As I watched the game on Saturday, it was apparent that this was the best Illinois State had played in about a month. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been surprising. Speaking in generalities, the Jays always get their opponent's best shot in conference games. At home, opponents get jacked up to play in front of the biggest crowd they'll see all year, in an NBA-quality arena. On the road, Jays' opponents are excited because their crowd is larger and rowdier for Creighton than it is for almost anyone else.
I've heard this theory mentioned before, but I wasn't sure I ever really bought into it. Two years ago, I almost came around to believing it after watching team after team in the MVC play lights-out against a very good Jays squad -- and then suck against other teams. You'd see SIU or Bradley or Wichita State randomly blow out a team they were supposed to struggle with, and wonder, "Why is it no one ever has an off night against Creighton?"
Because everyone circles Creighton on their schedule. No one ever looks past them, no one ever has trouble getting up for the game, and everyone wants to play well against them. It makes a lot of sense. And maybe its part of the reason Creighton hasn't won a regular season title since 2002. Not THE reason, mind you, but part of the reason. There's no off night for Creighton in the MVC. Every time Creighton plays an MVC game, they have to bring their A game because the opponent is damn sure going to bring theirs. While some other teams can afford to have a game or three where they aren't 100% focused, Creighton can't.
Remember when Illinois State started the year 14-0, and Champ Oguchi bragged to the Chicago Tribune that the Redbirds were going to go undefeated all season -- including March? After knocking Creighton into next month in mid-January, it looked like his ridiculous claim was slightly less ridiculous. The Redbirds hadn't played as complete a game as that since, and tripped up enough to fall all the way to third place. Including Saturday's loss, they're just 8-8 since that 14-0 start.
They were a team spiraling downward until Saturday, when like clockwork, the Redbirds suddenly looked a lot like the team that started the year undefeated and led the outspoken Oguchi to make his ludicrous claim. This just four nights removed from a disheartening, stunning double-overtime loss to Northern Iowa on Senior Night that eliminated them from a chance at the league title. I wonder why that is?
That's what makes Saturday's win, the ten-game winning streak, and the resulting MVC regular season championship so rewarding. Five weeks ago this team sat at 5-4 in the league, and had suffered humiliating home court losses to Drake and Northern Iowa. Their losses weren't merely losses, they were debilitating defeats that featured a confounding lack of hustle and intensity. Some in the media were questioning their toughness; others their heart. Some said they were an embarrassment to the Creighton tradition and to everything coach Dana Altman had built Creighton to represent.
Yet despite the crossroads this team was at five weeks ago, this team took everyone's best shot and won every game. This stretch of basketball will quite possibly go down as one of the finest in Dana Altman's career at Creighton, not for the wins but for what they represent: the culmination of a group of talented players finally buying into a system, sacrificing personal glory for group success, showing the intestinal fortitude to take an opponent's best shot and still find a way to win.
He's had miracle coaching jobs before. The Sears-Walker team in 2000 struggled early as they learned to survive without Rodney Buford and Doug Swenson. The Funk-Tolliver-Porter team in 2007 struggled early, yet jelled in February and steamrolled into the NCAA Tournament.
He's had zen-like coaching jobs before, where all he had to do was fit the pieces together. The Buford-Swenson-Karlikanovas team in 1999 was an amazing array of hard-working veteran talent that put the smackdown Evansville for Altman's first MVC Tourney title, then beat Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Korver team in 2003 was a staggering assemblage of veteran talent with no discernible weaknesses, a Top Ten team that had only two bad games all season -- one on the road at Wichita, and one in the NCAA Tournament.
But has he ever had a better, more remarkable season of coaching than this one? Its in the discussion, pending the outcome in St. Louis this weekend. The contributions of three players that have been key to the streak can have their success traced directly back to Altman and his staff:
Booker Woodfox. Formerly a sixth-man and seeming heir to the Jimmy Motz "Instant Offense and Little Else" role, Woodfox has emerged as a contender for conference MVP. Woodfox is the leading three-point shooter in the country, the number one option for defenses to key on, and an increasingly effective defender. His repertoire now includes an array of mid-range jumpers and off-screen shots that are very difficult to defend, making him a nightmare for opponents. Rather than shy away from the spotlight, Booker has thrived in it -- and his low-key, team-first approach has rubbed off on everyone else. Teams tend to reflect the personality of their best player, and make no mistake, Booker Woodfox is Creighton's best player. Most talented? No. Best player? Absolutely, positively, no doubt about it.
P'Allen Stinnett. Formerly the team's marquee player and star, P'Allen had a maddening ability to be unstoppable one night, invisible the next. Altman refused to change the rules when he rebelled, and has finally harnessed his immense talent -- convincing him to take a complimentary role for the good of the team. Over the course of the season, but particularly in the past five weeks, Stinnett has taken immense strides as a player and is on the verge of, if he hasn't already, shedding that maddening reputation.
He's quietly become a solid and at times great defender, both on the ball and away from it. He's become unselfish on offense, making passes to open teammates on shot opportunities he would previously have forced up. He's no longer allowing opponents to get under his skin and distract him from his game. He's (mostly) no longer allowing bad calls against him on offense affect his defense. He's still the most explosive vertical player on the team, with a penchant for making spectacular plays that is made possible by defenses having to pay so much attention to Booker. And as his 20 points on Saturday prove, the opportunities are still there for him to score.
Josh Dotzler. When a vocal portion of the fanbase turned on Dotzler last season, Altman stuck with him, insisting he was the best option at point guard. The cries were still audible in January of this year, until the winning streak started. Then even the vocal complainers had to take notice of what Dotzler was doing: playing amazing on-ball defense, cutting off dribble penetration, stealing the ball twice as often as he was turning it over. His remarkable steal late in the SIU game saved the game, and maybe the season. His three-pointer on Saturday stopped a late Illinois State run and led to the deciding stretch. The very definition of perseverance, Dotzler may be a shell of his pre-injury self, but he's mastered the fundamental plays -- denying an opponent the ball, using proper defensive stance and technique to make up for a lack of quickness, anticipating passing lanes, setting picks.
As for the questions raised in January, they've all been answered resoundingly, save for one.
Altman can't coach talent? Convincing Stinnett, one of the most gifted athletes to ever play for the program and also one of the most mercurial, to buy in should put that ridiculous notion to rest for good.
This team is soft? Dotzler playing the last month through shin splints, Stinnett playing through a partially torn meniscus, Carter playing with a bum shoulder, and Woodfox playing through foot issues suggests the opposite.
Lawson and Walker are terrible post players? They've shown a lot of progress in the last six weeks, and while they're still prone to lapses on defense and still allow too many rebounds to be had over them, the progress they've made makes it plausible to think the dreams of a Twin Towers utopia aren't so far fetched after all.
Altman's teams are never mentally tough enough or consistent enough to win a regular season title. Um, sure they are. Three titles in 15 years is not too shabby.
Altman's teams never make a run in March. This one has yet to be answered, but there's a lot of season left, isn't there?
Having won ten straight and now a share of their first regular season crown since 2002, the Jays are not only where the prognosticators picked them to be before the season, they're in position to do what Altman's Creighton teams do more often than not: win in St. Louis and go to the NCAA Tourney. The only question left to answer is whether this team is the one to make a run to the second weekend of the Tourney. None of us know the answer to that question at the moment, but the answers to the other questions were very different five weeks ago than they are now, so who knows?
You bet.
*****
Today's Polyfro Player of the Game is brought to you by the Rick Hartzell School of Officiating. Enroll now and learn Rick's time-tested techniques for: reffing games against rival schools of your former employer without raising a conflict of interest; arbitrarily ejecting fans from games for bringing the action verbally; cruising and swinging successfully in tight slacks; and drawing attention to you and your crew. Enroll today and save 50% off of Rick's class on how to be an Athletic Director while officiating games on the side!
Call me sentimental and cheesy, but its going to the two seniors who got into the game: Booker Woodfox and Josh Dotzler. Woodfox was stifled from behind the arc, so he let rip a dazzling array of mid-range jumpers that Illinois State was helpless to defend. His lone three came on the heels of a three-pointer by Dotzler, whose game was typically invisible on the statsheet but irreplaceable every place that counted.
And now, its on to St. Louis. In the words of T. Scott, Goodnight and Go Jays!
