Creighton 87, Oral Roberts 65
Curses
As Panon, Dance Cam Guy, and I watched intently and yelled furiously following arguably the hardest non-Southern Illinois foul in Qwest Center history, plenty of thoughts raced through my mind. Chief among them, though, was “not again.”
Panon turned to me and said, “This is like the curse of the 4-spot.” Not only did I agree, but I could think of another kind of curse (other than the few I was dropping in the direction of the Oral Roberts bench) that the foul might add to.
Intentional foul? At the very least
With 17:30 left in the second half, and with the Jays storming back from a 35-33 halftime deficit to the Golden Eagles, Jays newcomer Justin Carter ran the floor following an ORU turnover and attempted a lay up in transition. He had scored 6 of the Jays’ 8 second half points and was headed for 2 more before 6-8, 265 lbs. Marcus Lewis intentionally fouled Carter as he went up for the shot. Lewis flung Carter to the floor (as you can see in the video below), Carter crashed hard to the court, and he didn’t return.
One of the hardest fouls I’ve seen in person
Bluejays players surrounded Carter; some got into the faces of Lewis and other ORU players. Kaleb Korver came on to take Carter’s free throw attempts; like a good Korver, he made them both. And in 10 minutes of game time Creighton went from up 2 to up 17. But the flurry of offense and the focus on defense came at a steep cost.
After the game, Dana Altman said this of his injury:
"His Achilles is intact, which is great because if it wasn't, he'd be done," Altman said. "He is awfully sore. It could be one of the long-time things. It's like a sprained ankle, maybe worse. We're just going to have to wait and see."
“One of the long-time things.”
Talk about putting a damper on an otherwise successful Saturday afternoon (click here for video highlights). Creighton temporarily reversed some of their rebounding woes, outboarding the Golden Eagles by 10. Cavel Witter had another outstanding game off the bench: 25 points (6-9 from the field; 4-5 from 3-point range; 9-10 from the free throw line), 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and just 1 turnover. Casey Harriman recorded a career-high 10 points and added 6 rebounds in 14 minutes. Everyone got plenty of minutes in the rotation, including freshman point guard Antoine Young. Dustin Sitzmann scored a basket for the second straight game.
But while the foul and injury to Carter got the team fired up, the mood sobered a bit as reality set in; Carter was just the latest in a long line of junior college transfers to incur immediate injury problems beginning his Creighton career.
Call it the Juco Curse.
Carter had been fairly impressive for a newcomer not used to playing within Altman’s structured offensive and defensive systems. He even started the first three games of the regular season, which isn’t something many newcomers do under Altman.
But chalk him up to the list of recent Jays who came to Creighton from junior college and suffered setbacks almost immediately. Ty Morrison and Brandon Sims, both highly regarded Juco players, left because of injury or illness before establishing themselves as options for Altman’s teams. Nick Porter came to Creighton in the fall of 2004 looking to establish himself as the player who, along side Nate Funk, would help take the Jays back to the NCAA tournament. But he shredded his knee and was forced to miss the 04-05 season as a medical redshirt.
I have no inside information, so I’m not going to speculate as to the severity of Carter’s injury. I do know two things, though. First, it was a dirty foul and a shame that Justin was on the receiving end of something that should have completely been avoided. Second, he’s a tough kid. For those who haven’t seen him, he’s a taller version of Ben Walker. He is a football player. He’ll put the time in to do whatever he can to get back on the court.
But those facts don’t change the predicament Altman faces now. Depending on how long Carter might miss, he has to find a forward who wants to do the dirty work. Two weeks into the season the Jays are in the top 40 nationwide in points per game (84). They are 270th in rebounds per game (35). Scoring isn’t going to be a big problem; rebounding might be. Carter’s 5 boards a game is tied with Kenny Lawson for tops on the team.
Who will step up while the promising junior is injured? With three of their next four games on the road, it is a question Altman and Carter’s teammates need to answer quickly and profoundly.
As Panon, Dance Cam Guy, and I watched intently and yelled furiously following arguably the hardest non-Southern Illinois foul in Qwest Center history, plenty of thoughts raced through my mind. Chief among them, though, was “not again.”
Panon turned to me and said, “This is like the curse of the 4-spot.” Not only did I agree, but I could think of another kind of curse (other than the few I was dropping in the direction of the Oral Roberts bench) that the foul might add to.
Intentional foul? At the very least
With 17:30 left in the second half, and with the Jays storming back from a 35-33 halftime deficit to the Golden Eagles, Jays newcomer Justin Carter ran the floor following an ORU turnover and attempted a lay up in transition. He had scored 6 of the Jays’ 8 second half points and was headed for 2 more before 6-8, 265 lbs. Marcus Lewis intentionally fouled Carter as he went up for the shot. Lewis flung Carter to the floor (as you can see in the video below), Carter crashed hard to the court, and he didn’t return.
One of the hardest fouls I’ve seen in person
Bluejays players surrounded Carter; some got into the faces of Lewis and other ORU players. Kaleb Korver came on to take Carter’s free throw attempts; like a good Korver, he made them both. And in 10 minutes of game time Creighton went from up 2 to up 17. But the flurry of offense and the focus on defense came at a steep cost.
After the game, Dana Altman said this of his injury:
"His Achilles is intact, which is great because if it wasn't, he'd be done," Altman said. "He is awfully sore. It could be one of the long-time things. It's like a sprained ankle, maybe worse. We're just going to have to wait and see."
“One of the long-time things.”
Talk about putting a damper on an otherwise successful Saturday afternoon (click here for video highlights). Creighton temporarily reversed some of their rebounding woes, outboarding the Golden Eagles by 10. Cavel Witter had another outstanding game off the bench: 25 points (6-9 from the field; 4-5 from 3-point range; 9-10 from the free throw line), 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and just 1 turnover. Casey Harriman recorded a career-high 10 points and added 6 rebounds in 14 minutes. Everyone got plenty of minutes in the rotation, including freshman point guard Antoine Young. Dustin Sitzmann scored a basket for the second straight game.
But while the foul and injury to Carter got the team fired up, the mood sobered a bit as reality set in; Carter was just the latest in a long line of junior college transfers to incur immediate injury problems beginning his Creighton career.
Call it the Juco Curse.
Carter had been fairly impressive for a newcomer not used to playing within Altman’s structured offensive and defensive systems. He even started the first three games of the regular season, which isn’t something many newcomers do under Altman.
But chalk him up to the list of recent Jays who came to Creighton from junior college and suffered setbacks almost immediately. Ty Morrison and Brandon Sims, both highly regarded Juco players, left because of injury or illness before establishing themselves as options for Altman’s teams. Nick Porter came to Creighton in the fall of 2004 looking to establish himself as the player who, along side Nate Funk, would help take the Jays back to the NCAA tournament. But he shredded his knee and was forced to miss the 04-05 season as a medical redshirt.
I have no inside information, so I’m not going to speculate as to the severity of Carter’s injury. I do know two things, though. First, it was a dirty foul and a shame that Justin was on the receiving end of something that should have completely been avoided. Second, he’s a tough kid. For those who haven’t seen him, he’s a taller version of Ben Walker. He is a football player. He’ll put the time in to do whatever he can to get back on the court.
But those facts don’t change the predicament Altman faces now. Depending on how long Carter might miss, he has to find a forward who wants to do the dirty work. Two weeks into the season the Jays are in the top 40 nationwide in points per game (84). They are 270th in rebounds per game (35). Scoring isn’t going to be a big problem; rebounding might be. Carter’s 5 boards a game is tied with Kenny Lawson for tops on the team.
Who will step up while the promising junior is injured? With three of their next four games on the road, it is a question Altman and Carter’s teammates need to answer quickly and profoundly.
posted by Creighton Otter at 8:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home