Creighton 79, Bradley 65

Perfect Vision

I’m lucky. I know that.

I’ve been blessed with a few things in life. One of which is great eye sight. A lot of my family and friends wear glasses and contacts; I don’t think I could touch my eyes if you paid me.

Growing up, my first experience with the term “20-20 vision” didn’t come at a trip to the optometrists’’ office. It came in the late 1980s, when Tony Barone’s Bluejays strung together back-to-back-to-back 20-win seasons. It began in 1988-89 with a 20-11 effort, continued in 1989-90 with a record of 21-12, and culminated in 1990-91 with a 24-8 season that included a win in the NCAA Tournament.

The vision of the Creighton Basketball program started to fade a bit following that 20-20-20 run. The next four seasons found the Jays winning a total of 31 games. But in my freshman year of college I once again witnessed a 20-win season, with another win in the Big Dance serving as icing on the cake.

Fast forward 10 more years to last night, when the Jays posted a 14-point victory against the Bradley Braves: a win that placed 20 “Ws” in the win column for yet another season, a streak that has continued since Rodney Buford’s senior season.

How remarkable is Creighton’s 20-win season streak? Consider their company among the only other 6 schools in the country to win 20 or more games in each of the last 10 seasons: Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kent State, and Syracuse. Some of those teams have national championships. Others (schools similar in conference situation and financial capabilities) have deep NCAA Tournament runs that have distinguished the schools as upper-echelon “mid-major” colleges in the eyes of the college basketball viewing public.

Last night’s win, the 20th of CU’s season, was a mirror image of so many other conquests during the past decade of the Jays’ dominance in the MVC. It was by no means a beautiful display of basketball from beginning to end; at times, the Jays are as frustrating as they are exciting. But they did it as a team: five players scored in double figures; they had 19 assists on 27 made field goals; they outrebounded the opponent; they forced more turnovers and swiped more steals than the opponent; and they knocked down some critical 3-pointers when their challengers made a run at turning the momentum.

Let's take a quick look at some of the details that led to this streak-continuing conquest for Creighton.

Inside the Box Score

• Josh Dotzler holds the record for most assists by a Bluejay in a game at the Qwest Center (10 last season vs. St. Joseph’s), and he almost matched that number last night. The senior leader had 9 assists and just 1 turnover in 24 minutes of play, and he added 2 steals.
  
  Dotzler has been amazing in the past couple of weeks. He has averaged 5 assists (25 total during 5-game win streak) and 2.6 steals (13 total) per game while playing 23.6 minutes per contest. Oh, and he has committed only 2 turnovers during Creighton’s 5-game winning streak.
  
  He is 2nd in the nation in steal percentage; he garners a steal on 6.2% of the possessions during which he is on the floor. He is 5th in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.1-to-1), 16th in total steals, and 24th in steals per game. His 60 steals so far this season give him the 7th filthiest season of swipes in CU history, and if he continues at a 2.3 spg pace he will edge Ryan Sears’ senior season for the 2nd best season of steals in CU history (73). Sears’ junior season leads the way, when the Ankeny Bulldog had 80 swipes. Plus, Dotzler has a great chance to finish 2nd on CU’s all-time list for steals in a career.
  
  
• Creighton’s frontcourt played arguably its most complete game of the season last night. The California Connection combined for 21 points and 12 rebounds, as both Kenny Lawson (10 points, 6 rebounds) and Kenton Walker (11 points and 6 boards) were in double figures. Walker added 3 blocks and Lawson 1 and a steal. And while Casey Harriman had a tough night (after stringing together some really good efforts in his previous month’s worth of games), Justin Carter continued his flourishing play (10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals in 27 minutes).
  
  
• Booker Woodfox is starting to look more and more like the “December Booker” Dana Altman and the coaching staff are longing to see again. He torched Bradley for 18 points in 22 minutes.
  
  He had just 9 points against UNI, but including that sub-10 point effort he is still at his 16 ppg average during Creighton’s 5-game win streak. Over that stretch he is pouring in 3-point buckets at a 54% clip, and he is still yet to log a 30-plus minute game this season. He’s battled leg injuries this season, but he should be fresh enough down the homestretch of the year to pace the Jays with his explosive offensive efforts.
  
  
• P’Allen Stinnett’s knee is probably bothering him enough that driving hard to the basket and trying to score in traffic doesn’t seem like an inviting proposition. But he has adjusted his game and is picking his spots more carefully on the offensive end. Against the Braves Stinnett had another efficient night, scoring 15 points on just 8 field goals (5-8 from the field; 3-5 from 3-point range) while dishing 3 assists and snagging 2 steals in a team-high 28 minutes of play.
  
  Stinnett is averaging 13 points per game in MVC play, a number equal to that of Osiris Eldridge and Theron Wilson and better than fellow sophomores Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Josh Parker, Sam Manisalco, and Carlton Fay. More impressive to me, though, is his inclusion among mostly frontcourt players on the top 15 list for field goal percentage; he is currently 14th, at 46.3%.
  
  Stinnett has been noticeably more generous with the basketball, too. In his last 7 games he is averaging 2.85 assists. In the first 18 games of the season he dished an average of 1.22 dimes per contest. That’s right: in his first 18 games he had 22 assists; in the last 7 games he has 20 helps. As long as he’s on the floor CU’s opponents will key on him defensively. And Altman’s offense has enough options now to make teams pay when P passes the rock.
  
  
• Kaleb Korver made a 2-point field goal. It was pretty fresh. You might have heard about it here. Below is the video of Kaleb Jordan … errrr,…. Korver’s streak-busting bucket.
  
  
  
  Quite the way to break a slump from inside the arc
  
  What the video doesn’t show, and what doesn’t appear in the box score, is a critical effort play by young Korver. He dove on a loose ball during the Bradley offensive possession preceding his nifty drive to the lane, forcing a jump ball and stifling any real attempt by the Braves at staging a late comeback.