This year we had Thanksgiving at our house with all the family. And in our infinite wisdom, we scheduled a noon dinner. Right in the middle of today’s Creighton game. Well luckily as we scrambled to get things ready I was able to watch the first half and see Creighton and Michigan go on runs back and forth. Then I saw this guy with a #1 on the back of his jersey and he was playing quite well. . . #1? #1? Oh, that’s Justin Carter. I didn’t recognize him at first without his hair. Although I knew he was ready to play, I didn’t expect he would have the game that he did.
As Ashford hit the three to end the half to get the Jays within three, I did what I hate to do. I hit the pause button on the DVR. But since we didn’t have a household of Jays fans, that was my only choice.
After the turkey was settling in the stomachs, it turned a bit as I watched the second half. It was pretty good as it went back and forth and the inspiring play of Justin Carter’s 21 points and 8 rebounds pushed the Jays to take the lead and hold it for most of the half. But I felt history repeating itself in the last four minutes as things started to fall apart like it did against Dayton. The Jays blew a lead, couldn’t make the stops needed and let things slip away to again miss the opportunity to take down a ranked team. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims came as advertised and the Jays could not do anything to stop them similar to Chris Wright of Dayton.
It became very apparent to me today how important Justin Carter and Antoine Young are to this team and I hope their injuries don’t continue to hamper them the rest of the season, because they need to be on the court as much as they can. Young’s drive at the end of regulation to tie things up was great and shows what a special player he is. It really hurt when Young had to come out of the game in overtime for a couple of possessions when he appeared to hurt himself trying to steal the ball from a Michigan player. Young drives this offense and it was very telling what he means to this team without him for those couple possessions when he led the team with 33 minutes played.
So now, Creighton has to turn right around and pick up the pieces to play Xavier on Friday which to me becomes a must win. When the opportunities come to grow your resume for the NCAA tournament, you have to take advantage of it. Losing all of the games against the competition you beg to play each year will not help. I can only see two situations where playing the teams and losing may have helped a team in the NCAA’s eyes:
- Two seasons ago, Davidson played Duke, North Carolina St. and UCLA on the road and lost. However, because they played those games, they were still talked about and were still in consideration due to their performance during their conference season (going 20-0). Davidson did get in and took eventual national champion Kansas down to the wire in the Elite 8.
- Last season, Siena lost all three games they played in the Old Spice Classic against Tennessee, Wichita St. and Oklahoma St, and lost to Kansas on the road. But because they played those teams, Siena remained on the bubble and were talked about as the season wound down even though they stumbled along the way in conference play. Siena did get in and beat Ohio St. in the first round and almost pulled out a win against Louisville.
What we may not ever know for sure however is if those two teams would have made the tournament if not for their postseason performances. Davidson went undefeated in the Southern conference and then won their conference tournament, thus getting the automatic bid. Siena did end up winning their conference tournament as well.
So although we are only at game 6 of the season, Creighton is at a crossroads. Do they want to keep their name’s on the radar throughout the season because they get some nice wins or instead be talked about that they played some good teams, but still lost and dangle that carrot out there that even losing some conference games they shouldn’t they might have a chance to make the NCAA tournament? I’d rather not test that theory. That is why these last two games of the Old Spice Classic become so important to walk away with wins. I’d rather not get into the Davidson and Siena situations and hope that it works out just because they played the tough teams.
The Jays take on Xavier Friday afternoon which begins the path this team takes in defining the rest of their season. It will be really interesting how this team responds.