Basketball: Stinnett hopes for next step

P'Allen Stinnett has reached the point in his Creighton basketball career where walking the walk outweighs talking the talk.

His coaches and teammates are looking for the talented but tempestuous junior guard to make the next steps physically and mentally in his on-court development. Stinnett, too, is eager to put a sometimes rocky past behind him and focus on fulfilling the potential that made him one of Creighton's most highly regarded recruits.

“My freshman year was a blast, but I wasn't very happy, from an individual standpoint, in how my sophomore year went,'' Stinnett said. “We were able to accomplish some great things as a team, but it could have been better.

“I need to focus on becoming a more complete player, a more consistent player. I need to become much more of a leader.''

In order to do that, the 6-foot-3 Stinnett must harness the emotions that have sometimes stunted his growth. He was whistled for four technical fouls as a freshman and three more as a sophomore. A locker room incident after a loss to Arkansas-Little Rock last November led to him having to sit out the Nebraska game. Another blowup during a loss at the Missouri Valley tournament had several teammates livid.

Stinnett said he's working to rein in his emotions. Justin Carter, who is emerging as a team leader, said Stinnett's attitude and work ethic during Creighton's summer conditioning program has been good. Still, that didn't keep Carter from getting upset when Stinnett walked out of a recent session of pick-up games.

“That's one of the first times he's acted like that,'' said Carter, who is Stinnett's roommate. “That bothered me, especially with him being one of the top players on this team and a guy we need to become a leader for us.

“That stuff carries over, and I'll talk to him about that. I don't think that's good for one of our leaders to do that.''

The rest of the Bluejays played for an hour after Stinnett left the gym. Stinnett said he made a quick exit because of what he perceived as a lack of overall effort.

“We don't have to be here, so I figure that if we are here, it's important to get something out of it,'' Stinnett said. “If we're going to goof around in open gym, I'll just go to the locker room and watch the flat screen.''

Isolated incident or a continuing pattern? The regular season doesn't begin for another four months. A June blowup could mean very little when things get serious. Or could it?

Creighton coach Dana Altman has emphasized to all his players the need for improvement this summer in order to avoid having next season end as last season did. As Stinnett pointed out, the Bluejays recorded some notable accomplishments last season — their 27 wins were the second highest total in school history and they won a share of the Missouri Valley title for the first time since 2002.

But Creighton narrowly missed out on making it to the NCAA tournament, and its National Invitation Tournament run ended in a two-point, second-round loss on its homecourt to Kentucky.

Altman would like Stinnett to funnel his passion in the right direction.

“But if you lined up all of our players, you might be able to say the same thing,'' Altman said. “‘P' has a long ways to go in a lot of areas in order to make the jump he wants to make and the jump we feel he's capable of making. Controlling his emotions is just one of those areas.''

Creighton fans have seen what Stinnett is capable of producing when focused. He became the first freshman in more than a decade to lead the team in scoring during the 2007-08 season. He opened last season with a virtuoso performance, scoring a career-high 30 points in a dramatic comeback win over New Mexico.

He also had a 29-point game against Southern Illinois and four others in which he scored 18 or more. He also had a half dozen games in which he scored five points or fewer.

He finished with a 12.5 scoring average, down a tenth-of-a-point per game from his freshman average. He shot better from 3-point range as a sophomore but poorer overall. He cut his turnovers by 15 last season while playing more minutes. His assists were down slightly, as was his rebounding average.

Some of the inconsistencies were due to his playing with torn cartilage in his right knee and a hernia for most of the second half of last season. He underwent surgery after the season to repair both injuries, and he said he's now healthy.

The operations did force Stinnett to miss the first part of the offseason conditioning program.

“I wouldn't say I necessarily missed out but I just got a late start,'' Stinnett said. “I've been back for 3½ weeks. I had to start out with lighter weights, but right now I'm caught up and doing most of the same things that the rest of the guys are doing.

“We all know it's important that we get stronger in the offseason.''

Stinnett said he's also working on building his inner strength, although he's less certain how to accomplish that feat. He knows he can sometimes be his own worst enemy, yet he also realizes what has gotten him to this level.

“Once I step into that rectangle, it's a whole different mindset,'' Stinnett said. “I'm not the same P'Allen off the court that people see on the court. When I'm in that rectangle, I take it as a job and I take it very seriously.

“I pretty much already have built a reputation, and it doesn't bother me what I'm portrayed as. I feel like I bring a lot of excitement to the game, and some people don't know how to take that. They take it as a negative. I guess I have to find some other way to channel that.''

As he approaches the midpoint of his career, Stinnett already is wrestling with questions about his legacy. Some observers touted him as having the potential to be one of Creighton's best players ever when he stepped onto campus.

He has flirted in his first two seasons with that line that separates good players from great ones. Can he cross over it in his final two seasons?

“It's getting to where it's make-it-or-break-it time,'' Stinnett said. “That's why I'm more passionate about the game, why I'm going to be more emotional. I really want this, not just for myself, but for my teammates as well.''

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com