Creighton
- Jan 9, 2020
- 7 min read
Creighton Bluejays (12-3, 1-1) vs Villanova Wildcats (10-3, 1-1, ranked #16)
Tuesday, January 7, 2020 @ 8:00 PM
Omaha, NE
CHI Health Center Omaha
THE SCHOOL
Creighton University is a private Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1878, Creighton currently has 8,910 students and an endowment of $587 million. The school is named after Edward Creighton, a prominent 19th-century businessman in Omaha.
The Bluejays compete in the Big East Conference in NCAA Division I. If you read my post about Nebraska, you may remember that - despite having no history of success - the Huskers average the tenth-best attendance in college basketball. One of the only schools that beats Nebraska in that category is Creighton. Averaging 15,980 tickets sold per home game last year, Creighton sits eighth on the list. Unlike Nebraska, Creighton has had recent success. They've been to the NCAA Tournament five times in the last eight years and they moved from a mid-major conference (the Missouri Valley Conference) to a power conference in 2013. While Creighton isn't a traditional powerhouse (they've never made a Final Four and haven't made the Sweet Sixteen since 1974) they're still a pretty big name in college basketball.
Villanova University is a private Catholic university in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. The Wildcats also compete in the Big East Conference. Villanova is one of the best college basketball programs right now. They've won two of the last four national championships, five of the last six Big East titles, and they've been to the NCAA Tournament in fourteen of the last fifteen seasons.
Despite competing in the same conference, Creighton and Villanova are 1,200 miles apart. I think it is simultaneously cool and stupid that Creighton is now in the Big East. On the one hand, I think it's great for the university and the city of Omaha for Creighton to compete in a power conference. I think it's a good personality fit - the Big East is currently made up of ten urban private schools, most of whom are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church; Creighton fits all these boxes. And personally, I enjoyed having the opportunity to watch one of the big boys of basketball in Villanova. However... Nebraska isn't in the east. Yeah, I guess Omaha is technically in the eastern half of the country, but their closest conference rival is Depaul University which is nearly 500 miles away in Chicago. Their conference tournament is played in Madison Square Garden in New York, even further away than Villanova. And they left some good rivalries behind (like Wichita State) when they left the MVC. Overall, it's probably a good thing for Creighton; it just doesn't make geographical sense.
THE TOWN
CHI Health Center is half a mile from my office. Since the game was so close to my work, I didn't want to go home first - that would be way out of the way. The game didn't start until 8, so I just stayed in my office building for a couple hours and worked on grad school applications. Shortly after 7 o'clock, I walked outside and, determining it wasn't too cold, opted to walk to the arena. I walked a couple blocks past my office building, went around TD Ameritrade Park (which is where the College World Series is played), and strolled a couple more minutes to CHI Health Center. All in all, it took about ten minutes to get there.
With a population of ~470,000 (and a metro population of just under a million), Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska. As evidenced by the prior paragraph, it's also where I work. Omaha feels like a growing city and it's increasingly becoming a cool place to be. There seem to be lots of new restaurants and small businesses popping up in the Downtown and Midtown sections. Omaha is also proud of the amount of tech startups founded there recently. Some have tried to give the city the nickname of the "Silicon Prairie," though that hasn't caught on yet (and it shouldn't). The city lies just to the west of the Iowa border; in fact, it's so close that the nearest gas station to my office is actually in Iowa. Overall, I hope to spend more time in Omaha outside of my office building.
For those familiar with UAB's campus, Creighton feels a lot like that. All their school buildings are plopped right in downtown Omaha. I drive through Creighton's campus every weekday. That said, the campus looks very pretty. Despite it being downtown, they still made space for trees and green spaces, and there are a few gorgeous, modern-style buildings, particularly their School of Dentistry. Interestingly, Creighton is opening a satellite campus in Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know why, but there will be a new Creighton medical school in Phoenix in the next couple years.
CHI Health Center Omaha (it's a mouthful) is a pretty new structure, having been completed in 2003. It contains both an arena and a convention center, so it's massive. It's also beautiful. Look up a picture of it - the whole front side is huge windows; architecturally, the roof slopes down on the left and right sides of the building, giving it a unique appearance; and there are several sculptures near the entrances. This place is impressive. The arena serves as both a basketball court and concert space but - like Nebraska with Pinnacle Bank Arena - Creighton has made CHI Health Center their own. The basketball team feels right at home here. It's technically off-campus, but you can see it from Creighton's school grounds and it's just a short jaunt to get there.
THE GAME
I bought my ticket the week before the game. When I originally looked at tickets several weeks ago, the cheapest one I could find on a secondary market was $35. But as the game got closer, prices dropped, and I snagged a ticket for $10 (just over $14 with fees). I arrived at the arena and got through security by 7:30 which gave me time to find my seat and grab dinner at the concession stand. Walking up the stairs, I realized that my seat was on the very top row. As you can see in the photo, though, even top row seats have a rather good view. CHI Health Center has snazzy concessions - you can get a hamburger or hot dog at every stand, but each one also has their own "signature" items. I opted for one of those and got a patty melt to eat before the game started.
Creighton University is still on winter break, so there weren't as many students as usual (though several still showed up). This means that the regular pep band wasn't there, so a local high school band played in their place. They were really good! I wouldn't have even known they weren't a college band had the PA guy not said anything about it.
There were a few empty seats in the arena, but not many. They announced a sellout crowd of 17,682. In front of me and to my left sat a family with two young sons, both probably about ten or younger. One sat there quietly the whole game while the other did not. He knew every player's name, he yelled a lot, and he jumped out of his seat every time something exciting happened. If this child were any older he would have been annoying, but he was still little enough for his behavior to be cute.
Because nationally-televised games never start on time, this game didn't tip-off until 8:15. A recent theme of my games have been slow offensive starts; this was no different. Creighton didn't score their first field goal until 17:38 and Villanova didn't score theirs until 14:15. Villanova's scoring struggles gave the Bluejays an early lead. Creighton got out to a 13-8 advantage at the second media timeout and extended it to double digits with nine and half minutes left in the first half. By the 6:36 mark Creighton was ahead by 16 and easily cruising. The Wildcats were awful from behind the three-point line but they wouldn't stop trying threes, while Creighton pounded the ball inside for easy points. With 3:15 remaining, Creighton led 29-16, but Villanova finally hit some shots and cut the lead to as close as 6. The Bluejays entered halftime ahead 33-25. Creighton's first half was a full team effort - no one stood out but everyone did their job, though you couldn't help but feel they left some points on the floor. Villanova's #2, Collin Gillespie, impressed with 11 first half points, but I was disappointed with Villanova's play; they shot 20 first half threes and only made 4.
Creighton's dance team performed the halftime entertainment. After seeing the Kansas City Disc Dogs in Lincoln, I was a little disappointed.
I checked the Reddit thread for this game between the halves. All the Creighton fans in there were convinced that their team would come out flat without making any adjustments. They were right. Villanova quickly cut the lead to 2, and even though Creighton got back to an 8 point lead at the first media timeout, this felt much more unsafe than it did in the first half. WIth 11:19 left, Creighton was still up by 8 (45-37) and the Bluejay's #13, Christian Bishop, made two big plays in a row. He had a ferocious put-back dunk and scored through a hard foul on back-back possessions, giving a spark to a Creighton squad that lacked momentum. He could only do so much, however, as the Wildcats came back to trail only 52-48 during a timeout with 7:17 left. The crowd started to get restless. The Wildcats continued to play better and, with 3:30 remaining, Villanova hit their first three-point shot of the half to take a 55-54 lead, their first advantage in the game. Creighton answered with a three of their own (only their third of the game) but Villanova came right back and hit another from deep to take the lead back. The Wildcats scored again with just under two minutes left to lead 60-57. Creighton couldn't score but they forced a shot clock violation on defense to give themselves some hope. They just couldn't buy a basket though. Villanova's defensive intensity hampered them in the last minutes of the game. With less than thirty seconds remaining and still trailing by three, Creighton forced a Wildcat miss... but gave up the offensive rebound. This meant they had to foul to stay in the game, but they still had four fouls to give before entering the bonus; nothing was going right for the Bluejays. They finally forced free throws, but Collin Gillespie hit both, effectively ending the game. Creighton played like the better team for about 35 minutes, but they lost by 5.
Final: Villanova 64, Creighton 59
Creighton obviously has a pretty big fanbase as they sold nearly 18,000 tickets to this game. Creighton does not have a football team. Who do these Creighton fans root for during football season? Do they switch allegiances and cheer for Nebraska? Are most of them pro football fans? Omaha's close enough to Iowa, perhaps many of them cheer for one of the Iowa schools? I don't know. If I find out, I'll tell you.
Next up: Doane University
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