Creighton 80, Bradley 76; Creighton 77, Evansville 58

Creighton 80, Bradley 76

Our nation is at war. American soldiers are losing their lives every day, engaged in battles and attacked by suicide bombers thousands of miles away in the Middle East.

After Creighton’s hard-fought, physical win against Bradley, fans at the Qwest Center, Omaha television personalities, and other media around the region insisted that the game was a “battle” and a “war”. Forgive me if I disagree.

I’m sure I’ve spoken metaphorically about Creighton games like this in the past, as some of the Creighton-Wichita State games the last 10 years have been bruisers. But I’ve seen the error of this metaphor, and I’m here to do my part to correct it.

What the Bluejays and Braves engaged in last week wasn’t a war; it had nothing to do with battles or divided nations or misunderstood agendas. It was a street fight, a game the refs could barely control and one that the players were more than happy to take part in.

And it isn’t a game Bradley will like to think about for the next couple of weeks. If Jim Les is staring at his team Thursday afternoon, March 2, trying to prepare them for a first round MVC tournament game, a lingering memory of a blown 10-point halftime lead on the road might race across his mind.

There is no doubt that Bradley is talented, but it just doesn’t seem that they are a team; they don’t do the little things (or the big things, for that matter) to win consistently, and a Dana Altman-led Jays team can always exploit teams like that.

Say what you will about Les – or Jim “Clue” Les as some call him, but he is fired up for his team. For example, when Jeff Day and Lawrence Wright came to blows in the first half and were each given technical fouls, Les sprinted from his bench and tried to help his player distance himself from the skirmish.

That was just one of the many physical plays that dominated the tone of the first half, a half Bradley – specifically Michael Ruffin – controlled. Ruffin scored 16 points in the first 20 minutes of action, relying on teardrops in the lane, contested three-point buckets, and a few lay-ups here and there to give the Braves a 10-point lead at the break.

But, as has been a custom in the three short years of the Q, Altman worked his magic at halftime and received a better effort from his players in the second stanza. Anthony Tolliver battled foul trouble (playing only 20 minutes) but scored 19 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and played tenacious defense on Bradley’s monstrous front court. Tolliver led three other Jays in double figures, and Josh Dotzler added 9 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals in a game-high 35 minutes of action.

The crowd fed off the Jays’ effort, and came to life in key parts of the second half to ignite the game to another level. Bradley staged a furious comeback in the last minute, but the exclamation point to the contest came on a Tolliver block, followed by Nick Porter bringing the ball down the court and finding a hustling Tolliver for a thunderous alley-oop dunk.

With respect to our servicemen and women across the globe and fighting a war, this game wasn’t a battle or combat. But it was a street fight, and the scrappy Jays threw the knockout punches – regardless of how many Patrick O’Bryant elbows slammed into our post players’ heads.

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Creighton 77, Evansville 58

Four things:

1. Josh Dotzler is a freshman. I just wanted to remind all of you who have grown accustom to his elder-like play through 17 games of this season (and his career). The Whiz Kid had another terrific game against Evansville and their own freshman point guard, Jason Holsinger.
   
   Dotzler scored 15 points (6-9 from the field, 3-5 from long range), grabbed 2 rebounds, dished out 6 assists, and committed ZERO turnovers. ZERO. Granted, the Purple Aces are one of the two bottom-feeders in the Valley this season, but a 6-to-0 assist-to-turnover ratio is pretty remarkable, no matter who you are or what team you’re playing.
   
   He also played with foul trouble, which produced possibly the most underrated outcome of Creighton’s 19-point victory – Josh finally got to sit on the bench. He’s averaging 32 minutes per game in his true freshman campaign, which is the seventh most by any player in the entire conference. Johnny Mathies averages 31 minutes per contest, and the new guard/old guard combo continue to lead the way for the 13-4 Bluejays.
   
   
2. Speaking of Johnny Mathies, he had another unreal game shooting the basketball. Mathies dropped 26 points on the Aces, burying a barrage of three-point bombs, pull-up jumpers, hard-to-the-hole lay-ups, and a few free-throws for good measure. Mathies has increased his role of go-to scorer for Altman, and he continues to make a strong case for All-Valley honors.
   
   He makes shots for himself, makes shots for his teammates, and leaves 6-foot skid marks on the Qwest Center floor with his diving, all-out hustle and tough takes to the rack. In a league that guards usually dominate, Mathies is no exception: he has the ability to take control of a game at any moment, and Sunday’s victory was another example in what will be one of Creighton’s best three-year careers in decades.
   
   
3. Speaking of guard-dominated leagues, someone forgot to tell Anthony Tolliver and Dane Watts they are just supposed to be little more than anchors to a solid all-around team. The Mighty Missouri Mishmash are averaging 21 points and 12 rebounds a game.
   
   Tolliver would win a Valley most improved player award unanimously at this point in the season, as he has worked hard to transform his game into an All-Valley repertoire of spinning lay-ups, medium-range baseline jumpers, great post defense, timely rebounding, intimidating shot blocking, and overall leadership that reverberates amongst his teammates and the huge Qwest Center crowds.
   
   Watts struggled from the field – and the three-point arc – early in the year, but he has focused more on rebounding and converting in the paint during the last two weeks and the dividends are evident. He’s even getting his long-range, sweet-stroking three point shot to fall, which makes him a difficult match-up for some of the power forwards in the Valley. Watts also plays physically, especially when an opposing player will catch him with an elbow or foul him a little to hard. He plays his best with a chip on his shoulder, and he should receive plenty of those in the next three ball games.
   
   
4. Assistant Coach Brian Fish said it perfectly on T. Scott Marr’s post game radio coverage on Sunday; “The next 120 minutes of basketball will dictate exactly what kind of season we are going to have,” he said. It wasn’t just the fact that he was right, that he clearly understood the importance of the next three games – at Southern Illinois and at home against Wichita State and Northern Iowa. It was that he sounded so confident when talking about the task at hand.
   
   If there is a team in the Valley that shouldn’t be confident, it might be the Bluejays. Everyone grimaced and felt a tad bit sorry for Altman when Nate Funk, Jimmy Motz, Pierce Hibma, and Steve Smith missed part (or all, in Funk and Smith’s cases) of the season and forced Altman to play more of his young guys for longer stretches. But this team has adjusted, and continues to echo the same expectations it carried into this hyped season in November – they want to win the Valley regular season title, they want to win the Arch Madness tournament, and they want to win in the Big Dance.
   
   The next three games are going to go a long way in determining if all three of those expectations will become reality. Are you going to tell this team they can’t do it? I didn’t think so.