Solid Win for the Johnnies

       Does it make me less of a college basketball fan in that I was looking more forward to the Creighton/St. John's game last night more than the highly publicized Duke/Syracuse game last week? Of course not. And both games did not disappoint. Fine, if you're a blue jays or blue devils fan you probably wouldn't agree. This game peaked my interest for many reasons, mainly though, to see how St. John's would respond after losing to Creighton 63-60 a few weeks back in Omaha. The first half, in my opinion was probably the most entertaining half of college basketball I have watched all year. The fluidity was impeccable. 3 turnovers combined after the first half. Smarts. Defense. Hustle. Execution. Gee whiz, I'm sitting there watching the first half and loving every bit of it. That first half was truly a pleasure to watch. It was Creighton's first time at the "mecca" and they embraced it. But then something happened in the second half. Perhaps Lavin's methods or perhaps St. John's confidence. That was something I didn't notice in the 3 point loss by the Johnnie's in Omaha. St. John's prevailed 70-65 and this win clearly had to be important. Creighton, not so much. They still are a great team to be reckoned with. It was much a building block for Creighton as it was for St. John's. What struck me was Creighton's below par free throw percentage, McDermott not scoring a single point the final 8 or so minutes, and the refusal of Wragge. Wragge went 1 for 4 from the field. I saw a headline that read, "St. John's Shocks Creighton", proving not only the that headlines are headlines but also that anyone with a clue knows this couldn't be farther from the truth. With the exception of the blowout loss to Georgetown, the Johnnies haven't not been "uncompetitive". St. John's, in answer to my previous blog certainly embraced the challenge and must continue on this way if they want to play in the NCAA's. Creighton will have some fine tuning to do because they still are a dynamic team that has all the ingredients to get to the Final Four.