DC_JAY wrote: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.
jayc13 wrote: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.
jayc13 wrote: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.
bird_call wrote: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.
DC_JAY wrote:SDJay wrote:Chicagojayfan wrote: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.
Jaybird wrote: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.
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