When the Jays take the court against Rhode Island Friday, they will represent the 20th team in Creighton program history to appear in the NCAA Tournament. This will be Creighton's fourth appearance in the last sixth years.
The Jays have only been to the Sweet 16 three times. Those appearances came in 1962, 1964 and 1974, which came long before the tournament was expanded to 64 teams. Creighton made the Elite Eight during the 1941 season as well.
The Jays really began churning out NCAA tournament appearances with the help of Creighton's all-time leading scorer Rodney Buford and the emergence of Kyle Korver in 2000. Buford led the 1998-99 Jays team to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after claiming the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title.
In 2000, Kyle Korver won the MVC Newcomer of the Year award and helped the Jays to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances. However, the only year Creighton was able to make it out of the first round was in 2002 when Terrell Taylor nailed a three-point buzzer beater over Florida.
The Nate Funk-led Bluejays made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2005 and 2007, but couldn't make it out of the first round. When Greg McDermott took over the team in 2010-11, McDermott and his son Doug led Creighton to three straight NCAA tournament appearances.
Creighton advanced to the second round in 2012, 2013 and 2014 only to get bounced by a higher seed each time. In 2012, the Jays suffered an 87-73 loss to North Carolina in the second round. In 2013, Creighton was bounced by Duke after a 66-50 loss, and again in 2014 by Baylor after an 85-55 trouncing.
This Jays team will try to do something that no modern-day Creighton team has done: advance to the Sweet 16. However, Creighton will have to overcome a tough 11 seed matchup with Rhode Island and an inevitable meeting with former head coach Dana Altman's Oregon Ducks in the second round to do so.
