Tennessee Game Thread

[Venturajay]

Tough loss, but a good year and a good group of guys. They gave max effort. Go Jays!!

[go_jays]

This doesn't crack the top five or hardest NCAA Tourney losses for me. Last year the Jays were dealt an amazing hand in a collapsed bracket. This year they had a really tough road.

Tennessee did a lot of things right. They do take care of the ball, averaging just over 10 TOs per game, but last night they only committed 4 TOs. While they shoot a lot of threes (25.4 per game), they are middling (162nd, 34.2%). Last night they shot their typical volume, but connected on 45.8%. If they shoot their average, they connect on 7-8 threes rather than 11. Their offensive efficiency was also solid against a typically good Creighton defense.

The officiating was a factor but not the factor. Tennessee puts its opponents on the line an average of 22 times per game. Freakin' St. Peters got 19 FTs in a blowout loss. The Jays got 13 FTs despite taking plenty of contested shots. Yes, I know that the Jays statistically don't take many FTs per game. Baylor and Kalk got hacked to pieces in the paint. Tennessee commits 17.1 fouls per game. Last night they were whistled for 14.

Creighton could have won this with just slightly better offense or slightly better defense. Before hitting two meaningless threes with the game decided, Alexander was 1-10. Bello was 0-3. Even Kalk was 2-7 in the second half (though he was getting hit on a number of his shots). Ashworth and Baylor had the sort of games the Jays needed, but you've got to fire on all cylinders against a top-5 opponent. Defensively, the Jays did a decent job on Knecht. 21 shots to get 19 points from the field. But they collectively lost focus on that run.

There were a few key moments during the game that really stood out:

1:56 1st Half -- Jays are up 33-29. Ashworth launches a nice-looking three that just barely misses. Tennessee rebounds and hits its own three seconds later. What if?

5:39 2nd Half -- Jays have fought back to get within 3 points. Their defensive changeup has Tennessee flustered. Knecht comes off a screen to hit a three. What a shot.

4:17 2nd half -- Ashworth makes a layup to cut the lead to 68-64. Over the next two and a half minutes, the score doesn't budge. Tennessee misses five shots (Knecht misses three) and turns the ball over once. This was the Jays' opportunity to tie it up or take the lead. But...

* Ashworth turnover (blown ref call)
* Kalk miss
* Kalk miss

Damn.

Bingo

[go_jays]

There's always one. Hopefully he's at least 80 years old. If not, I'm a little concerned. Haha! No Jay fan was happy about last night, but get a little perspective.

No matter his age or his problem... What is your excuse for the ageism? I would look inward first, if I were you.

[go_jays]

That 18-oh spurt was uncharacteristic of this veteran team. And even though they didn't quit, that took too much energy to get it back and it was over at that point. I won't comment on the way the game was called, but I concur what others have said. I think it gets into players' heads, especially Trey last night.

Agreed, I think Trey has been a little soft all year long about the calls not being made. Yeah, it's frustrating for sure. But you can't let it effect your game like it seemed to do with him, sometimes... at least this year. He just didn't seem like the same player this year for some reason.

Edit: Just in case someone is looking at stats to prove or disprove my thought... Stats were VERY similar.

5 more minutes per game this year. Not sure if that is good or bad to be honest about it.

FGA... 520 this year to 378 last year. Of which 183 were 3 Pt A this year and 161 last year. So many more attempts

But mades were a little different story. Overall FG% was .446 to .447. But 3 pt was only 33.9% this year vs 41% last year. And I think we really missed that in his game.

Here's the telling part. FT% was identical at 82.4% But he got to the line 119 time last year vs only 108 times this year. That's quite a few lower given the number of FGA he had last year vs this year... 520 to 378. You'd think with that many more attempts we would have gotten to the line more... he didn't.

Rebounds slightly up from 4.2 to 5.7 per game.

Assist to TO almost identical 1.9 this year vs to 1.8 lsat year. His assists were up by quite a bit... but so were his TOs

Blocks 15 vs 17 last year. Steals 38 tvs 40 last year.

So, statistical speaking, VERY close with the exception of the 3 pt % being much better last year and given how much he had the ball in his hands and the amount of FGAs he had not getting to the line as much... which are something that you'd like to see better.

I think the fact that he just didn't seem to have the swag this year that he had last year... we missed that quite a bit in his game.

[bird_call]

Coach Mac's teams struggle with games where the whistle is tight and the other team is physical. There were large stretches of this game where our guys were not matching the physicality of Tennessee. We got bullied in the paint and shirked from playing through the contact and forcing the refs to call fouls. On the other end, Creighton doesn't play an aggressive band of defensive basketball and largely doesn't adjust its play to be more grabby/slappy/pushy when the refs are letting it go. We play a position-based defense and allow teams to have a lot more space to operate.

That is a strategic decision - in games like this it is sub-optimal.

[Realhoops]

Coach Mac's teams struggle with games where the whistle is tight and the other team is physical. There were large stretches of this game where our guys were not matching the physicality of Tennessee. We got bullied in the paint and shirked from playing through the contact and forcing the refs to call fouls. On the other end, Creighton doesn't play an aggressive band of defensive basketball and largely doesn't adjust its play to be more grabby/slappy/pushy when the refs are letting it go. We play a position-based defense and allow teams to have a lot more space to operate.

That is a strategic decision - in games like this it is sub-optimal.

It’s also partly a function of having no meaningful backup option for several key spots. If Kalk or Baylor or Trey get into foul trouble, there is no option at all to survive. So we can’t afford to really match rugby play by opposing teams because of the risk of calls being made against us even if seems like they aren’t being made the other way. Last night was a great example — nearly every foul that was called against the Jays was for something significantly softer than contact that was allowed on the other end most of the night. The inconsistency makes it far too risky for the Jays to try to play the same way, even if they could match that level of physicality. Another reason that a deeper bench with more reliable options is really important to keep moving forward.

[Jaybird]

great post DC_Jay

+1
I can't bring myself to watch it again this soon. Need decompression time. I still haven't watched replay of last year's E8 game, so it might be a while.

I don't think I'll ever be able to watch that SDSU game again.

My top-five most painful Tourney losses are:

1) 2023 SDSU -- Win and you are probably a coin flip from a national title.
2) 2014 Baylor -- Such a sad way for an amazing era to end.
3) 2003 C Michigan -- A tough way for one of Creighton's best players to finish.
4) 2018 K State -- The pain grew as the tournament continued. Jays had a path to the FF. Foster didn't get a Tourney win.
5) 2005 W Virginia -- Not sure why this one stung worse than others.

I think what we have here is a strong case of recency bias.

1) 1974 Kansas--I'd argue this is #1 in the pain parade, and it isn't really even close. With a W, the door would have been wide open for a trip to the Final Four and maybe even further. That was the one with David Thompson, and Bill Walton in his last year at UCLA. But we would have gotten Marquette in the semis, and we'd already beaten them in Milwaukee. But, no. Instead, a one-point loss. I can still see that buzzer-beating Gene Harmon baseline jumper that hung on the rim for a bit, like the hoops gods were thinking, "They're not ready for the next step. Let's table this for, say, a half-century or so and we'll take another look at it then". And then, it fell off;

2a) 1978 DePaul--We led by 14 at the half, but somehow still lost by a bucket. Had already lost to those guys in a chaotic triple-overtime classic six weeks earlier. What made this especially deflating besides the huge halftime lead was that a week earlier, CU had scored the last ten points of the game to beat Indiana St and Larry Bird in the Valley final. For those next few days, it felt all across the city like this team was special, that they could do anything. It was a sugar high, but it sure was fun for a few days;

2b) 2023 San Diego St--No question this needs to be very high on this list. Our very first FF was so close we could taste it. But what some people forget is that the game was tied when that damn whistle blew at the end. Best case at that point was overtime. We had a little momentum but we'd also blown a five-point HT lead, so who knows what another five minutes would have had in store;

4) 2022 Kansas--Yeah, we lost by 7, but it was a one-possession game with 45 sec to go. The six healthy guys we had left played like demons and we had the third-ranked team in the country fighting for their lives, but we just couldn't quite close the deal. It felt like Rocky, but with a crappy ending;

5) 2007 Nevada--led at the half, lost in overtime. But that '05 West Va loss would fit here too, when we got Pittsnogled at the end. The '14 Baylor loss was a crushing disappointment, but it was also a 30-pt slaughter.

[DC_JAY]

I think what we have here is a strong case of recency bias.

1) 1974 Kansas--I'd argue this is #1 in the pain parade, and it isn't really even close. With a W, the door would have been wide open for a trip to the Final Four and maybe even further. That was the one with David Thompson, and Bill Walton in his last year at UCLA. But we would have gotten Marquette in the semis, and we'd already beaten them in Milwaukee. But, no. Instead, a one-point loss. I can still see that buzzer-beating Gene Harmon baseline jumper that hung on the rim for a bit, like the hoops gods were thinking, "They're not ready for the next step. Let's table this for, say, a half-century or so and we'll take another look at it then". And then, it fell off;

2a) 1978 DePaul--We led by 14 at the half, but somehow still lost by a bucket. Had already lost to those guys in a chaotic triple-overtime classic six weeks earlier. What made this especially deflating besides the huge halftime lead was that a week earlier, CU had scored the last ten points of the game to beat Indiana St and Larry Bird in the Valley final. For those next few days, it felt all across the city like this team was special, that they could do anything. It was a sugar high, but it sure was fun for a few days;

2b) 2023 San Diego St--No question this needs to be very high on this list. Our very first FF was so close we could taste it. But what some people forget is that the game was tied when that damn whistle blew at the end. Best case at that point was overtime. We had a little momentum but we'd also blown a five-point HT lead, so who knows what another five minutes would have had in store;

4) 2022 Kansas--Yeah, we lost by 7, but it was a one-possession game with 45 sec to go. The six healthy guys we had left played like demons and we had the third-ranked team in the country fighting for their lives, but we just couldn't quite close the deal. It felt like Rocky, but with a crappy ending;

5) 2007 Nevada--led at the half, lost in overtime. But that '05 West Va loss would fit here too, when we got Pittsnogled at the end. The '14 Baylor loss was a crushing disappointment, but it was also a 30-pt slaughter.

My first Jays game was in 1989, so I can't speak to Kansas '74 or Depaul '78. But without these lows, the highs wouldn't be so glorious.

[LJay]

1) 1974 Kansas--I'd argue this is #1 in the pain parade, and it isn't really even close. With a W, the door would have been wide open for a trip to the Final Four and maybe even further. That was the one with David Thompson, and Bill Walton in his last year at UCLA. But we would have gotten Marquette in the semis, and we'd already beaten them in Milwaukee. But, no. Instead, a one-point loss. I can still see that buzzer-beating Gene Harmon baseline jumper that hung on the rim for a bit, like the hoops gods were thinking, "They're not ready for the next step. Let's table this for, say, a half-century or so and we'll take another look at it then". And then, it fell off;

2a) 1978 DePaul--We led by 14 at the half, but somehow still lost by a bucket. Had already lost to those guys in a chaotic triple-overtime classic six weeks earlier. What made this especially deflating besides the huge halftime lead was that a week earlier, CU had scored the last ten points of the game to beat Indiana St and Larry Bird in the Valley final. For those next few days, it felt all across the city like this team was special, that they could do anything. It was a sugar high, but it sure was fun for a few days;

2b) 2023 San Diego St--No question this needs to be very high on this list. Our very first FF was so close we could taste it. But what some people forget is that the game was tied when that damn whistle blew at the end. Best case at that point was overtime. We had a little momentum but we'd also blown a five-point HT lead, so who knows what another five minutes would have had in store;

4) 2022 Kansas--Yeah, we lost by 7, but it was a one-possession game with 45 sec to go. The six healthy guys we had left played like demons and we had the third-ranked team in the country fighting for their lives, but we just couldn't quite close the deal. It felt like Rocky, but with a crappy ending;

5) 2007 Nevada--led at the half, lost in overtime. But that '05 West Va loss would fit here too, when we got Pittsnogled at the end. The '14 Baylor loss was a crushing disappointment, but it was also a 30-pt slaughter.

These are spot on. Only one I would add, see the end of this post. Been a fan since Sutton’s first year in late 60’s.

That Gene Harmon miss in 1974. I almost threw up. 10 foot J for the win. I got to know Gene later as he was the golf pro at the Knolls when I was on the golf team I the late 70’s and he let us practice there for free. I could NEVER bring myself to ask him about that shot as the pain was too intense for me which had to be x100 for him.

The DePaul game - I was calling my buddies at halftime to set up our trip to the next round which was to be somewhere close (Wichita? I can’t remember). Nuff said that never happened.

SDSU - Everyone here knows that agony.

My last one would be the West Virginia loss. I was in Cabo on vacation in an open air bar with my Creighton gear on screaming for the Jays. We had the game but lost at the end and I about threw up in my shoes feeling all the eyes in the bar staring at the crazy fucker at that table watching the game like a wild child. Excruciating.

Looking forward to more opportunities to cheer on the Jays!

[cujaysfan]

The Iowa tournament game hurt pretty bad. Against punk Alford.

To watch Korv somehow go 1/10 from three was baffling. And then the NCAA miracle of Reggie Evans who was about a career 65% FT shooter hit like 16 or something FTs

Auburn was another. The amazing comeback and Walker's shot getting blocked by Ndyiae as time ran out. Brutal