home, where contenders for league titles rarely lose, but also because of what lay ahead — a New Years Eve tussle in Wichita three days later. Prognosticators figured it would be tough for the Jays to walk out of Koch Arena with a win, meaning they were staring an 0-2 hole squarely in the eye. It’s tough to remember a game fewer fans believed the Jays could win; in fact, the attitude that seemed to be permeating message boards and talk radio was one of anger and defeatism.
I tried to keep people positive beforehand, writing in the Primer that Wichita was “favored to win, and that’s as it should be, considering they’re at home. Tonight at tip-off, I’d imagine a lot of Creighton fans will be anticipating a loss and down on their team. Here’s hoping that two hours once again make a huge difference, and by 7pm, Jays fans are once again in a celebratory mood. It is New Years Eve, after all.”
Koch Arena is always a difficult venue to come out of with a win, but in front of a “juiced” up crowd on New Years Eve, a national television audience and against a Shocker team poised to take Creighton’s place in the Top 25, the odds were certainly stacked pretty heavily in Wichita State’s favor.
No matter. The Jays jumped out to a 17-9 lead early, as their gameplan to make Wichita State pay for doubling Doug McDermott paid off. Saddled with foul trouble, Grant Gibbs then went to the bench. With him off the floor, the wheels fell off — missed defensive assignments, inability to feed the post, and a stagnant offense let the Shockers back into the game and with them, a feistier-than-usual crowd. They were outscored 30-14 the rest of the half, saved from being even worse by a three-point play by Antoine Young at the very end of the half. I examined things in the Polyfro Postgame thusly:
“Blowout city, right? Wrong. What the last ten minutes of the half proved were how important Grant Gibbs is to this team — saddled with foul trouble, he didn’t play the final ten minutes of the half. With him poised to return, I thought the Jays could make a run. The question in my mind was whether they’d dug too deep of a hole.
Why did I feel that way? With Gibbs on the floor the first ten minutes of the half, Creighton seemed poised to run Wichita out of their own gym. With him on the bench the rest of the half after picking up his second foul, Wichita returned the favor. Doug McDermott gets the headlines and the accolades, and rightfully so, but Gibbs is the straw that stirs the drink, with apologies to Reggie Jackson.
McDermott sat out nearly the entire first half against Northwestern, and the Jays were able to survive and still take a lead into the break. They have enough other scoring weapons to compete short-term with him on the bench. But as we saw Wednesday night against Missouri State when Gibbs picked up his second foul ten minutes in, and again Saturday night in Wichita when he did the same, they do not have anyone to replace his passing, his basketball savvy, or his knack for making plays. I think the Plus/Minus stat is incredibly misleading at times, but in this case, it’s a terrific illustration of Gibbs’ importance. Creighton was +25 against Wichita with him on the floor, and -18 when he was on the bench.”
Sure enough, with Gibbs back on the floor, Creighton opened the second half on a 15-7 run that pulled the game even. He played a key role in the comeback, though not in the usual fashion, as Otter wrote the next day. “During the opening minutes of the second half, though, Grant Gibbs transformed from a pass-first guard to a guy looking to score. He scored 6 of his second-half 11 points in the first 6 minutes, and he converted a steal into a McDermott 3-pointer with 13 minutes to go to tie the game at 46 apiece.
The Shockers got a free throw the next drip down court, but that lead — Wichita’s last of the night — would be quickly erased by a Josh Jones 3-pointer. A few minutes later Gibbs would counter a huge play by WSU’s David Kyles that pulled the Shockers to within 1 point, drilling a 3-pointer to give CU a 4-point margin. Jones scored the game’s next 5 points, hitting a jump shot and then drilling a trey to push the Creighton lead to 9 (60-51). The Shockers could get no closer than 3 points, and the Bluejays hit free throws down the stretch. A few hours before the ball dropped on 2011, you could hear a pin drop in Koch Arena.”
Creighton escaped a brutal first week of MVC play 1-1, which is about where most people thought they’d be, albeit with the results flipped. They’d lost at home to Missouri State, but unbelievably won at Wichita. The stirring road win on New Years Eve that may well have saved their season ranks as #3 on the list of Top 5 moments of the 2011-12 season.
