Wichita State Recap

Final Score: Wichita State 62, Creighton 59

Box Score

Recaps: CU | WSU
Media: OWH | Wichita Eagle
Photo Gallery: Wichita Eagle

Going into this two game road swing, I think if you had told most Creighton fans we would come out of the weekend with a split between UNI and Wichita State and would sit with a share of first place come Tuesday morning, the vast majority of Bluejay fans would have taken that and been more than happy with it. That said, the way that the game played out last night in Wichita, one cannot help but be disappointed with the major opportunity that passed by unfulfilled, as WSU survives with a 62-59 victory.

In the first half of the ballgame, it was the Kyle Wilson show. The Shockers were able to exploit the Creighton zone by shifting Wilson out towards the perimeter and catching the Jays with a smaller guard on him. Wilson was 8-11 from the floor and 2-2 from beyond the arc in the first half for 18 points in 15 minutes of play. Here we saw a similar storyline that's become far too familiar this season: the inability to recognize shooters and to react on the perimeter. In several games this season, this has just killed the Jays and Monday night was not much different.

However, for all the efforts of Wilson, no other Shocker had more than five points at halftime and the Jays were only down 32-30 after Nate Funk was able to drive the lane and lay the ball in at the buzzer.

In the second half, the Jays did a better job on Wilson, but it was the wild-haired guard Sean Ogirri that took over on the offensive end. Ogirri was 5-6 from the floor and 2-3 from three for 12 points in the period.

In my mind, however, the biggest story of the game isn't necessarily what the Shockers did, but what the Jays didn't do. For the game, the Jays had 14 turnovers, but it wasn't the number of turnovers, but the critical moments when they occurred. Time and time again, the Jays had possession of the ball with a chance to take the lead with a shot and either missed a shot or turned the ball over. Everyone talks about the "big shot" or "clutch possession" in basketball and CU had absolutely none of them against the Shox.

In terms of individual performances, one of the key problems for the Jays was the limited performance of Anthony Tolliver. Anthony had 9 points and 6 boards and it was one of the more quiet nights he's had in quite some time. The way this team is constructed this season, we need Anthony to be the center of this offense. The Jays are successful when this team runs inside-out: getting the ball down to AT in the blocks for him to either take it to the hole, pull out the jump hook or mid-range jumper, dish it off or kick it out to the perimeter. We cannot afford the A-Train to have an off night and to find much success, especially on the road.

Funk led the team with 16 points, but he was not himself either. Nate was only 6-16 from the floor, 3-8 from beyond the arc, and had the crushing two missed free throws on the three shot foul with 20 seconds left and the Jays down by three. At the very end of the game, in a sight so eerily similar to what we saw in Terre Haute, the Jays went for the most obvious option for a final shot--Nate from the perimeter while down three--and both times the opposition was able to react and came up for the block to take away even the possibility of a miracle. Everyone in this league is extremely familiar with what Nate can do, and with that in mind, the better play is to use Nate as a decoy and set up for a final shot by someone like Dane Watts or even Isaac Miles.

As we sit now, though, we retain our share of first place in the Missouri Valley with a 5-2 record. Also at 5-2 as of 01/16/06 is Missouri State and Southern Illinois. This sets up a massive week of basketball for the Jays. On Thursday night, a scrappy Bradley Braves squad comes into Omaha. BU may have lost quite a bit to both graduation and pro basketball, but one only has to look at the way they took the Sycamores apart on the road (and think back to the struggles the Jays had in the house that Bird built) to realize that this is not the sort of team to be taken lightly. This game does have trap written all over it, and that's because Saturday night will be a showdown with Creighton's biggest rival: the Salukis of Southern Illinois. There's a chance that both teams will come in tied for first in the Valley, there will be a regional TV audience with the Valley FSN folks in town and it looks like the Jays will bid for the first sellout in the expanded Qwest Center, with less than 1000 tickets unsold as of Tuesday.

We don't have any time to sit around and feel sorry about ourselves and dwell over opportunities lost. This team needs to collect themselves, keep focused on what's still very much ahead of us, and defend the home court.