Things started well Thursday night. Will Artino’s playing time decreased as Creighton’s weekend at the Wooden Legacy tournament went on, but his basket at the 18:18 mark of the first half against Arizona State gave the Bluejays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the night. The Sun Devils would pull together a few positive spurts in the first half, cutting the CU lead to 6 with 6:37 to go, but ultimately the entire night would belong to Doug McDermott and Devin Brooks.
Leading by 14 at the break, the Bluejays quickly increased their lead over ASU to 21 points and then neutralized a few Sun Devil attempts at a comeback. The Jays would lead by as many as 30 points before ultimately settling for an 88-60 drubbing of the Devils, CU’s second double-digit victory over Herb Sendek’s team in two seasons.
Creighton’s win was a vintage showing of exceptional ball movement and offensive execution, beginning with McDermott. But from my couch, it didn’t seem like Doug was having one of his better games. Crazy how spoiled I’ve become, huh? He missed four of his five three-point attempts against Arizona State but made 7 of 13 attempts from within the arc. Coupled with a perfect 10 for 10 from the free throw line, McDermott led all scorers with 27 points and added 6 rebounds.
Creighton’s star might have shot below 50% from the field, but the team hit at a 53% clip for the game and made nearly half of its three-point attempts (12-25, 48%).
Newcomer Brooks buoyed some of those shooting percentages with a breakthrough performance, going 9 of 11 from the field and making all four of his three-point attempts en route to 23 points. While Austin Chatman was busy relatively locking down ASU stud guard Jahii Carson, Brooks did damage on the offensive end.
The effort against Arizona State would be the highlight of the weekend for Brooks individually and the rest of his teammates as a whole.
From the midway point of the first half against San Diego State through the end of the event Sunday night, the Bluejays struggled. Creighton continued the euphoria of the 28-point win Thursday into the opening minutes of Friday’s game against the SDSU Aztecs. After Jahenns Manigat started the CU scoring with a three-pointer, McDermott collected Creighton’s next 16 points in a flurry unlike most players in the country can conjure.
While most of the hoops fans nationwide who wanted to watch the game saw the end of Florida-Florida State, those savvy enough to switch to ESPN News caught McDermott’s outburst in real time. With 13 minutes to play in the first half, momentum and shooting touch appeared to favor the Bluejays. And then came nearly 16 minutes of game time that turned the tide on the entire weekend.
Behind Xavier Thames (team-high 26 points), the only Aztec around who played against the Jays in front of The Show in November 2011, San Diego State outscored CU 44-13 during the remaining 12 minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second stanza. By the time Greg McDermott could take a timeout, it seemed as though the Bluejays had blown their chance to advance to the title game of the weekend event.
Credit Creighton for working their way back against the Aztecs. Ethan Wragge went to work, hitting two three-pointers to book-end a 10-0 CU run that lowered their deficit to single digits. The Jays and Aztecs would exchange blows, with SDSU keeping a tight grip on their lead as the clock whittled away. And with just less than 5 minutes to go, the Aztecs had a 10-point lead and the ball. But the Bluejays continued to battle, cutting the Aztec lead to 3 four different times in the final 2:31 of the game. The first three times, SDSU answered with makes — first by Shepard, then twice by Thames. But the fourth time CU cut the Aztec lead to 3, the Thames committed a costly offensive foul on an inbounds play, turning over the possession to the Jays.
Steve Fisher’s team was aggressive, a trait that gave them their lead and helped them secure the win. For the Bluejays to have a chance to tie with less than 30 seconds remaining seemed ludicrous considering first 39:30 of the game. But after a long break for officials to sort out something near the scorer’s table, the Bluejays couldn’t capitalize on the SDSU miscue. Instead of attempting from behind the arc and trying to tie the game, Coach Mac and his staff drew up a quick look for Doug. He put the ball on the deck and tried to finish with a layup as he has so many times previously in his college career. But the athletic Aztecs protected the rim, forcing a McDermott miss and then eliminating Grant Gibbs’ second-chance opportunity via a blocked shot. Free throws would seal the deal for SDSU, and the Aztecs would end up winning the Wooden Legacy event Sunday with a win over Creighton’s Big East brethren Marquette.
Whether it was the physical challenging of the Jays on CU’s ill-fated possession down 3 or the repeated drives to the lane on the other end of the court, the Aztecs’ athleticism and length was just too much for the Jays on that particular night. San Diego State shot 20 more free throws than the Jays (31-11) and beat CU on the boards (37-29). Even a season-high 13 three-point makes couldn’t help the Jays overcome SDSU.
All a day off seemed to do was further cool CU’s offense. The Wooden Legacy participants were off Saturday, resuming play Sunday at the Honda Center in Anaheim after a few days of games at the Titan Gym in Fullerton. Somewhere along the freeway the Bluejays misplaced their collective shooting touch.
After shooting 50% or better from the field in their first five games and then hitting 48.4% of their shots against San Diego State, Creighton went excruciatingly cold against George Washington in the consolation game Sunday evening. The Bluejays made just 33.9% of their shots from the field and just 28% of their three-point attempts. For context, the last time Creighton made less than 40% of its shots from the field was against Duke in the third round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament; in fact, CU shot worse than 40% only twice all last season.
The Colonials’ first loss of the season occurred the same day as Creighton’s, when GW suffered a setback against Marquette. Against the Golden Eagles and the Bluejays, George Washington scored 60 points. But Marquette managed to shoot nearly 45% from the field and hit 53% of their three-point attempts, posting a 16-point win Friday.
The Jays surrendered just the 60 points Sunday but couldn’t get much of anything to work on the offensive end. Creighton’s key cog, McDermott, had just 7 points on 2-12 shooting (including an 0-for-5 performance behind the arc) while being defended primarily by Isaiah Armwood. The rest of Creighton’s starters went a combined 10-29 from the field (2 of 10 from long range) against George Washington, leaving the Jays to try to overcome another double-digit deficit in as many games.
Again, applaud the Jays’ efforts to overcome a poor shooting performance. GW opened up a lead in the first half that would grow to as many as 13 points, but the Bluejays remained resilient. Faced with the task of making up for McDermott’s missing offense (his single-digit point production against the Colonials was just the third time since his freshman season he failed to score 10 or more points), the Jays once again relied on Ethan Wragge to help cut the margin quickly.
Wragge played 30 minutes off the bench against George Washington, scoring a team-high 16 points and hitting 4 of his 8 three-point attempts. He scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half; two nights earlier, during Creighton’s frantic comeback attempt versus the Aztecs, Wragge hit five second-half three-pointers en route to 15 points, adding a career-high 9 rebounds against the Colonials.
All the second-half production from Wragge couldn’t make up for McDermott’s struggles. He didn’t make a field goal during the game’s second stanza, settling for three made free throws in 18 second-half minutes. The Bluejays managed to eliminate George Washington’s lead and take a 3-point one of their own, but the Colonials finished the final 3 minutes on a 12-2 run to claim third place in the weekend event.
Instead of heading back to Omaha to get ready for a rivalry game against Nebraska, the Bluejays remain out west. Creighton’s Thanksgiving weekend continues into Tuesday, when the Jays visit Long Beach State. The 49ers (1-7) are down a bit compared to recent seasons, but again are playing an extremely difficult non-conference schedule. With games already against Kansas State (twice), Michigan, VCU, Arizona, and Washington, Dan Monson’s team won’t be phased by McDermott’s visit to Walter Pyramid. Here’s hoping the Jays can return to their winning ways and finish their west coast swing 2-2.
