Was this a "Valley Classic" as Jays play-by-play man Travis Justice called it? No, because a game is not a classic if you lose. Period. End of story.
In case you're just joining us, here was the set-up: Creighton, the preseason favorite, came in at 5-1 in the league, with sole possession of first place. Wichita State, the preseason #2 and once ranked as high as 9th nationally, came in 2-4 in the league in 7th place. Creighton, on their toughest road trip of the year, was hoping for a split of the two games at Northern Iowa and Wichita State -- and having won in Cedar Falls, was playing with house money essentially. Meanwhile, Wichita State had its backs against the wall, with a loss putting them perilously close to extinction in the race for the regular season Valley championship. And this battle would be taking place in sold out Koch Arena in Wichita, one of the loudest and most intimidating venues in the league.
That sounds delicious, doesn't it? All the ingredients for an intense, hard-fought battle were there.
And the game was played passionately, with a grittiness and intensity the Jays have rarely shown anywhere this year. It would be awfully tempting to drop a cliche here such as, "Both teams played well, and its a shame one of them had to lose". But I don't believe that friggin' crap for one moment, so I can't say it.
The Jays played with great intensity and energy, sure, but they also played foolishly, lost their focus on numerous occasions on defense, and generally handled the ball with a cavalier attitude that is simply unacceptable.
On a night when they played an average game -- even above-average in stretches -- they had a chance to steal a road win and put Wichita State down for the count. Hell, Wichita State spent the last 30 minutes of the game trying desperately to give the game away, and Creighton just wouldn't take it from them because of foolish, awful turnovers and sloppy play.
Can you tell I'm pissed? Good.
I'm going to go cool off and listen to some Roth-Era Van Halen here for about 30 minutes, 58 seconds (the length of "Fair Warning"). Back in a bit.
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(Listening to Van Halen)
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Man, that half-hour listening to the formerly-brilliant-but-now-crack-addicted Eddie Van Halen has afforded me some perspective on this game, so lets look at what happened without all the anger, shall we?
You bet.
The more I think about this game, the more it reminds me of a boxing match. Wichita State and Creighton traded early punches, before the Shockers landed a haymaker that knocked CU to the canvas (Tolliver leaving with 2 early fouls). Wichita would back CU into the ropes, but CU would fight back, push themselves away from the ropes, even get a few good knocks in themselves, before finding themselves back on the ropes again.
Note to self: Enough with the bad boxing analogy.
The Jays came out hoping to jump out early to take the big crowd out of the game, much as they had in Cedar Falls two nights earlier. And they came out shooting the ball well, that's for sure. But they were completely dominated down low, particularly after Anthony Tolliver picked up his 2nd foul just 9 minutes into the game and sat the bench for the rest of the half. This was a doomsday scenario: Tolliver in foul trouble, on the road, against a talented big man having a great shooting night. Why? Because guess who backs up Tolliver after He Who Shall Remain Nameless quit the team? None other than Manorou "Manny" Gakou.
This was yet another night for Manny Being Manny. Namely, poor footwork, slow reactions and a general lack of discernible basketball skills beyond simply being big. I was really hoping Gakou could give the Jays something off the bench, but alas, it would appear that is not to be. As a result, Kyle Wilson had a field day, scoring 18 points in the first half as both Gakou and (gasp!) Tweak Hibma filled in for Tolliver.
And yet, with Wilson going apes#@t, the Jays only trailed 32-30 at the break. That's pretty good, all things considered, because you had to figure Wilson was not going to duplicate that -- he simply wasn't going to end up with 36 points.
Creighton tied the game early in the half at 32, and then turned the ball over in the corner, never getting a shot off on a possession where they were attempting to take the lead. Wichita immediately hit a three, then another, and presto, it was 38-32. If you saw that stretch, you saw essentially the entire maddening half in a nutshell. Wichita runs out to a 6 to 8 point lead, Creighton hits tough shots to tie the score, gets a defensive stop to earn a possession with a chance to take the lead, only to piss it down their leg with a sloppy turnover, leading to a Wichita run and another lead to overcome. And on and on, all half long.
A lot of people are going to be quick to jump on Nick Porter after this game, especially after the Jays TV crew practically threw him under the bus for bad turnovers (Justice even brought out the nickname "Softy"). And he did get burned BADLY by Sean Ogirri twice in as many possessions early in the second half, both resulting in threes. But who gets Porter's minutes if he doesn't play? Tweak Hibma? Sitzmann? Face it folks, for better or worse, Porter is going to play, he's going to make great plays and he's going to make mistakes. The sooner we all deal with it, the happier we'll be.
Porter is the only player who is a legitimate threat 1-on-1, and is a mostly solid combo forward-guard who gives the Jays a dimension they do not get from anyone else -- and keeps defenses honest with his drive-and-dish skills. Yes, he has mental lapses, yes he loses focus from time to time, but he's a senior and he's not going to suddenly change; its part of the package with Nick. And believe it or not, he still makes many more good plays than he makes mistakes. You could look it up.
In the last minute of the game, the Jays once more had the look of a team that might finally take a lead, and steal the game. Down 4 with 30 seconds left, Funk was fouled shooting a three -- and had three free throws coming. You had to figure, with him shooting 91% for the year, that worst case scenario he hits 2 of 3. Nope. Misses the first, hits the second, misses the third. Ouch.
A microcosm of the game, really: bad, good, bad.
In the end, this was a game where I felt Wichita State probably could have won by 10, with the way Creighton played. But Creighton willed themselves to keep it close, and they made just enough plays to make it close but not enough to put them over the top. These were two good basketball teams playing a hard-fought game in a fantastic environment. Were the sloppy ballhandling frustrating? Sure it was. Were the missed opportunities to steal a game on the road disappointing? You betcha. But when it comes right down to it, these are the kinds of things that happen on the road -- and why home teams usually win games between evenly matched teams.
You'd like to steal a game like this, but Creighton had won 2 straight Valley games on the road -- the odds catch up with you eventually. If we really believe 12-6 wins the league, meaning you protect your homecourt and steal 3 on the road, this game would have given us our 3 road wins already, which wasn't likely. Something to think about.
The ironic thing is, after the Drake game last week, most Jays fans would have figured that if the Jays came home with a split -- 11-6 overall and 5-2 in the MVC -- that would be outstanding. That's exactly what we got, and somehow its disappointing? Well, guess what, when the sun comes up in the morning, the Jays are still in first place in the league, with a two-game homestand upcoming.
You bet.
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