Missouri Valley Conference Basketball - CIT Tournament Recap

CIT First Round Recap - Creighton vs South Dakota

Creighton 89, South Dakota 79

Two teams with vastly different college basketball pedigrees squared off at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in the first round of the CollegeInsider.Com postseason tournament. In one corner was the home side, the Creighton Bluejays, a team more accustomed to contending for the NCAA Tournament than hosting new-jack teams in the less prestigious postseason tourneys. (The Bluejays have been to the Big Dance five of the last ten years.)  The other participant in tonight's go-round, the South Dakota Coyotes, your 2009-10 Great West Conference champs, are approaching the end of their first full year of Division I men's basketball.   

The teams combined to produce an up-tempo, entertaining affair, which was the kind of game that would have more than slaked the thirst of any college hoops junkie jonesing for a fix prior to the Big Dance tip-off on Thursday (if they could have seen it, that is, but more on that later).  Dana Altman's team made 5-of-10 triples in the first half on its way to a 50-36 halftime lead.  The Bluejays barely survived a determined second-half comeback by the D-I newcomers, who closed the game on a 19-10 run and just ran out of time. 

The Big Picture:  Heading into the 2009-10 season, Creighton was viewed as a contender for the Missouri Valley Conference title.  Unfortunately for the Bluejays and their fervent faithful in Omaha, they never really recovered from a 1-5 stretch that spanned the end of November and early December.   With The Valley being its typical dog-eat-dog battle-royal self, the Bluejays just couldn't rise above the other Valley squads and distinguish themselves. 

While even the most Tony Robbins-esque of Bluejay fans would have to admit to a tinge of disappointment at Creighton ending up in the CollegeInsider.Com tourney, over 4,300 of them showed up to cheer the Bluejays on to victory Tuesday night.  If the Bluejays continue to get the kind of balanced scoring they did tonight - four players scored in double figures - then the Creighton faithful should get a couple more chances to root their team on.

As for South Dakota, the D-I neophytes acquitted themselves well in their first taste of the postseason at this level.  Senior forward Tyler Cain, the Great West Player of the Year, struggled all game, scoring only 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field, but frosh guard Jake Thomas picked up the slack, scoring 18 points, 13 of which came as the Coyotes rallied in the second half.

The Good:   Maybe springing ahead for daylight savings time is all it took for Creighton to start drilling three-pointers.  When last spotted in Arch Madness, the Bluejays were busy bricking away beyond the arc, going 9-of-33 in an 81-62 loss to Bradley.  No such problems for the 'Jays tonight, as they made 12-of-23 triples.  Ethan Wragge (4-of-6), Carvel Witter (4-of-5), and Kaleb Korver (3-of-4) did the bulk of the damage from three for Creighton. 

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The Bad:    Not known as, well, even a pedestrian defensive team, South Dakota gave Creighton more free looks in the first half than your average tourist ever gets in Amsterdam's red light district.  The result of this failure to defend was a 50-36 halftime deficit, which came courtesy of Creighton shooting 50 % from the field.  Coming back from a 14-point hole is tough enough under the best of circumstances.  Playing on the road in your first-ever postseason appearance comes in somewhere significantly south of being the best of circumstances.  

The Ugly:   The only ugly part of this game was that it wasn't available to a wider audience, both in Omaha and the college hoops universe.  With Creighton's normal home, the 19,000-plus capacity Qwest Center, being borrowed by the NCAA for a wrestling tournament, this game was played at the 9,000-seat Omaha Civic Auditorium.  Despite Fox College Sports Broadband getting involved, this game lacked the exposure that one of the regional Fox Sports networks could have provided.  That's too bad, because the Coyotes and Bluejays played with the same sort of verve and boldness people have come to expect from March Madness.  It could be that it's time to expand the definition of March Madness so that it encompasses the CollegeInsider.Com tournament.

What's Next?

The CollegeInsider.Com tournament is decidedly old school in the way the tourney is structured; there are no seedings, and the second round pairings have yet to be determined.  However, Creighton should be hosting a game Monday night at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.  As for Dave Boots' squad, the Coyotes should pat themselves on the back.  A conference title, a 22-10 record, and an almost-sort of-kind of comeback in their first-ever Division I postseason tournament appearance are all huge building blocks.  Respectability is in sight.

By: Tim Coyne
DFN Sports Guest Writer