In college hoops, scoring 100 points in a game doesn't happen very often. Perhaps once or twice a season even for good teams. If you figure that the game lasts 40 minutes, to score 100 points means you have to get a least one basket per minute, and mix in a few times where you score twice in a minute. Even that will barely get you over the century mark. In my ten years in Omaha watching Creighton play, I've personally seen them accomplish the feat just three times.
To put it further in perspective, if Creighton scores 75 points in a game, season ticket holders get free Godfather's Pizza with their ticket stub. The threshhold is set at 75 because that's a pretty good median -- they'll have about half their games over 75, and some under 75. When they do get over 75, it usually happens late in the game. Saturday, Creighton passed 75 at the 13:33 mark of the second half. Seriously.
As such, its a curious phenomenon when a team gets close to 100. Since usually a game where someone gets to 100 is a blow-out, the fans have more than likely been out of the game since roughly the under-16 timeout. But if the team gets to 90 with a few minutes left, voila! the fans are back. Suddenly, there is a heightened sense of anticipation. No one leaves. Fans yell for players to shoot threes. If the opposing team stalls to prevent your team from getting the ball back with a chance at 100, they get booed mercilessly. In a 40 point rout.
Humans are strange creatures sometimes, aren't we?
That's generally the way it works. The other way of scoring 100 points is to simply blow right past it and keep on truckin', and that's the method Creighton employed Monday night. They had 101 points going into the under-four timeout! And the end of the bench kept it going with nine more points to make an even 110.
Good stuff.
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So...you would think there's lots to like about a 110-73 win, right? I'm sure there is, but at the moment I'm a tad bit concerned about the Jays defense. Not so much the "73" number, because an awful lot of that came against the end of the bench. No, I'm concerned about the "37" number, that being the points scored in the first half against the Jays' top players. It was a horrible display of lackadaisical defense that made me queasy to watch.
Actually, at first I wasn't sure if it was the defense or the Mini Donut / PBR / Cheesy Pretzel combo I'd consumed. Then the Huskies scored three consecutive layups uncontested during possessions that were so short they couldn't even be considered half-court sets...and all doubt was removed. I was queasy, and it wasn't the food. It was the crap Creighton was trying to pass off as "defense", and I put that word in quotes because it bears resemblance to the actual thing in name only.
Good lord. 37 first-half points from a provisional D-1 opponent who played NAIA ball a year ago is bad enough, but it was the way they were getting them. They had cleaner looks at the hoop than the dude in the ConAgra shootout at halftime, because even he had another body between him and the basket (even if it was a rebounder). The Huskies shot 50% from the floor, which doesn't back up my claims of heinous defense entirely, but you have to believe me...
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My buddy Dick Herculanum turned to me at the half and said, "Pretty good half, they're up 12!" It was at this point that I explained to my casual-basketball-fan friend that Dana Altman would not be pleased, and that there would be some re-painting to be done in the locker room tomorrow.
"Why? They're up 49-37!"
Three minutes of impassioned explanation of The Creighton Way later, he understood. But would the players understand that kind of defense is just not the way good teams do it?
Four minutes into the second half, we had our answer. A 14-2 run in that span opened up a 63-39 lead, and they continued it during the next four minutes, in what would eventually become a 31-8 run to open the half.
With the lead at 80-45 and 12:24 to play, Altman had made his point. The guys had responded to his call for better defense in a big way, and with two games in the next five days, he went to the bench.
Some teams would do that and the excitement would end. But not these Jays, with their amazing depth. Four bench players saw career highs in minutes and points, led by Kenny Lawson's 15 points. Lawson, the 6'9" freshman, showed off a sweet one-handed jumper in the lane that he used time after time to the befuddlement of Husky defenders. Kaleb Korver had three-three pointers, showing off his textbook release. Booker Woodfox finally showed the shooting touch he displayed in Junior College a year ago. And Aaron Brandt, the only Jay without a point this year, scored nine points on 4-5 shooting.
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77 bench points is an impressive number in and of itself. But when you consider the Jays got 93 bench points TOTAL in their nine MVC home games a year ago, you begin to understand the depth of this team.
As Altman told the media after the game, "I want our depth to be our strength, and I thought it was great to get everybody on the floor and have an opportunity to get a little more relaxed. We're going to need a lot of these guys to come in and give us minutes. We know it's a long season, and we need to get guys comfortable. We feel like we have a lot of guys that can contribute, and they just have to stay ready to help us out."
Indeed.
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In the end, despite the horridous defense in the first half, the Jays won by 37 and accomplished a lot of good things. Now if they can bring the defense from the opening tip on Thursday against an equally-bad North Carolina Central team, I might not have anything to complain about!
POLYFRO HEEE-HAW PLAYER OF THE GAME: In a game where the Jays set arena records for points in a half (61), points in a game (110), and thirteen players saw at least 10 minutes of action (13!), its tough to pick one standout player. But Kenny Lawson played a whale of a game -- 15 points and 8 boards -- and his continued development in the post will be a big key in February and March both to give Dane Watts a rest, and as a backup when he's in foul trouble.
You bet.
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