Creighton Breakdown
March 18, 2005 02:11 AM | General
Thursday, March 17, 2005
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CLEVELAND -- During the key sequence at the end of the game when Tyrone Sally had the terrific defensive play with the block of Nate Funk’s shot and the slam-dunk basket with 2.4 seconds left was the time Creighton went dead, Creighton completely dropped down and didn’t make any adjustments and rotations.
When Sally got a piece of the ball his momentum carried him past Funk and he was already in transition before the all even reached Kevin Pittsnogle’s hands. Then the solid big play was Pittsnogle reading the play, catching it and his ability to outlet the pass to Gansey at midcourt was huge. That beat anybody from Creighton who was standing around.
When you are in tournament play and you think about how evenly matched these teams were easy baskets, along with foul shooting, will usually decide the game and nothing could come any easier than that break away for Sally.
But what a credit to Creighton which hit a rough spot midway though the first half but really got it going in the second half and made an outstanding basketball game out of it. When you look at the stat sheet you see two pretty closely matched basketball teams.
West Virginia’s ability to make foul shots down the stretch was critical because I don’t remember Creighton getting to the line that much compared to the amount of free throws West Virginia attempted.
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| John Beilein celebrates his 500th career victory with the West Virginia fans during the Mountaineers' 63-61 win over Creighton at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
You can say, well Creighton had the basketball for enough time late in the game and they didn’t manage the clock that well. But I thought West Virginia on the defensive end made the plays they had to make. Creighton couldn’t get the ball in, Altman had to call a time out. He comes back out of it and there’s still a couple of seconds left to get the ball to Funk. He slips and we were all over him. And then Funk still gets up and gets up for a good look and then the rest is history.
J.D. Collins had seven assists in this game and ran the point and made some key free throws down the stretch when the Mountaineers needed them. You have to have good point play in the tournament and J.D. has stepped up these last two weeks and has really delivered.
I think the one thing the people in West Virginia need to do is to respect Creighton because they are a solid basketball program with a wonderful basketball coach in Dana Altman. Respect what West Virginia did here tonight to beat Dana Altman’s program – they have been to the NCAA tournament including six out of the last seven years under Altman. Forget the conferences and just remember what a great game you were able to see.
Now West Virginia has to recover and get ready for an outstanding Wake Forest team on Saturday night.
