Men's Basketball

Ott’s Thoughts: #17 Creighton 81, Southern Illinois 51

Ott's Thoughts Presented by State Farm -- Talk to Bluejay Alum Grant MussmanI wonder what Brody Deren was thinking as he sat courtside next to T. Scott Marr Sunday night.

Deren, a former Creighton star, accompanied the Jays for the game in Carbondale, sharing his expertise while doing color analysis next to Marr on the radio broadcast of Creighton’s 81-51 win over Southern Illinois.

The 30-point thrashing of the Salukis gave the Bluejays a 10th straight win against SIU, with the average margin of victory during that stretch a whopping 14 points per game.

Sunday’s victory was Creighton’s fifth straight win in Carbondale. Deren saw a much different SIU Arena during his three seasons at CU. His Creighton teams beat SIU three times, but two of those victories came in St. Louis (2002, 2003) and the other happened at the Civic Auditorium (2002). Deren’s Jays went 0-3 in Carbondale, running into a Salukis team that went to NCAA Tournaments every season Deren was at Creighton.

I can’t speak for the big man, but I’m not sure Deren nor I would have believed you 10 years ago if you said Creighton would post 10 straight wins over SIU, 5 of which coming in Carbondale, in the coming seasons.

A few other thoughts while eagerly anticipating some CU home games this week:

It was great to see Jahenns Manigat get back on track. Entering Sunday’s game, it had been nearly two weeks since Manigat had made a field goal. The junior guard always plays tireless defense. But he was 0-4 against both Wichita State and Drake (CU lost both games). He needed some shots to fall.

Twenty-six minutes of court time later, Manigat had made all four of his field goal attempts against Southern Illinois. All four makes were from behind the three-point arc, too, giving Manigat 12 points (his highest output since scoring 13 points and 11 points in consecutive games in early January).

The same goes for Ethan Wragge. In his previous four games, the junior three-point threat was 5-18 from deep. Sunday night Wragge hit 4 of 8 threes, nearly matching his output during those previous four games. Wragge, like Manigat, scored 12 points, all on shots from long range.

When the Bluejays establish ownership of the frontcourt on offense, things open up for shooters such as Manigat and Wragge. And despite his recent scoring outburst, Grant Gibbs is still a pass-first conduit in the offense. The same goes for Austin Chatman. Guys like Manigat and Wragge must knock down open perimeter jump shots, or opponents won’t have to sag off of Doug McDermott and Gregory Echenique to guard the arc.

Missing open three-pointers throws the cosmic balance of Creighton basketball off kilter. Manigat and Wragge reclaimed their shooting touches in Carbondale; here’s hoping the makes continue against Missouri State Wednesday.

There wasn’t a lot to pick a nit about Sunday night. The Jays shot 63% from the field, 60% from behind the arc, and 73% from the charity stripe. CU decimated SIU on the boards, 39-19. The Jays assisted on 20 of 29 made field goals.

Individually, the CU starters accomplished a lot of good things while getting some much needed bench time (no starter played more than 28 minutes). McDermott had a scarily efficient night, even for him: 21 points on 13 field goal attempts (9 makes), 10 rebounds, 28 minutes. Echenique played just 19 minutes but posted a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds) while missing just one shot from the field. Chatman didn’t score much (2 points) but handled his point guard duties well, dishing 6 assists (to just 3 turnovers) while adding a couple of steals. And Gibbs didn’t miss a shot, going a perfect 5-5 from the field, 1-1 from behind the arc, and 2-2 from the free throw line. He added 6 assists, too.

But…17 turnovers?! Six minutes into the game, Creighton had already committed five turnovers. That’s, um, not a great pace. Sure, the Jays straightened things out and didn’t commit any more turnovers until the last 4 minutes of the first half. And yes, the Jays managed to head to the locker room up 18 after 20 minutes.

But, when the second half started, the miscues continued. Creighton turned it over four more times in the first 5 minutes. Again, I understand that during all of this nitpicking, the Bluejays kept building on their lead. But just how bad could the final score been had the Bluejays not matched their season high in turnovers?

In a game that saw Creighton’s subs see more minutes than usual, the starters were the ones coughing the ball up (Avery Dingman was the only CU bench player to commit a turnover).

Again, I realize this is overreacting. But that’s what blogs are for, right?

Interesting statistic: entering Sunday’s game, Gibbs hadn’t committed more than 4 turnovers in a game while at Creighton. He committed 8 against the Salukis, which he nearly offset with his 6 assists. Sunday’s win marked just the second time this season (and seventh time in 56 career games at CU) that Gibbs recorded more turnovers than assists in a game. It didn’t matter, though.

Just how spoiled am I and the rest of Creighton’s fans with the exceptional play by Gibbs during the past season-plus? In 56 career games at CU, Gibbs has 303 assists (5 per game) and 113 turnovers (2 per game).

If Gibbs maintains his 5 dimes per game average, he will pass Nate Funk (323 assists) for 10th place on Creighton’s all-time assists list by the middle of February. Not too bad for a guy who has played less than two full seasons at CU.

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