Courtesy – Creighton Athletics

On the heels of a good week of basketball, Creighton found ítself joining the AP Top 25 this Monday.  Two convincing wins including the comeback over #18 Oklahoma were evidently sufficient to show the media pundits the error of their ways.  

Creighton garnered 9 votes (ARV) in the Coaches poll.

Jays and Providence receiving some love at the league message boards:

http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2014/11/24/7277119/villanova-providence-and-creighton-featured-in-this-weeks-ap-and

http://holylandofhoops.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3903&sid=056c51092384fb55f18dd56890df1b46

Surprisingly several Bluejay fans have offered apologies on Holyland, for the Jays ranking-stating the Jays either are not worthy, or are less worthy than others!  Utterly appalling and ridículous.

Amazingly our 2 main Creighton boards (BJ Underground and Creighton Rivals) appear to be downplaying, if not outright ignoring the AP ranking?  No stories or tópic lead-ins.  The OWH (local paper) had 1 paragraph on Creighton’s ranking in it’s online blog.

Wow…unbelievable. 

In a game which will get better over the years and become a focal point when referring to great Creighton rallies, the Hilltoppers survived a nightmarish “Bayloresque” first 25 minutes of basketball Wednesday evening.  The baskets, the “bank”, and all other hoops outlets seemed closed as the Bluejays couldn’t buy a bucket.  It eerily resembled the NCAA debacle of last March.

However, Creighton has learned from past history.  In a furious 2nd half rally, reminiscent of the 2003 NCAA rally vs Central Michigan, the Bluejays stopped digging their hole and rallied in this early season contest.  I feared the team would quit.  They didn’t, and Won!

This game, which very few gave Creighton any chance to win, featured an Oklahoma team which is picked to do major damage come next March and is ranked in all the major polls.  Creighton, conversely, has been tabbed a cellar-dweller in the post-Doug McDermott “era”, by both the media and the majority of our own fans (unfathomable).  A handful of Jays fans, including yours truly, were lambasted for even suggesting the possibility of a Jays victory vs the #18 ranked team in the country.  A pocket of outside support was found amongst BE brethren fans at the Holyland of Hoops board online.

This is a good resume builder win early in the season.  As much as I’d like to think this win would catapult CU into the rankings, with the strongly engrained media projections and league predictions, it will probably take another win over a ranked team (Nebraska) to do so.  This Jays team now knows they have “the right stuff” and will move forward with confidence.  Definitely a great win and a game to remember.

Links:

http://www.gocreighton.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209773381&DB_OEM_ID=1000

http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/story/creighton-rallies-past-no-18-oklahoma-111914

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/19/creighton-comes-from-18-down-to-knock-off-no-18-oklahoma/

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=65095

http://dataomaha.com/quick-hit/275#video-creightons-locker-room-celebration-after-beating-no-18-oklahoma

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/19/creightons-toby-hegner-dives-for-loose-ball-gets-drenched-in-beer-video/

http://www.omaha.com/creighton/shatel-newjays-find-identity-prove-they-can-be-clutch-without/article_8a71db0d-9406-5919-a19a-84fe2875dedb.html?mode=jqm

https://creighton.rivals.com

http://whiteandbluereview.com

https://bluejay.zone

Go Big Blue!