NCAA Basketball: Creighton’s fall, Mountain West success among biggest takeaways

We’re more than a month into another thrilling season of NCAA basketball and a lot has happened in recent weeks. Today’s edition of Loose Change, my two cents into recent college basketball happenings, will look closely at a number of different topics, including recent games, the rise of a few conferences, a closer look at some of the nation’s best freshmen, and a few quick notes on the situation at Texas. Let’s get right into the action!

1. The fall of Creighton

Let’s go back in time just about nine months. The Bluejays put forth a valiant effort in the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Kansas, the eventual national champions. Just two days earlier, they took down a strong San Diego State team in overtime, albeit losing Ryan Kalkbrenner in the process. With a team loaded with young talent, Creighton would bring back Kalkbrenner, Arthur Kaluma, Trey Alexander, and more pieces back for next season.

Now let’s go back in time just about three weeks. Creighton has gotten off to a 6-0 start and look the part of a top team in the nation, having just beaten ranked Texas Tech and Arkansas squads in the Maui Invitational. In the Wednesday night final, the Bluejays would fall in a close contest, losing to Arizona by two points, while seemingly proving that they actually were one of the best college basketball teams.

But now we fast forward to current day and things are not looking great in Omaha. Creighton’s most recent win remains that semifinal victory over Arkansas, with the Bluejays now running off five straight losses. Their loss at Texas was forgivable, but following that up with a home loss to Nebraska was unacceptable. Neutral-site losses to BYU and Arizona State have followed this past week and Creighton’s brilliant season now sits at just 6-5 and far outside the Top 25 rankings.

A combination of things has gone wrong for Creighton. The interior offense has been poor in recent weeks, with abhorrent shooting throughout this losing streak. They allowed the Sun Devils to hit too many outside shots, while offense was to blame for that fiasco against the Cornhuskers. There is no doubt that the Bluejays are trending in the wrong direction and certainly don’t look like a Big East favorite any more, but there’s still hope. They do still have this young talented team, they’re just going to need more consistency, especially from shooters like Nembhard and Baylor Scheierman, who have both shown flashes of brilliance.