School Databank:
Location: Terre Haute, IN
Enrollment: 8,537
Famous sports alumni: Vencie Glenn (NFL), Bruce Baumgartner (2-Time Olympic Gold Medalist in Wrestling), Zane Smith (MLB) and, um, Larry Bird (NBA)
Last game: Lost at Missouri State, 65-44
Last game vs Creighton: Indiana State won 62-54 on January 4 of this year
Series: Creighton leads 45-22 (25-7 in Omaha)
Tonight's game has revenge written all over it. The last time these teams met three weeks ago, Creighton turned in perhaps their laziest, sloppiest performance in years -- and it was on the heels of their worst loss ever at the Qwest Center. Those losses dropped them to 0-2 in the MVC for the first time ever under Dana Altman. Chad Millard lost his starting role after the game, after two particularly ugly plays that summed up that atrocity in Terre Haute:
1) Standing with the ball at the top of the key, the ball was slapped out his hands and it rolled behind him towards the backcourt. He nonchalantly ran after it, but by the time he decided to do that, Indiana State had picked it up for an uncontested dunk.
2) After a defensive rebound, he was trapped by two Sycamore players in the backcourt. Taking offense to their press, he swung his elbows and connected with the jaw of one of them. A technical foul was called, and he didn't play the rest of the night.
The Jays had 19 turnovers in that game, 10 of them caused by Sycamore steals. Millard's alternating lackadaisical-slash-out-of-control play was not exclusive to him. The entire team seemed a step slow, and it showed. This was also the game where P'Allen Stinnett fouled out, whined to the refs a bit too much, and landed in DA's doghouse. After the game, a local radio talk show speculated (erroneously, I might add) that he wasn't fitting into the Jays system and that he might transfer.
One of the ugliest losses in recent memory, immediately after the worst home loss in a decade, and an 0-2 hole in the conference. That's the situation that the first game with the Sycamores put them in.
Three days later, the Jays went into Springfield with freshman Kenny Lawson starting at center, something I'd been pushing for here on this site and elsewhere for weeks. It allowed Dane Watts to slide over to the 4, where he shined the last two years, and gave the Jays a legitimate big body in the paint. Sure, Lawson has showed his inexperience at times, but the combo of him and Kenton Walker, another freshman, gives them just enough solid minutes to compete.
Since that loss in Terre Haute, the Jays have won four straight; three of those have come on the road. They now stand at 4-2 in the MVC, 13-3 overall, and enter tonight's "MVC Game Of The Week" on FSN tied with the Sycamores for third place. The Jays are playing much, much better since then, and the Sycamores have cooled off a bit. However, the same tactical issues that presented themselves in the first matchup are still there tonight.
Namely, Altman disciple Kevin McKenna runs practically the exact same system, so both teams have essentially practiced against the other all year. A lot of the ugliness in the first game might be attributed to that; remember those scrums against McKenna's Nebraska-Omaha teams? Even the Korver-led 29 win, Top-10 ranked team had to go OT to beat UNO in an exhibition game.
You've got to think that the Jays superior depth, athleticism and home court advantage will help them tonight. That latter point, especially, works in the Jays favor. Indiana State is just 1-7 on the road, with the only win coming at Evansville, the worst team in the Valley. Furthermore, they've never won at the Qwest Center and in fact, haven't won in Omaha since a 70-69 win in January of 1999. That game was played at the Omaha Civic-Auditorium in front of just over 5,000 fans. Slightly different environment tonight. Slightly.
PREDICTION: Jays 69, Indiana State 57
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