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01.10.2012 / Creighton Survives Road Scare, Prepares For Familiar Foe. Posting by Brian Kooienga, Creighton Mens Basketball Graduate Manager.

If you were to ask Doug McDermott - How many points does it take to beat the Bradley Braves? The humble coaches son who is having a breakout sophomore season would answer with something along the lines of - Whatever it takes to win, anything to help the team or any number of other genuine comments regarding putting the team first and not forcing and focusing on individual numbers. Saturday night in Peoria was no different.

"Reminder it is an 8PM start and we will be on ESPNU for a national television audience"

Just that this time around Doug needed to pour in an astonishing 44 points as the Bluejays who were up 20 at one point in the second half, had to survive wave after wave of attacks by the Braves who simply would not go away.

The game was not entirely about Doug, as our big man in the middle Gregory Echenique had a dominating game, knocking down some huge free throws and grabbing enough rebounds to secure another double double, ending the night with 12 points and 12 rebounds.  A stat that our Sports Information Director Rob Anderson dug up on the way to the airport on Saturday night was something that really needs to be discussed.  This 2011-2012 team has more road wins (6) than the last two years (2009-2010, 2010-2011) combined.  The ability to go out and compete and actually win road games, is a testament to the toughness of a team and that speaks volumes to NCAA selection committees and will be extremely beneficial for us when Selection Sunday is upon us the second Sunday in March.

Looking towards our next home game, Tuesday against Northern Iowa, the storylines are everywhere.  Between our connections as a coaching staff and the UNI program, to Doug’s one time commitment to be a Panther, and finally, Coach McDermott’s modern day apprentice-ship to UNI head coach Ben Jacobson, this game is going to be an absolute battle because these teams know each other so well.  Both teams come into the matchup with the top 2 RPI (which is a fancy abbreviation for a mathematical ranking of schedule strength, wins, and losses) in the conference, which will mean an awful lot when Selection Sunday comes in March while both teams will be fighting for a bid to the NCAA tournament.

I hope to see and hear all of you at the game on Tuesday! Reminder, it is an 8PM start and we will be on ESPNU for a national television audience!

Go Jays!

Brian Kooienga

Posted at 09:37 AM | Permalink
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