If you had "at Bradley, 1/31" in the "When will Creighton score the most points this year" pool, well, congratulations. I sure didn't. To hang 82 points on the Braves in Carver Arena is awfully impressive. But here's what's most impressive to me: The Jays led by double-digits for all but 3 minutes, 36 seconds of this game. Those 216 seconds of single-digitness were the beginning of the game, when Creighton jumped out to an 11-2 lead at the 17:26 mark, and 62 seconds between when Daniel Ruffin's threeball cut the lead to 71-62 and when Nate Funk answered with a three for the Jays.
So the bottom line is, when you have a double-digit lead on the road against a good time for practically the entire night, you did a lot of things right. They made 51.2% from the field, which is great, but they also played really solid defense for almost the entire night. They were rotating to the shooters, talking to each other to make sure spots were covered, and with the exception of a few slip-ups, did a fabulous job.
Now, the pessimist (and I've had IMs and emails in my inbox this morning from these negative nancies, believe it or not) would point out the 19 turnovers, Josh Dotzler's sloppiness, the near-invisibility of the bench on the stat sheet, and the fact that if Bradley was hitting their shots, the Jays might have lost. Guys, come on, this was an 11-point win on the road! Did it occur to you that maybe the reason Bradley wasn't hitting their shots was because of the Jays defense?
Two games is admittedly a small sample size, but in the two Bradley/Creighton matchups this year, the team that has been in the Top-3 Nationwide in 3-point FG percentage has shot just 30%. I think Creighton has something to do with that.
The un-ignorable (hey, I just invented a word!) stat of the night was that, for the first time since a 95-81 win at Northern Iowa in January of 1999, all five starters scored in double digits for the Jays.
Dane Watts 18 pts, 6 rebs, 29 min
Anthony Tolliver 13 pts, 14 rebs, 4 assists, 37 min
Isacc Miles 15 pts, 23 min
Nick Porter 15 pts, 4 rebs, 37 min
Nate Funk 18 pts, 6 rebs, 4 assists, 31 min
Beyond the points, look at the minutes played. This had to be the shortest bench in all my years of watching Dana Altman-coached Jays teams. The bench logged a COMBINED 43 minutes, with 30 of those to two players (Dotzler and Hibma). Clearly, this is a 7-man rotation they're settling into, which is a little bit of a worry for the MVC Tourney -- part of the reason the Jays have been so successful in St. Louis is that they play so many people, nobody gets gassed from 3 games in 3 days. Of course, at 9-3 in the league, tied for first, they may be in the NCAA's regardless of what they do in STL.
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What the sam hell is up with Mitch Holthus, the "Voice of the Valley", nicknaming Anthony Tolliver "George Washington Carver"? When I think of George Washington Carver, I think of a guy who died penniless and insane, still trying to play a phonograph record with a peanut. What does that have to do with hoops?
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This team, much maligned earlier in the year, now owns sweeps of Missouri State and Bradley, and has a road win at Northern Iowa with the return match in Omaha. Remember how so many folks said earlier this year (myself included) that 12-6 likely wins the MVC this year?
Well, for Creighton to go 12-6, they have to go 3-3 over their last six games. Ha.
Road: at Drake, at Southern Illinois, at Illinois State
Home: Evansville, Northern Iowa, Wichita State
Lets presume they drop 2 of 3 on the road -- pick one road stop to get a win, any of them. The Jays are then 10-5 in the league. You can likely say with some degree of confidence that they won't lose another home game, now that SIU has come and gone. This puts them at 13-5. Folks, that's a damn good record. Combined with the Bracket Buster game against Drexel, which will hopefully be a win, and the Jays would be sitting at 20-9 heading into Arch Madness.
You bet.
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Isacc Miles has got to be the Player of the Game. Has to be. He hit two threeballs before the first media timeout, a HUGE part of the early surge that helped Creighton build a lead they would never relinquish. For setting the tone early, and chipping in 15 points for the night, Isacc Miles is the Heee-Haw Soft Drink Player Of The Game. You bet.
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