It’s about that time again. Late February has always been a difficult time for the sports fan. Football is over, and the winter sports are beginning to drag on.
The NBA has slipped into its mid-season doldrums when every fan of an Eastern Conference team gets to watch the phenomenon known as “coasting until the playoffs.” The NHL is still a puzzle. I can’t believe we are watching anything other than small-sample-size theatre until Les Habitants are hoisted out of first place.
Now we must sit through NFL draft talk until being saved by glorious baseball in March. That is until baseball begins to bore the nation around mid-July.
In this slog of that weird time between winter and spring when the snow begins melting and everything is muddy and gross, everything in the NCAA basketball season gets over-analyzed. Teams are forced to play conference rivals a second time, usually with drastically different results. For Creighton fans, this has not been a fun second go-around of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule.
There seems to be a panic sweeping through Omaha these days. What was once viewed as a top ten team is now being skewered as a first-round knockout in the NIT. Well allow me, for once, to be the voice of reason.
This is still a very good basketball team. In fact, the reason why everyone is so upset is because of how good this team is. Of course, I’m writing this before the Bradley game. If they drop that one, ignore everything I’m about to write.
This was supposed to be a historic season for the Bluejays. Creighton started the year looking like a Sweet Sixteen caliber team, but that shine has faded along with the club’s prowess from behind the three-point line. That slump should not continue any longer however.
The win at Bradley (I’m speculating here) is a good stepping stone toward the battle against Wichita State. I am willing to say that Creighton’s next loss will be the one that ends this season. There are indications that Doug may leave after this year, and I think that could motivate the team to arrive at the dance with the MVC title.
In this recent stretch of losses, it is not as if the offense has been completely incompetent. They have been able to find open looks early in ballgames, but those shots were not falling. Then the Jays seem to be gripped by a panic as soon as they go down by more than five points. Everyone stands around the three-point line and watches Doug get triple-teamed in the post. We can’t win without any ball movement.
As long as Creighton can maintain discipline on offense, the shots will start to fall. Defense has never really been a strength of our high-octane attack, so I’m not really worried about that. Defense in college basketball is for try-hards. Creighton is at their best when all five players on the floor are doing their best Antoine Walker impersonation.
As of right now, Creighton looks like a 10-seed. Plenty of forecasters have us playing Oregon in the first round, which is not too farfetched. The committee loves storylines, and there is no bigger storyline than an epic re-match of the 2011 CBI final. That game looks like an easy “W” for the Jays. The problem will occur in the second third round, when Creighton will probably slam headlong into a team like Kansas.
The point I’m trying to make here is that there is no reason to panic yet. Creighton has enough quality wins to all but guarantee a spot in the tournament. We don’t need to worry until much later.