Bluejay Basketball: Let's Dance! (Part Three)

(Editors note: Panon pointed out that in my hurry to namedrop as many 90s artists as I could in the last installment of the blog, I failed to mention that the only CD to be played on the drive to or from St. Louis was Journey's "Greatest Hits". Nothing like cruising 5 miles over the speed limit to "Don't Stop Believin'".)

Creighton 67, #11 Southern Illinois 61

That image, above, is about the best possible way to sum up what was another successful trip to St. Louis and Arch Madness for the Creighton Bluejays.

I’m sure that if you asked every one of this year’s Bluejay players, they’d tell you the same thing; if they won the MVC post-season tournament, they’d want to beat Southern Illinois in the championship game. Creighton has a solid recent history against the Salukis on the Scottrade Center court (or on the Savvis Center court in 2003 and 2002), but the more immediate history talked about by fans and media alike was Creighton’s 8-game losing streak to SIU coming into the Valley championship game.

There was more at stake than a championship and an automatic ticket to the NCAA tournament. Only one current Bluejay player knows what it is like to beat Southern Illinois, and it was that player — the young man above, cutting down the nets — who made sure that the rest of his teammates would know that feeling, too.

He’d have help, and the supporting cast seemed to want this championship — this win over the Creighton’s toughest league rival — just as much as Funk the Fearless Leader. The game inched along for the first couple of minutes, the Jays opened up a lead, and then the Salukis took what would be their only lead of the game at 23-22 with just under 7 minutes to play in the first half. But just like they had done in Omaha and in Carbondale earlier this season, they hung tough; the Jays clung to a 4-point lead at halftime.

And while Creighton gained leads late in both of the regular season match-ups, they eventually lost in heartbreaking fashion both times. They would not do it again, although the championship game was not without some excitement toward the end of the game.

Led by Funk’s 19 points, Anthony Tolliver’s 15-point, 13-rebound double-double, and Nick Porter’s 15 points and 5 boards and 6 assists, the Jays didn’t skip a beat seemingly the entire game. They attacked SIU’s vaunted pressure defense, never really letting the Salukis get into a position to force unreasonable turnovers (CU turned it over just 9 times in 40 minutes), and they made the afternoon very uncomfortable for Jay-killers Matt Shaw (just 3 of 8 shooting) and Randal Falker (3 points and 5 fouls in 22 minute of (in)action).

It was a thing of beauty, actually, and we had a birds-eye view for everything. Creighton’s crowd was a distance disadvantage compared to the fans from Carbondale; it is three times as long a drive from Omaha to St. Louis as it is from SIU. However, just like in 2002 and 2003, it was the maroon-clad fans leaving early, clad in the infamous “I H8 Cr8ton” after losing the game that mattered for the third time in a row. During a weekend where everything went exactly the Jays’ way, the stream of disgruntled Dawgs exiting the floor (including the SIU players) was the final touch.

Top of the world at the Scottrade Center — our birds-eye view

Actually, I’ll take that back. The final touch came when seniors Funk, Tolliver, and Porter — three players who will carry with them three completely different distinctions and descriptions in the annuls of Creighton basketball history — marched across the stage to accept not only the Valley championship trophy, but also three of the five spots on the Valley all-tournament team.

Many Jays fans felt that Funk deserved the Player of the Year award for the conference’s regular season, but he finished second behind Southern Illinois’ Jamaal Tatum. Many Jays fans felt that Tolliver deserved that award last year, as he transformed his game and elevated the Jays to a different level before the rest of the team ran out of gas (and succumbed to more injuries than an episode of “M*A*S*H); but that award went to Wichita State’s Paul Miller. And for his remarkable second half of the season, many thought that Nick Porter was snubbed in the regular season awards after garnering last year’s Newcomer of the Year.

But it was Funk, Tolliver, and Porter, surrounded by their teammates and a court full of yelling, screaming students and friends, who earned the awards that counted. Personal accolades are nice, but again, just like beating SIU, I’m sure that each and every one of them would tell you the same thing; that hoisting the Valley trophy is the best award possible.