Saturday was the Creighton-Southern Illinois game. I really don't want to bore you with too many details of CU's 6th consecutive loss to the hated Egyptian Dogs, so I'll just give you some bullet points.
-CU played poorly, but much of that has to do with SIU. They are a terrible matchup for the Jays. Their aggressive, hand-check defense forces you to run your offense 30 feet from the basket, and results in bad shots, turnovers and early fatigue. The fact that they have the athletes to run this system well is a big reason they've not only won the league so much, but made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. Their old coach, Bruce Weber, has got Illinois to buy into this system -- with Big Ten Caliber athletes -- and they went like 35-2 last year and lost in the National Championship game. Southern Illinois deserved to win the game, just like they have the last five.
-That said, they still get away with a lot of cheap and occasionally dirty shots. Not Wichita State-dirty, but still. Their hand-check defense is mostly illegal but since you simply can't call a hand-check on every play, they get away with it about 60-70% of the time. They play rough, and run so many bodies at you its possible for them to sacrifice a player or two with foul trouble. The cheap shot on Josh Dotzler -- a moving screen that knocked him hard to the court square on his knee, resulting in what appears to be a broken kneecap was not even called a foul. Trust me, if it was possible to break my arm rest on my chair, it would have happened at that point. If this was the old Civic where some of the chairs in the student section came out and were throwable, mine would have been on the court. There's a time for calm measured analysis, and there's a time for throwing things.
-Don't get the wrong idea though: I respect what SIU has been able to do, winning as many games as they do. But respect and liking are two different things. I respect their program. I hate their guts.
Leave a comment