February…New year and traditional good habits…A Jays Run!
Happy Lunar New Year to all. February abounds: snow-sleet-hail-rain…depends on your locale. Getting a motherlode of rain down here in Latam. Here’s to your traditional Lunar New Year festivities: Chicken & rice, a bowl of oranges/tangerines as your table setting, giving small gifts of money to your loved ones for good luck, in the year of the Tiger.
Another tradition that I’m fond of is Creighton basketball making an annual February – end of the regular season – run. The Jays have reeled off 4 straight wins over the last couple of weeks, with 5 games left on the regular-season tally. Historically, Creighton Runs in February are an exciting culmination to a season. CU 17-8, currently sits in 3rd (with UConn) at 9-5 in conference play. Marquette is on deck for a Sunday tilt at the CHICO. Marquette is currently 17-9/9-6 – alone in 4th place. The Jays beat the GE/Warriors 75-69 in Milwaukee (Dbl OT), back on January 1, 2022.
Creighton, due to covid rescheduled games, is in the midst of a 6 game/14-day stretch. However, it is technically not back-to-back 3 game weeks, as the initial game of this stretch was in a previous week.
Tricky Trey has started 3 games in Art’s absence – this will continue. Rati is getting more playing time as is Senior grad transfer Keyshawn Feazell. The rotation is getting short and this six games in 14 days grind could impact the team. Mac has been careful in navigating this stretch to conserve the guys’ energy and has lengthened the bench play a bit.
The young Bluejays have had their share of ups & downs, as predicted by many. There have been many lessons learned, some growth, some pain – but they have come through the gauntlet. While Marquette, ranked Providence & UConn, and the Johnnies & Seton Hall – all should be challenging contests, I expect the Jays to continue their winning ways and possibly even steal the RS championship, with the help of a few more dominoes falling our way. At the least, I envision a 14-5 conference record and a 2nd place finish at this juncture.
Creighton’s record-breaking Recruit Class of 2021 is gaining steam. Jays are playing 3 frosh serious minutes, plus Rati’s minutes are increasing as the season progresses. The league is taking notice: https://www.bigeast.com/news/2022/2/17/mens-basketball-freshmen-providing-a-boost-for-bluejays.aspx
R2, Art, & Trey have gained Big East Frosh of the Week numerous times thus far this season: R2-5, Art-2, and Trey-1. Our guys have captured 8 of the 13 weekly frosh awards to date.
Art is out with a knee injury/strain and is day-to-day. Date of return unknown – has missed 3 games.
John C is out with a foot injury. He had surgery the other day, so I don’t expect to see him back this season.
Reef has been out all season and not going to play.
We may yet see Modestas, Devin, and Sami with significant PT?
As an aside… Joe Lunardi has the Jays as his last team in (12 seed) in his latest bracket. Other generally have CU as a 10 or 11 seed. Outlier brackets vary the seeding.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
Last 5: Five great games and all are Quad 1 or 2. Now is the time and this is the place. Run the Table baby! Reminds me of back in da day – Buford, Sears n Walker, Korver, Funk, Porter, Carter, Bookwood, P, Echenique, DMD n Wragge, Mo, Marcus F. It’s February 2022 and the Jays are runnin’ baby! Nuthin’ beats a Creighton Run!
| vsMARQET | Sun, Feb 203:00 pmFS1 |
| @STJOHN | Wed, Feb 236:30 pm |
| @PROV | Sat, Feb 268:30 pm |
| vsUCONN | Wed, Mar 28:30 pm |
| vsSETON | Sat, Mar 5TBA |
#RollDamnJays
Bluenotes 