Bluejay Basketball: Nebraska 54, Creighton 52

The Not-Ready-For-Primetime Players

The Creighton Bluejays went 1-1 on Saturday in two games marked by stifling defense and late-game theatrics. The win went to one of the best college soccer teams in the nation, as Creighton upended Connecticut 2-1 in overtime and punched their ticket for another Elite Eight (their first since 2005 and their fourth since 2002). The loss, that went to the men’s basketball team.

For the first 20 minutes Saturday night, a revamped CU lineup made Jays fans forget that they were playing on the road, without P’Allen Stinnett, facing their second straight defensively talented opponent. While 35% shooting is nothing to write home about, a 13-point halftime lead against an in-state rival is. So too is a 24-12 edge in rebounding and 10 points off the bench from Kaleb Korver (3 pts) and Casey Harriman (7 pts).

The Jays actually shot a higher percentage in the second half, albeit not by much at all (36%). But while Nebraska’s defensive pressure increased, the Jays couldn’t respond with offensive execution. This led to transition looks for the Huskers, which translated into 13 made field goals for NU (versus just 7 makes in the first frame). Also of interest was the dead tie the two teams played to on the boards in the second half (15 apiece).

Nebraska outscored Creighton in the paint, 24-20. The Huskers outscored CU on the break, 12-0. NU capitalized on turnovers to the tune of 22 points; Creighton could only generate 6 points off Husker miscues. But all told, Josh Dotzler’s 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining in the game erased a late deficit (after coughing up a double-digit lead on the road for what seems like the billionth time in the past couple of years) and gave the Jays a chance to send the game to overtime.

Instead, the Jays allowed a basket in the lane with 2 seconds left and suffered their second straight loss. Ladies and gentlemen, your Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players!

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Have you ever watched some of the first seasons of “Saturday Night Live”? Some of the most talented comedy writers and performers of the last 50 years shared a stage, navigating a format that no one before had tried to pull off without as much as a clue about how to do it. Honestly, some of the earliest shows are plain awkward. Young Lorne Michaels, who would later win Emmy awards and induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, said he knew what “the ingredients [of the show] would be but not the proportions,” and that the show “would have to find itself” on-air.

The original Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players

It might be a stretch, but the same could be said right now of the 2008-2009 Creighton Bluejays. At many different spots on the court, this team is any combination of young, inexperienced, and immature:

For the first 15 minutes in Little Rock on Tuesday night, Creighton looked as good offensively as they have all season. Five minutes later, they were nursing a diminishing lead and running as fast as they could to the visitor’s locker room.
A week ago, P’Allen Stinnett was coming off one subpar game (8 points and 2 rebounds in 24 minutes) while his teammate and roommate Justin Carter looked to be in so much pain that he might not play for the foreseeable future. Two games later, it is Carter who is playing but struggling (4 points, 5 rebounds vs. UALR; 2 points, 3 boards vs. NU) and Stinnett who missed an entire game due to what can only be called “communication issues” as of right now.
After starting the season with just 5 points against New Mexico, Kenny Lawson has poured in 10 or more points in three of the last four games. On Saturday, he was one rebound shy of his first career double-double (10 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocked shots against the Huskers). He is fairly skilled offensively for a redshirt sophomore, and his arms just seem to keep going and going and going. Yet it took playing against a guard-exclusive NU lineup for him to look as close to dominant as he has in a Jays uniform. He is on the precipice; just not there yet, though.
Cavel Witter is averaging nearly 13 points per game, but in the Jays’ two losses he has nearly as many turnovers (11) as points (17). He was 3-18 from the field in the two games (14%), and scored half of his points at the free throw line. However, his 25-point performance against Oral Roberts 10 days ago was a thing of beauty. He is just trying to find that consistency on both sides of the ball.

For long stretches of both the UALR and Nebraska games, the CU offense looked awkward. There is talent at each position, but right now things haven’t gelled. Many fans have an idea of what this team is or could be. Dana Altman says the team has an “identity crisis.” The past week seems to be as tough a 7-day stretch of Jays hoops – both on and off the court – as I can remember in recent memory. The opponents seemed strong and cohesive. The distractions seemed bothersome and unnecessary. The play looked soft and lacked the killer instinct.

The reality, though, finds the Jays with two losses (both on the road to physical opponents) by a combined total of 4 points. They were tied in both games with less than 20 seconds to play. They played both games with arguably their most talented player either not on the court physically (NU game) or mentally (UALR game).

The reviews of “SNL” weren’t great right off the bat, either. For God’s sake, the second episode was nearly all musical performances by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. It took some time for comedy greats Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, and the rest of the cast to get things moving in the right direction. The Jays might not be ready for primetime right now, but if they stick together and get a little help from their friends, there is plenty of time left for magical performances like the one from Mr. John Belushi.