I came back a day early from my Christmas vacation for this? Crime in Italy, I can't ever remember sitting in person and watching a Creighton game that was such a mismatch. And that's not an exaggeration, nor is it hyperbole: the last double-digit home loss for the Jays came in 1996...a year before I came to Omaha for my freshman year at CU. So I literally hadn't witnessed such a loss in person.
Not that this fact makes me feel any better, mind you. There's not much to say about this game, other than this: the Jays got their butts summarily handed to them on the Valley Game Of The Week, had their weaknesses exposed, and were thoroughly embarrassed.
Maybe I should have seen this coming, considering my Christmas vacation began by sitting at the Metrodome "cheering" the Vikings as they got embarrassed on national television last Sunday night.
Illinois State is a talented team with an up-and-coming coach in Tim "Weird Al" Jankovich, and his team operated on the Jays Like A Surgeon, piling up a Fat lead and then telling the Jays to Eat It. Fans in Normal watching on TV surely thought the game Smelled Like Nirvana, but the Jays fans watching in person in Omaha had the lyrics to Achy Breaky Song stuck in their heads.
And to add insult to injury, a White And Nerdy dude kept hitting threes for the entire first half, burying the Jays in the process.
You bet.
Alright, in all seriousness, here were the problems that added up to a blowout loss:
One. Jankovich rightly guessed from watching game film that the Jays could be disrupted offensively if his team doubled Dane Watts whenever he caught the ball in the paint. Taking away Watts' scoring chances inside forced him to kick it outside, where the Jays took an extraordinary amount of threes, the vast majority of which they missed. Kenny Lawson, who is both taller and bigger than Watts, had some success inside early -- which also allowed Watts to slide back to the 4, where he thrived a year ago. But Lawson blew assignments on the press on two consecutive possessions late in the half, was promptly in DA's doghouse, and did not play again until garbage time.
Two. The Jays are not starting their best players. As DA always does, he coaches on trust, and he generally trusts steady veteran players over young players with more talent. The thinking of course is that young players make mistakes, and in the important first minutes of a game, you want your steadiest players in the game. Veteran, and especially Senior, leadership is important to any successful team. But you can be a senior leader and not start.
Over the years, DA has proven that it really doesn't matter who starts because his substitution patterns are such that bench players sometimes end up with more minutes than starters. He just wants those steady vets in the game early to help withstand the early rush from the opponent. Fair enough.
But too many times this season, the starting five, and in particular the starting guards, have been torched early in games. Last night it was 11-2 at the under-16 timeout...and those supposed steady vets had three turnovers.
If I had to wager a guess, I'd say DA will eventually reach the same conclusion as many fans, and solid-but-unspectacular players like Hibma and Bahe will be six-and-seventh men off the bench. Honestly, would that be so bad? That gives you two steady veterans to bring off the bench when things get hairy. But hey, I don't get paid to give advice to the coaches, I have to pay an exorbitant amount to watch the games. So I'll just shut up now.
Three. Remember that White And Nerdy guy I mentioned earlier? Levi Dyer, a guy not-so-affectionately referred to as Levi Muttonchops by a poster on the BJC, hit shot after shot from the same spot, over and over. There's nothing more frustrating than watching the Monty Python "Ministry of Silly Defense". Simply put, its where a defense refuses to believe a guy can continue hitting shots, despite ample evidence to the contrary. You've seen it. They'll say, "Oh yeah? I bet you can't hit that shot again! Oh yeah? Hit it again, I dare ya? Oh yeah? Do it again, I'll even leave you wide open! Ooh, you think you're bad? Hit it again!" Ad nauseum.
The Ministry Of Silly Defense. Saturday night, Levi Dyer was the recipient, hitting three after three, wide open from the left wing. He had 20 points at the half! He was 5-7 from behind the arc! He was 6 foot 11! Good gosh, you can pick you friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends nose...and you can't leave a 6'11" lanky dude wide open all night when he's got the hot hand.
Four. The Jays played three straight games against sub-par competition, blew them all out, and began to hear such ridiculous things as "Creighton is now the favorite to win the Valley". I'm sorry, but anyone watching that game could plainly see this was a team who spent too much time congratulating themselves over their 9-1 start, and not enough time working on getting better. Particularly defensively.
They haven't been getting better defensively, but the competition hasn't made them pay. Illinois State is a good team, and they made them pay. I would have to go back and watch the game film to count (and who needs that kind of pain?), but how many uncontested layups were there? 10? I already talked about White And Nerdy hitting open threes all night, which was bad enough, but those open layups are inexcusable.
Five. For all of our talk (myself included) about the Jays having multiple scoring options this year as opposed to last year's Funk, Tolliver and Pray For A Power Outage show...last night was a set-back. They had no consistent movement offensively, Illinois State's ploy to deny open looks inside forced bad shots from outside, and no one was hitting. Sure, P'Allen Stinnett had 22 points and two MONSTER dunks, but other than him, who scored? Who wanted the ball? Hell, who was trying to get open? My head hurts.
"I think this shows how far we have to go as a basketball team," coach Dana Altman said. "Now, we can stop patting ourselves on the back and go to work." That sums it up, folks.
Time to move on to a week of road games, beginning with Wednesday night in Terre Haute. You bet.
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