Southern Illinois Recap

Final Score: #21 Southern Illinois 72, Creighton 68

Box Score

Recaps: CU | SIU
Media: OWH | Southern Illinoisan | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If we sat down and made a checklist-- "What are the key elements that Creighton would need to overcome their mental block against Southern Illinois and steal a win at one of the most difficult places to place in the country" --what would be on that list? Well, first and foremost, we would need the officials to call the game tight enough to keep SIU and their overcommitting handcheck defense from dictating to them what would be a foul and what wouldn't be. On Saturday afternoon, suprisingly, they Jays got that. The refs called the game tight, were more than willing to dish out the fouls on the Salukis, and the result was serious foul trouble on SIU and the Ugly Dawgs being forced to play more traditional defense.

Second, no matter how the game ends up getting called, the Jays were going to have to be productive on offense and make the most when we have the ball, because possessions are always worth their weight in gold. On Saturday, the Jays shot an eye popping 53.8% from the field, including 11-18 (61.1%) in the second half. The Jays were aggressive in the second half, were able to play disciplined basketball and not allow themselves to get flustered by SIU's pesky nature.

Finally, the Jays were going to have to take their lumps and show the ability to absorb the runs that the Salukis were invariably going to throw at them. Although many around the country didn't see it (more on that later), the Salukis starting the game like they were popped out of a cannon. Just like that, the Jays are down 7-0, the only sellout crowd of a year is rocking and it looks like "new verse, same as the first." However, the Jays never cracked under the pressure, clawed back and pulled within 2 at halftime. In the first half, they immediately came out on a run to take the lead and started to put the Salukis back on their heels. Now, you don't expect SIU to fold at home and they didn't. The run came and was capped off with a Randall Falker jump shot (after Dane Watts missed a front end of a one and one) to push the lead to 65-58 Salukis. Even still, however, the Jays had both a chance to tie the game at the free throw line and, even after failing at that, had the ball with the shot clock off with the opportunity to either tie the game (to force overtime against an SIU team that would have been sans Falker and Mullins) or win in regulation. On the road, against a ranked opponent, you cannot ask for better than that.

Down the checklist we go and the Jays were able to get exactly what they were looking for. This game could not have been scripted better. Yet, however, SIU found a way at the end and, when it was in their grasp, it looked like the team didn't know what to do with it. There was a discussion on the Bluejay Cafe message board asking what exactly it is that holds this team back against Southern Illinois. Some might try to say talent, but that's patently false. This season, the Jays have the more talented roster and may well find themselves to be prepared for more of a run in the NCAA Tournament. However, as I've said before in other venues: talent is not the only, or even primary, variable for success in college basketball. If the most talented team always won, we could just put out a power ranking of which team has the most McDonald's All-Americans on the roster and award them the crystal basketball every year. We don't do that.

There's a lot of things that SIU uses to it's advantage to help build the sort of program and tradition of success that they have. They're in a state that produced a large number of basketball prospects year in and year out. They play their gimmick defense to even the playing field against teams that are more offensively diverse than they are (which is most teams, considering how generally pedestrian that the Salukis are on the offensive end), and on and on. However, the most importance piece to the Saluki Puzzle is the confidence, the assurance, the swagger that they bring to the table. That team could have taken the floor against North Carolina on Saturday and everyone on that bench--from the coach, to the starters, to the last man on the bench--would not have had a doubt in their minds that they would win. That sort of blind faith is off putting and damn successful. You can put pressure on this team and it never phases them. Especially at home, they feel there's nothing you can do to get over on them. That's the way they get in your head and make you believe you have to be absolutely perfect to win.

There's been so much discussion of "the next level" for Creighton basketball. The Jays bring so much to the table and that's why, even with 2 NIT bids in the last 3 years, we do generate so much heat amongst the Valley squads. No matter the tradition or the recent success, there isn't another program in this league that can touch the facilities or fan base that Bluejay basketball has. We are in a large metro area, a market that easily outclasses towns like Wichita or Springfield or Carbondale-Murphysboro, and we are untouched in this market. We don't have a Kansas, or Missouri, or Illinois, or Indiana or Kentucky in our backyard dominating the discussion at this time of the year. Creighton basketball dominates Omaha during the winter and that's why we average 16,000+ a night, play virtually all our games on TV and pace the sports talk in this town.

However, even with all that working for us, we haven't progressed to what's considered the next step: consistent runs in the postseason and multiple Sweet 16s over a span of years. If you look at the Wichita State or Bradley teams from last year, or the SIU team from 2002 that all went to the second weekend in the Dance, Creighton hasn't had an talent dropoff from those squads, especially over the past couple of seasons. I think that attitude is the difference, however. There's a confidence and mental toughness that all those teams had that we haven't quite been able to produce. If we're going to progress in the manner that I think we are more than capable of doing, we're going to have to capture some of that.

Now, while the MVC title race is not mathematically over, the Jays are going to need a lot of help. Southern closes the season at Missouri State, at Indiana State and on senior night against Evansville. Also, throw in there a trip to Butler for the BracketBuster event. Now, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Salukis came up short in Springfield tomorrow, but it's still going to be asking a lot to have them finish at 1-2. That said, if either of the two teams was going to blow the open path to the MVC trophy that was gained on Saturday, I would say that with the schedule, SIU has the better (albeit slight) chance to do it. Granted, the tiebreaker will mean that SIU should have the top seed in St. Louis locked up, I think it would still be important for this program if we can still push on and gain a share of the title at the end of the season. We need to end the title drought in Omaha.

Also, it's been discussed that the way the games in the regular season went, some believe that sets up the Jays for a strong shot to get over on these guys in the tournament in St. Louis. I think there's something to that. It hasn't been called the "Creighton Invitational" over the past few years for nothing. Now, SIU fan would counter that the Salukis finally broke through last season and won the tourney title. That's a good point, although I think the Salukis were helped quite a bit to avoid having to play either of the three teams that bring the majority of fans to the event (WSU, Creighton and Missouri State). There's no question the 2003 MVC Tournament final is still etched in the minds of the Salukis, and I think it would be a great showcase for the league if that matchup ended up being the CBS broadcast in a few weeks.

I will close this with one thought. It was great to see this matchup once again a part of ESPN's Rivalry Week package of games, however, they do a massive disservice to their fans not to employ basic regionalization so as to not butcher the broadcasts of specific games due to time overruns in previous contests. ESPN regionalizes broadcasts regularly, so it isn't a question of the inability to technically fulfill the demand. Also, the official line from Bristol is "the end of another game is more compelling than the start of another." That's true in some cases, but not all games are made equal and not all games are seen as equal by all fans. If I lived in Oklahoma, and had to endure the delay of the start of the Creighton game due to double overtime in the Oklahoma State-Texas Tech game, that's one thing. However, I live in the home market of one of the teams playing. There's no defensible rationale for not cutting away to the start of the next game for MVC markets. The fact that they MVC can't extract that out of the Boys from Bristol is insulting and, on the part of ESPN Television, it's a slap in the face of large portions of their fan base and there's no two ways about it.