Uncharitable stripe does in Jays...again

What's amazing is not that Creighton--previous winners of three straight, team on the come, people talking long-shot at-large bid if the chips fell right--lost to last place Evansville. What is amazing is that it's the exact same story as all but two of the other Jay losses on the year.

Free throws. That's what it is and somewhere in Omaha a 7th grade basketball coach looking for a popular example to use with his team is rubbing his hands devilishly.

Creighton has now lost seven games this season. Below are the scores for four of those losses followed by their opponents FTM-FTA:

• 2/19 CU 56 Evansville 60: 30-32
• 1/30 CU 65 Drake 75: 15-16
• 1/22 CU 60 Drake 68: 17-18
• 12/5 CU 66 XU 79: 18-20

That's four losses and six missed free throws combined for the Jays opponents. On the season, Creighton's opponents are shooting 72.6% from the line. In the four losses above, CU's opposition show an otherworldly, the Gods must be angry, 93.0%. If you take all seven losses into account, the opposition has shot 79.0%, more than six percentage points over the season average for all Creighton's games and a mark that would rank as the best in the country.

Basically, when Creighton has lost they've lost to the best free throw shooting team in the country. That's what we're looking at.

Of course, the Jays aren't completely blameless here. In those infamous four losses from above the Jays went 26-41, 63.4%, which ranks nearly eight percentage points below their season average.

So what do you do? I don't know. I guess you just hope Creighton doesn't have one of those bad outings while their opponent flirts with a no-hitter in the MVC tourney as that looks like the only path to the post season at this point.

But enough about free-throw percentage. Even that junior high basketball coach who is preaching the importance of making your free throw to impressionable youngsters now will one day get a varsity or JV job and start bitching at the refs about foul disparity.

Maybe Jays fans should start there. C'mon, ref!