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Records: CU 21-5, 11-4; SIU 8-18, 5-10
TV: KMTV Radio: 590 AM KXSP
Butler's basketball team lost three straight games a year ago in a span of 11 days in late January and early February.
The Bulldogs ended up playing for the national championship.
Connecticut's basketball team lost three of four games at a similar point in the season. The Huskies wound up winning the national title.
That's not to suggest that Creighton — a loser of its last three games over eight days — is bound for the Final Four. The way the Bluejays played in Saturday's 89-68 loss to Wichita State would pose problems in trying to make the last four of the College Basketball Invitational.
But the turnarounds Butler and Connecticut made in the final two months of last season might come in handy for the Bluejays, demonstrating how teams can turn potential disastrous developments into speed bumps.
"We have to stay the course,'' Creighton guard Jahenns Manigat said. "I remember an analyst on ESPN said earlier this year that in a 30-game season you have five games where you play really well, five games where you don't play well at all and the other 20 are the ones that you just have to find ways to pull out.
"We have had a successful season, and we can't get away from the things that brought us success. Now is not the time to hang our heads or look for miraculous answers because it's been there all year. We know what we have to do and we know how to win.''
Creighton won 21 of its first 23 games, including 11 of its first 12 Missouri Valley contests to sit alone atop the conference. Then came the buzzer-beating shot that led to a three-point loss at Northern Iowa and a late meltdown that allowed Evansville to post an eight-point win.
A win over Wichita State would have put Creighton back into a tie for first. Instead, the Shockers overwhelmed the Bluejays in handing Creighton its worst home loss since 1995 and put a two-game bulge between the teams with three games to play.
"Wichita played like a championship team,'' Creighton forward Doug McDermott said. "They came in and did what they had to do. They took advantage of every mistake we made.''
And the Bluejays made a lot of them.
"We basically beat ourselves,'' McDermott said.
The obvious question now becomes: Where does a team that showed flashes of brilliance in its first 23 games go from here? The first stop is Carbondale, Ill., and a Tuesday night game against Southern Illinois.
The Bluejays finish the regular season with Saturday's BracketBusters game against Long Beach State, a Feb. 21 home game against Evansville and a Feb. 25 visit to Indiana State.
Right the ship, and it might not be necessary to sweep three games in St. Louis in order to reach the NCAA tournament. Another slip or two, and the only avenue available to earn a spot in the 68-team field might be to claim the Missouri Valley tournament champion's automatic berth.
"I know a lot of people think our balloon's been popped,'' Manigat said. "It's a long season and every team goes through these kind of things. This just happens to be ours, and now it's a question of how we deal with it.
"The next couple of days are really going to be key, and we have to get ready to get back out there and compete.''
Manigat disagrees with the contention that while the balloon is still intact, it has lost some of its air.
"People on the outside might think that way, that we're slowly deflating,'' he said. "To us, we know what we have to do to get back to where we want to be. We have to do everything we can to do that.''
Teammate Grant Gibbs talked after the Wichita State game about how this is a team that needs a greater sense of urgency. The Bluejays didn't do much to alter their approach after the losses to Northern Iowa and Evansville.
The smack in the mouth that Wichita State laid on Creighton has to result in changing a mind-set that once appeared to rely heavily on making shots and outscoring opponents. Much of the lack of success in the past three games can be traced back to the Bluejays' offensive struggles.
"But we're a tougher group of guys to miss a few shots and all of a sudden we're not playing defense and rebounding,'' Gibbs said. "That's what's as disappointing as anything, that we're not tough enough to suck it up if we're missing a couple of shots and make other stuff happen.
"There are going to be nights when they (shots) don't fall, and you have to find a way to win. We haven't done anything in that nature in the last three games.''
Center Gregory Echenique agreed. When the Bluejays' offense sputtered against the Shockers, Creighton couldn't bow up on defense. Instead, the Bluejays did little to keep Wichita State from getting the shots it wanted, when it wanted them.
"We have to show we can guard, it's just that simple,'' Echenique said. "When we let them drive right by us, they're going to keep right on doing that. We have to figure out ways to stop that.
"We have to watch film. We have a quick turnaround, playing again on Tuesday. We have to find a way to change what we're doing.''
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