There is never a good time to play Creighton in a Missouri Valley Conference basketball game.
But tonight might be an even worse time for Illinois State in a 7:05 contest at the Qwest Center for several reasons.
Revenge is the biggest one.
The Redbirds knocked off the Bluejays just five days ago, 53-50, on Dana Ford's 40-foot basket with less than one second remaining at Redbird Arena.
"We were pretty down when he hit it," Creighton junior guard Nick Porter said in an Omaha television station interview Wednesday. "We know we have to come out and play hard because we're not about to let the game come down to that again."
Creighton also received the dreaded news Wednesday that all-conference senior guard Nate Funk will undergo surgery today on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum and will miss the remainder of the season.
Funk, who was one of the top returning players in the league, will apply for a medical redshirt to regain his final year of eligibility next season after playing in six games this year. He scored 13 points in Saturday's game at ISU.
The Redbirds have injuries, too.
Freshman guard Brandon Holtz suffered a bruised right knee in practice Wednesday morning and couldn't practice later in the day. MRI results were negative, but ISU coach Porter Moser said the 6-foot-4 Holtz is questionalbe to play tonight.
Also, Moser doesn't expect to have 6-8 freshman center Dinma Odiakosa available for a second straight game. Odiakosa suffered a sprained right ankle in Saturday's game against Creighton.
"That really hurts our depth on the inside from a defensive standpoint," said Moser. "Dinma gave us some very good minutes on defense against Creighton."
Sophomores Levi Dyer and Ronnie Carwell or freshman Mike Vandello could be in the starting lineup for Odiakosa.
ISU is looking to bounce back from a 60-47 loss at Northern Iowa on Monday. Creighton is in the midst of a two-game losing streak following its bus tour through Central Illinois with stops at Illinois State and Bradley.
"There isn't much time to straighten out some of the problems we've run into," said Creighton coach Dana Altman, whose team is 7-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference. ISU is 6-5 and 1-2, respectively.
"I'm not sure how we'll respond," said Altman about playing ISU again so quickly. "It's just kind of a quirk in the schedule. Hopefully, our guy's competitiveness will come out. We didn't have a good road trip. We need to get back home and get some things put together."
The Bluejays are undefeated in six home games this year and have a 31-7 record in the three-year history of the Qwest Center. ISU was one of the few teams to defeat Creighton on its home court, 82-77, in overtime a year ago.
Moser remembers his thoughts when the conference schedule was released.
"My first thought was 'what did I do against the conference?' " said Moser of having to play Creighton and Northern Iowa, the top two teams in the preseason conference poll, each twice in a 15-day time frame. "It's crazy how the schedule turned out this year, but that's part of it.
"(Beating Creighton five days ago) works both ways. I know Dana would have had his team sky high win or lose because they are veteran, winning program and he knows every game counts. With the quick turn-around, you are somewhat familar with them.
"But ideally it's not what you want. I know Creighton will come out fired up after a tough road trip and be ready to get back in the conference race."
Valley commissioner Doug Elgin said the quirk in the schedule came because the league had to compact the grid to accommodate an earlier start to the conference postseason tournament.
"To the fans, the media and the teams, the conference office looks like a bunch of idiots," admitted Elgin. "We call these mirror games and they are probably the biggest flaw in our schedules.
"We look nuts, but it's something we have to do at times. I think if you study each school's journey through the regular season, we've got schedules that are about as balanced as we possibly could get given the distortions and flaws we have to deal with. There are so many factors in putting together a schedule, especially when you're dealing with public arenas."
ISU was able to beat the Bluejays at Redbird Arena because it didn't allow any second-chance points from offensive rebounds, it kept the Bluejays off the foul line, and kept its turnovers to a minimum.
"We have to do all of those things again," said Moser. "We'll have to play much better than we did at Northern Iowa. Our offense has to be better. Against Creighton, Neil (Plank) and Dana (Ford) both had good shooting nights. We have to have those guys make shots again.
"We don't have the scorers we had last year, but we feel we have a chance because we can defend and try to grind things out. We didn't react well after our win against Creighton. We were on point against Creighton, but then we played at Northern Iowa like we were going to roll them out.
"We're not that type of team. We have to play harder, play smarter, be more aggressive, be hungrier and compete to have a chance to win."
MVC drops three spots in RPI
The Missouri Valley Conference slipped from second to fifth in the RPI rankings after Monday's games. The Big Ten is first, followed by the Big East, ACC and SEC.
But tonight might be an even worse time for Illinois State in a 7:05 contest at the Qwest Center for several reasons.
Revenge is the biggest one.
The Redbirds knocked off the Bluejays just five days ago, 53-50, on Dana Ford's 40-foot basket with less than one second remaining at Redbird Arena.
"We were pretty down when he hit it," Creighton junior guard Nick Porter said in an Omaha television station interview Wednesday. "We know we have to come out and play hard because we're not about to let the game come down to that again."
Creighton also received the dreaded news Wednesday that all-conference senior guard Nate Funk will undergo surgery today on his left shoulder to repair a torn labrum and will miss the remainder of the season.
Funk, who was one of the top returning players in the league, will apply for a medical redshirt to regain his final year of eligibility next season after playing in six games this year. He scored 13 points in Saturday's game at ISU.
The Redbirds have injuries, too.
Freshman guard Brandon Holtz suffered a bruised right knee in practice Wednesday morning and couldn't practice later in the day. MRI results were negative, but ISU coach Porter Moser said the 6-foot-4 Holtz is questionalbe to play tonight.
Also, Moser doesn't expect to have 6-8 freshman center Dinma Odiakosa available for a second straight game. Odiakosa suffered a sprained right ankle in Saturday's game against Creighton.
"That really hurts our depth on the inside from a defensive standpoint," said Moser. "Dinma gave us some very good minutes on defense against Creighton."
Sophomores Levi Dyer and Ronnie Carwell or freshman Mike Vandello could be in the starting lineup for Odiakosa.
ISU is looking to bounce back from a 60-47 loss at Northern Iowa on Monday. Creighton is in the midst of a two-game losing streak following its bus tour through Central Illinois with stops at Illinois State and Bradley.
"There isn't much time to straighten out some of the problems we've run into," said Creighton coach Dana Altman, whose team is 7-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference. ISU is 6-5 and 1-2, respectively.
"I'm not sure how we'll respond," said Altman about playing ISU again so quickly. "It's just kind of a quirk in the schedule. Hopefully, our guy's competitiveness will come out. We didn't have a good road trip. We need to get back home and get some things put together."
The Bluejays are undefeated in six home games this year and have a 31-7 record in the three-year history of the Qwest Center. ISU was one of the few teams to defeat Creighton on its home court, 82-77, in overtime a year ago.
Moser remembers his thoughts when the conference schedule was released.
"My first thought was 'what did I do against the conference?' " said Moser of having to play Creighton and Northern Iowa, the top two teams in the preseason conference poll, each twice in a 15-day time frame. "It's crazy how the schedule turned out this year, but that's part of it.
"(Beating Creighton five days ago) works both ways. I know Dana would have had his team sky high win or lose because they are veteran, winning program and he knows every game counts. With the quick turn-around, you are somewhat familar with them.
"But ideally it's not what you want. I know Creighton will come out fired up after a tough road trip and be ready to get back in the conference race."
Valley commissioner Doug Elgin said the quirk in the schedule came because the league had to compact the grid to accommodate an earlier start to the conference postseason tournament.
"To the fans, the media and the teams, the conference office looks like a bunch of idiots," admitted Elgin. "We call these mirror games and they are probably the biggest flaw in our schedules.
"We look nuts, but it's something we have to do at times. I think if you study each school's journey through the regular season, we've got schedules that are about as balanced as we possibly could get given the distortions and flaws we have to deal with. There are so many factors in putting together a schedule, especially when you're dealing with public arenas."
ISU was able to beat the Bluejays at Redbird Arena because it didn't allow any second-chance points from offensive rebounds, it kept the Bluejays off the foul line, and kept its turnovers to a minimum.
"We have to do all of those things again," said Moser. "We'll have to play much better than we did at Northern Iowa. Our offense has to be better. Against Creighton, Neil (Plank) and Dana (Ford) both had good shooting nights. We have to have those guys make shots again.
"We don't have the scorers we had last year, but we feel we have a chance because we can defend and try to grind things out. We didn't react well after our win against Creighton. We were on point against Creighton, but then we played at Northern Iowa like we were going to roll them out.
"We're not that type of team. We have to play harder, play smarter, be more aggressive, be hungrier and compete to have a chance to win."
MVC drops three spots in RPI
The Missouri Valley Conference slipped from second to fifth in the RPI rankings after Monday's games. The Big Ten is first, followed by the Big East, ACC and SEC.
