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Creighton wraps up an eight-day stretch Saturday that could define — or at least refine — how the Bluejays' 2011-12 season is ultimately remembered.

A week ago, Creighton was soaring. The Bluejays had won 11 straight games, including a 102-74 pasting of Illinois State on Feb. 1. They were inching toward a top-10 ranking, both in the polls and the RPI. The guys who forecast March Madness had Creighton a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Then came back-to-back road losses to Northern Iowa and Evansville that knocked the Bluejays out of first place in the Missouri Valley Conference and caused some of the national experts to express some doubts about Creighton's résumé. The Bluejays haven't dipped to bubble status but their margin for error is shrinking.

The beauty of the long college basketball season is that redemption can be but a game away. Creighton gets its chance Saturday when rival Wichita State visits CenturyLink Center for a 4:05 p.m. game.

The Shockers enter the game playing well. The Bluejays are struggling. It's basically the same scenario the teams faced 42 days ago, when Creighton traveled to Wichita State.

"We had lost to Missouri State and people were kind of down on us, saying that was a must-win for us," Creighton forward Doug McDermott said. "We're going to have to have that same kind of mentality (Saturday)."

Creighton, which had opened conference play with that home loss to Missouri State, handled Wichita State 68-61 on New Year's Eve. That started the Bluejays on the 11-game winning streak that left them with 21 victories on the first day of February.

A win Saturday would lift Creighton back into a first-place tie with the Shockers and give the Bluejays an inside track to the No 1 seed at next month's conference tournament. A loss makes the road to the NCAA tourney a bit more treacherous.

It's a big-stakes game. What it isn't, Creighton guard Grant Gibbs said, is a make-or-break game.

"You can't think of it that way," he said. "It's a big game for us, but the mentality we've had all year has been next game, next possession, next practice. If we keep that mentality, we'll be fine."

Creighton and Wichita State each bring 21-4 records into the showdown. Each has lost two games in a row once this season, but the Shockers' two came in mid-November when slip-ups are more excusable.

The Bluejays' back-to-back losses came on a buzzer-beater last Saturday at Northern Iowa and Tuesday in Evansville, when Creighton melted down in the stretch run. Creighton's highly efficient offense scored just nine points in the final 12 minutes, putting additional pressure on its defense.

"We didn't have that many more defensive mistakes than we've had in other games," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said, "but when you're not making shots, things get magnified."

It might be too simplistic to say all of Creighton's problems the past two games come down to missing shots. Then again, it might be that simple.

A team that has led the nation in 3-point shooting most of the season hit 5 of 16 from beyond the arc against Northern Iowa. In the 65-57 loss to Evansville, the Bluejays misfired on 18 of 22 shots from 3-point range.

Creighton's most reliable shooters are suddenly missing in action.

"Different individuals have not shot it well at times this season but we've been able to overcome that," Creighton assistant Steve Merfeld said. "We've just hit a slump when all of our shooters have not made shots."

Meanwhile, Wichita State's confidence got a big boost in Wednesday's 82-57 win against Northern Iowa. After shooting 30.4 percent from 3-point range in their previous five games, the Shockers made 12 of 19 (63.2 percent) from beyond the arc against the Panthers.

Greg McDermott said if the Shockers repeat that effort Saturday, they could be tough to beat as Garrett Stutz and Carl Hall give Wichita State a solid inside punch.

"They have all the pieces," the Jays' coach said. "They can beat you off the dribble, they can shoot the 3 and they have two guys inside that can score on the block. And then they can throw that smaller lineup at you that's tough to match up against."

Creighton's success has been built around the effectiveness of its inside-outside attack, with Doug McDermott and Gregory Echenique handling things in and around the paint and various shooters on the perimeter.

The fact that the Bluejays are coming off the only back-to-back games in which they failed to make at least 33 percent of their outside shots doesn't shake their confidence.

"We're not in a position right now where we can start doubting what we've done," Gibbs said. "We have to stick together as a team and get back to doing the things we've been doing all year.

"We've hit a little rough spot here, and bottom line is that we haven't played well these last two games. In this league, especially on the road, if you don't play well, if you don't execute, you're going to get beat."

The Bluejays have been loose and focused in practice the past two days. They appeared unencumbered by the external forces, the claims that this might be the biggest game Creighton has ever played at Omaha's 9-year-old arena or how a season might be on the line against the Shockers.

The players paid little attention to the praise heaped on them when things were going well, Doug McDermott said. They're taking the same approach now that a segment of their fan base in gripping with the Shockers coming to town.

"We haven't looked at the outside rankings and let that stuff get to our heads," he said. "We know we haven't been playing very well these last couple of games, but we're still the same team. We just have to get our confidence back."

Contact the writer:

402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

twitter.com/PivOWH

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• Video: See a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot to create the image on The World-Herald's special pregame Creighton basketball cover:

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