Snap Reaction: Saint Joseph's

I'm an optimist at heart, and games like this make me glad for that. In a noon road game halfway across the country against a very good team with a penetrating point guard and an athletic frontcourt, a game in which their shots weren't falling and the Joes were getting every roll, a game in which the officials were as inconsistent as you'll see (and didn't seem to understand simple concepts like "charging" and "travelling"), the Jays were still within 6 points with over a minute to go.

Think about that. A game in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and Creighton easily could have won it.

So yes, there is lots of work to do, but let's not react to a few raindrops by saying the sky is falling. Saint Joseph's is a team that seemed expressly constructed to beat the Jays. They have a lightning-quick point guard, Taye Jones, who penetrated at will (despite some good defense at times from Jahenns Manigat). They have tons of size in the post, and a hidden gem in sixth man Ronald Roberts. All we heard about prior to the game was Aiken and his blocks, but Roberts is a legitimate stud in the making. He swatted Greg and Doug like it was nothing. He unleashed some slick moves with his back to the basket. Oh yeah, and he threw down an insane monster dunk that you'll surely see on Posterized soon enough.

Every team has bad games over the course of a long season. Creighton today was sloppy on offense and lackadaisical on defense, with a certain lack of effort on the boards, something we haven't seen this year. This team will need to find a way to hold its own down low, and it has to figure out a way to contain the dribble-drive. These are the kinds of things that any elite team invariably is tested on, and it's good that the Jays got one such test this early in the year, particularly with the lack of bite from teams like Iowa and UAB.

The Jays were not going undefeated this year. They probably weren't going to stay in the Top 25 all year. But they're still undefeated in Missouri Valley play, and they're still on track for the NCAAs. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.