The tilt at St Joseph’s University had all the trimmings.
a) HOF ceremonies for former St Joe’s & Current Creighton President, Fr Lannon.
b) True road game, in Philly.
c) Game site was on campus at the Hagan Arena versus the standard fare of the Palestra.
d) St Joe’s playing well defensively. Team setting a few new standards as a team.
e) Jays had a full week off between games (finals week).
f) Officiating crew with a checkered officiating history.
All of the above makes for an interesting mix of ingredients thrown into the pot and come up with a potential upset of the week. That is exactly what occurred. This game has been examined and scrutinized on both the BJC and WBR. See links below.
Suffice it to say that it is the Bluejays 1st loss of the season, and they were going to suffer a loss at some juncture. Many thought that would signal our exit from the polls. Not so.
My take is the coaching staff will crack the whip in this week’s practices to correct the defensive deficiencies noted, continued stress on FT shooting, and on playing hard for the full 40 minutes. Everyone on the team knows that they will be getting every opponent’s Best Shot, in each upcoming game – no surprises there – as the Jays will be deemed an important test for all upcoming teams.
Take care of business in practices, come ready to play every game, and playing both Hard and Smart are the axioms of the day. Go Big Blue. Go Bluejays!
From the perspective here at Bluenotes this is not a crisis, nor cause for panic. It is a blip on the screen during the normal course of events in the non-conference portion of the season. No one expected the Jays to run the table during the non-conference, let alone the entire season.
This game appears to have been a combo of less than stellar defensive play, coupled with outrageous officiating (Free Throws- SJU 29, Jays 9 / Fouls- SJU 13, Jays 26). Jays will use this game as a learning tool – and move ahead.
Go Creighton!
Bluenotes 