Jays in Canada

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Coo roo coo coo, coo coo coo coo, Coo roo coo coo, coo coo coo coo!

Good day, and welcome to Hoser Hoops Recap okay. It's been hot and dry and there's no rain right and like the city won't let you water the lawn with the garden hose so just water it with beer eh! Make sure you drink it first!

So some guy on the street asked me what the best sandwich was, okay? And I told him the best sandwich is the one you don't have to make yourself. Hose bagger.

OK, now that I've got my required Bob & Doug Mackenzie reference out of the way, lets get on to some hoops...in something I'll call Hoser Hoops Recap just to keep Polyfro happy.

First things first, I'm a big basketball fan but I don't follow Creighton, although I have seen a few of their tournament games. Thus, I'm not an expert on their style of play, their patterns or their players, so most of what I recap here will seem like its coming from an outsiders perspective. Because it is.

This tournament is called "The Battle of the Border", and features collegiate teams from the U.S. and Canada. Its not a real tournament though, because the U.S. teams are not allowed to play each other, and no champion is crowned. Creighton, Weber State, University of Saskatchewan, University of Calgary, Lethbridge, and the Mt. Royal All-Star team are the schools participating.

Creighton's first game was against the Saskatchewan Huskies. All the games are played at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium, which seats 2700 and can be configured to have as many as three basketball courts at the same time. Just under 1000 were in attendance for this first tilt, which tipped just after noon local time.

'Fro asked me to report who started the game, as he was curious as to the rotation would be in these games. Well, the Bluejays started Josh Dotzler, Pierce Hibma, Kenny Lawson, Nick Bahe and Dane Watts. Of those five, Kenny Lawson was the most impressive to me. Fro tells me he's a redshirt freshman, and he's quite a player.

Both teams came out firing, and played pretty poor defense in my estimation. Saskatchewan shot 65% in the first half, and made an amazing 8-10 from three-point range. Creighton, in all fairness, played better defense of the two teams and was the victim of what you might call bad luck -- several of the three pointers were well-contested; all you can do is tip your cap to the opponent when shots like that fall in. Kyle Grant made 5 of 6, and at least three of those were ridiculous. The Fro tells me that sounds a lot like the Hawaii game last year, whatever that means.

Creighton shot well themselves, but only made two three-pointers, which contributed to a nine-point deficit after the first period. That lead swelled to 40-25 at the 6:47 mark, at which point I texted Fro-boy to tell him his boys were about to get blown outta the gym. But the Bluejays finished the half on a 19-9 run that cut the lead down to just five points, 49-44.

It took five minutes of the third period for Creighton to pull even, when a free throw by Kaleb Korver made it 59-59. With the game tied, Creighton's coach employed a hockey line change, something a Canadian like myself can appreciate, and their superior depth is what tipped the scales in Creighton's favor. Five in (Harrison, Dotzler, Bahe, Stinnett, Watts), Five out (Witter, Korver, Woodfox, Millard, Walker). Seriously, who does this?

But it was Creighton's superior depth, exhibited by this ridiculous line change, that tipped the game in their favor. And when Kenny Lawson re-entered the game with 1:43 remaining in the period, he took the game over. In just 1:43, he grabbed three boards, had five points and a steal, and helped the Bluejays to a 67-63 lead. It was the Kenny Lawson show, and we were just along for the ride.

Saskatchewan tried to mount a furious comeback in the last period, cutting the lead to just one on two occasions, the last of which left Creighton with a 81-80 lead with just under two minutes left. But the Bluejays outscored the Huskies 6-2 the rest of the way en route to a 87-82 win.

This first game left me with the impression that Creighton needs to improve a porous perimeter defense, needs to improve their own perimeter shooting, but has to bodies to dominate in the paint and on the boards. In fact, they outscored Saskat 36-22 in the paint and 18-0 on second-chance points. Impressive stuff.

The second game of the day saw the Bluejays square off with the University of Calgary Dinos, which is short for Dinosaurs. We love our Dinosaurs here in Canada. Our NBA team is named the Raptors, for chrissakes, and the University of Calgary is named after Fred Flintstone's pet.

Creighton changed things up in this second game of the day, starting Cavel Witter, Booker Woodfox, Pierce Hibma, Dane Watts and the impressive Kenny Lawson. They opened up similar to how they had in the earlier contest, allowing too many easy buckets. However, they didn't shoot as well, and as a result found themselves in an early 17-9 hole.

This was a game of big runs, and the biggest was in the second period. Trailing 21-18, the Bluejays forced 10 turnovers in the next 10 minutes, employing a furious press that reminded me of Arkansas' famed 40 Minutes Of Hell defense under Nolan Richardson. I texted P-Fro to tell him Creighton was breaking Calgary's will to live. In many ways, they were. Those 10 turnovers led directly to 21 points, and contributed to a 42-31 halftime lead for the Bluejays.

In the third period, the Bluejays built the lead to 59-39 on a three-pointer from Nick Bahe with just over 3 minutes left. Calgary was able to cut into the lead a little bit, helped by an 8-0 run, but the lead was still a seemingly insurmountable 68-51 after three periods.

Calgary seemed unaware of my lack of confidence in their ability to come back. As a matter of fact, they outscored Creighton 26-17 in the final period. To be fair, Creighton played their bench substantial minutes in that final period. At the end of the day, they won 85-77 and improved to 2-0 in "The Battle of the Border".

The most impressive player for me in this game was Dane Watts. He's a guy who does nothing flashy but does everything well, and does it all consistently. Watts was 8-16 from the field, had five rebounds and three steals in 24 minutes. In the first game of the day, he'd been 8-13 from the field with 7 boards and had 20 points. What a consistent rock for the Bluejays to lean on. I was impressed. Nick Bahe was also impressive, making 6-9 from the field and adding 4 steals, with 15 points.

Let me just get this out in the open: Lethbridge is terrible. I watched their Day One game against Weber State and have rarely seen such an overmatched squad. They lost 97-31 in a game that, if its possible, was not as close as it sounds. The Pronghorns scored only 7 points in the second half. Weber State didn't look great either, and still hung 97 points on them. Creighton should have blown this team away.

By that measure, their 88-49 win was kind of disappointing. Their starting five of Cavel Witter, P'Allen Stinnett, Chad Millard, Kaleb Korver and Kenton Walker was their third different lineup in as many games, and mainly because of the level of competition, was the most impressive, statistically speaking.

However, I came away from this game feeling Creighton coasted through. Lethbridge was so bad, if Creighton had played as well as they had the previous day against Calgary, they could have won by 70 points. Their 36% shooting percentage in the second half, and a particularly putrid 2-9 from behind the arc, kept the game closer than it should have been. The fact that Lethbridge shot just 25% on 8-31 shooting allowed Creighton to coast home with what seems on the surface to be a relatively easy 88-49 win.

Of more pressing concern was starting center Kenton Walker injuring his knee. I have to confess to not paying as close of attention to the game as I should have been, what with the lead in the mid-thirties most of the second half, but with the Bluejays up 70-40 with 8 minutes to play, Walker came down awkwardly and strained his knee. At least, to my untrained eye, it looked like a strain. He didn't appear to be limping too badly after the game, and he did move around without any assistance, for what its worth.

Everybody played, included the heretofore buried-on-the-bench Aaron Brandt, and all 14 players scored. Dane Watts, the star of Day One, played just 8 minutes, going 3-3 with 6 rebounds in those 8 minutes. Lethbridge had no answer for him, and Creighton's coach appeared to be resting him after riding him hard the day before.

Overall, I came away with a sort of "bleh" feeling from this game. Yes, it was a blowout and yes they won by 39 points, but it just seemed like the ferocity of the pressure defense and the dominant interior play of Day One were nowhere to be found. I understand that with a rematch with Saskatchewan looming hours after this game, Creighton's coaching staff probably called off the dogs, so to speak, but that didn't make this game any funner to watch. Its tough to get a read on whether the team has improved since yesterday or not against competition that bad.

Kenny Lawson had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, which is impressive no matter who you're playing.

I wrote the Hoser Hoops Recap of the Lethbridge game before the Saskatchewan game later that night. Had I waited, it might have been slightly more positive. The Huskies had jumped out to a big lead in the first meeting, leading to me telling P-Fro his boys were about to get blown out of the gym. In the second meeting, it was Creighton that dominated.

If the blowout against Lethbridge was unimpressive because it was expected, the blowout against Saskatchewan was equally impressive because it was so unexpected. Their first meeting had been an exciting contest with two teams competing at a high level, making runs, trading shots, with Creighton holding on for a close win. The second meeting was close too...for a while.

The first quarter did not indicate we were in for a blowout. On the contrary, it was closely contested, and Creighton took their biggest lead at 18-14 to close the period. Early in the second period, Saskatchewan cut the lead to 23-21 on a layup. They would not score another point for over four minutes, while Creighton poured in 15 in the midst of a 15-0 run, swelling their lead to 38-21. They took a 44-26 lead into halftime. The run was once again sparked by none other than Kenny Lawson, who had 7 of the 15 points. This kid can flat-out play. Creighton fans should be thankful they get to watch him for the next four years!

In the second half, I thought Saskatchewan would make a run. They're a good team and had played well against Creighton the first game. And sure enough, they cut into the Creighton lead, and it was 58-43 with 3:20 to play in the second period. What followed was the best stretch of basketball I saw all weekend.

A 22-3 run that grew Creighton's lead to 80-46 was highlighted not by the domination of one player, but by the combined efforts of the entire team. During that 22-3 run, the Bluejays got buckets from Casey Harriman, Kenny Lawson, Nick Bahe, P'Allen Stinnett, Booker Woodfox, Dane Watts and Josh Dotzler. Seven players. That's half the team!

Chad Millard's three with 3:03 left gave Creighton their biggest lead of 33, at 87-54. A late run by Saskatchewan when Creighton's bench was on the floor made the game's final margin of 92-66 appear closer than it was.

I came away from this game thoroughly impressed. The Bluejays depth allowed them to apply constant pressure to the ball for the length of the court, and with their shots falling, were able to apply the pressure more than they were able to in the first meeting. The numbers will tell you they shot just 48% for the game, but they missed an awful lot of shots down the stretch when the end of the bench was in the game. I'd be willing to bet they were closer to 60% when the regulars left the court. What a performance.

Oh, and Kenny Lawson? 14 points, 10 rebounds, double-double. Ho-hum.

Conventional wisdom tells you that a rematch is tougher for the team who won the first game, because the other squad now knows what they need to work on to win -- whereas the winner doesn't know what kind of adjustments the loser will make. Creighton pretty much kicked that idea to the curb, increasing their margin of victory from 5 to 26.

That's just outstanding coaching, period.

And when Creighton duplicated the feat the next day, defeating Calgary 97-78, it was obvious which team had improved the most over the three days. Heck, in this rematch they improved their margin of victory from 8 to 19. But the numbers tell only part of the story.

Creighton jumped out to an early 13-3 lead, including a 6-0 run to open the game. A furious finish to the first period ended with Creighton holding a 25-24 lead. Calgary grabbed the lead with 7 minutes left in the half on a three-pointer, and extended their lead to 6 at 35-29 a minute later. A ridiculous sequence of SIX MISSED LAYUPS and SIX OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS by Calgary followed on the next possession, with the ball finally going out of bounds off of Calgary. The inimitable Kenny Lawson promptly flushed a dunk at the other end to give Creighton back some momentum, although only temporarily.

Calgary led by as many as 8 coming down the stretch of the first half, and had turned around that early 13-3 deficit into a 47-43 lead at halftime.

The second half opened with Creighton employing the full-court pressure that had suited them so well earlier in the weekend, and two steals in the first three minutes of the half helped them to an 8-1 run that gave them a 51-48 lead. The teams traded buckets for the next three minutes, until Creighton busted out a 14-2 run to go ahead 71-59 at the end of the third period. That flurry of points, coming from the 4:27 mark until the end of the period, gave Creighton a lead they would not give up.

And this is what impressed me: with a 12-point lead, they didn't let off the accelerator. They pressed forward and ran off another 10-3 run to go up by 16 mid-way through the fourth period. Their superior depth and the quality of the guys on their bench clearly was the deciding factor, as Calgary simply ran out of steam (and bodies) by the last 15 minutes of the game.

Kenny Lawson continued to be the MVP of the tournament in my opinion, contributing 22 points on 10-13 shooting while grabbing 6 boards in just 19 minutes. Dane Watts, as I mentioned after Day One, does nothing flashy but does everything well -- and does it all consistently. You don't notice it, but then you look up at the end of the game and he has 18 points and 7 rebounds.

For the weekend, I think Creighton clearly got better every game. Their defense improved the most, after giving up easy perimeter shots in the first game, they tightened things up in subsequent games. Their depth allows them not only to run full-court pressure, but to exhaust opponents by running sheer numbers of fresh bodies at them.

As I talked to Tom when he conned me into spending my weekend writing recaps of a team I've never watched before in exchange for a case of Molson, he seemed concerned about the number of young players being counted on for substantial minutes. I would contend, after watching five games in three days, that Creighton fans have nothing to worry about. Kenny Lawson is nothing short of a beast in the paint, Dane Watts is a solid force that can be counted on for 18 and 6 every night, Josh Dotzler is a point guard with an uncanny ability to find the open man, and everyone else on the team can shoot, meaning the chances of SOMEONE having the hot hand on a given night are pretty good.

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Wow, thanks for that ULTRA THOROUGH "Hoser Hoops Recap", MB. That just might be worthy of two cases of Molson.

You bet.