On Sunday afternoon, Creighton opened up their exhibition slate with an 81-42 drubbing of Rockhurst. The arena’s conversion to CenturyLink Center is not yet complete — the exterior signs are still temporary banners, many of the interior fixtures still bear the Qwest Center logo — but the price hikes on concessions were very much complete. $7 for a beer, up from $6. $8 for a basket of chicken strips and fries, up from $7.50. $4.75 for a large soda, up from $4.25. Mini donuts, funnel cakes, and pizza also were higher. It was very much a topic of discussion before the game as fans conversed in the concourses.
Once the game began, though, the focus shifted to the play on the court, and with good reason: It was the kind of old-fashioned blowout we haven’t seen in these parts for a while.
Doug McDermott and Jahenns Manigat both had steals in the opening minute, en route to an 11-2 lead by the under-16 timeout. Amusingly, the sideline statistics board displayed numbers from a game versus the Commonwealth Giants for that entire stretch, which led to a lot of jokes about a “made-up” team given the ridiculous nature of the stats (64 rebounds?!?). Turns out, that was one of the teams the Jays played in the Bahamas, so it was probably just “test” stats to get the scoreboard ready for the season and someone forgot to switch back to the live stats. It was fun while it lasted, though.
McDermott had seven of the Jays’ first 11 points during that stretch, but with this being an exhibition game, they substituted freely and often, keeping Creighton from establishing much momentum and allowing Rockhurst to hang around. The faster tempo of play also played a role in allowing Rockhurst to keep the game close early, as Grant Gibbs said on the AM590 postgame show:
“If we want to be out pressuring and running, we have to be able to sustain it the whole game. We came out with great energy, and were really playing great and then we dipped when we got tired. So if we want to be able to play that way, we have to be able to do it in four minute increments (the TV timeouts) for the entire game.”
With the game at 23-20 and things a bit too close for comfort, Gregory Echenique made two baskets as part of a 12-2 run to close the half, and the Jays went into the locker room up 35-22.
He continued that momentum with the Jays’ first two baskets after halftime, and had a massive swat on the defensive end for good measure. Just days removed from a mild concussion suffered in practice, he looked no worse for wear, and confirmed as much to T. Scott Marr and Nick Bahe on the postgame show:
“I felt good. We followed the guidelines that you’re supposed to follow when that happens. I went to the doctor, I went to the eye doctor, we did everything the right way to make sure nothing was wrong and all the tests came out pretty good. Coach told me that today I was going to start, but he was going to limit my minutes, which he did, and I was completely fine with that. Towards the end, he came up to me and said ‘I’m not going to take a risk with you’ and decided to give more time to Geoff and Will which is great. Tomorrow we’ll be off but on Tuesday I’ll do a little more so that when Friday comes I’ll be ready.”
They were relentless, wearing down Rockhurst and turning a 13-point halftime lead into a 39-point margin of victory. It was only an exhibition, but for a team with a nasty habit of allowing teams to hang around too long in recent years, putting a team away and then blowing them out was a very welcome sight. They held the Hawks scoreless over the final 4:50 of the game, ending on a 14-2 run that culminated with free pizza for the season ticket holders and a highlight-reel dunk from walk-on Mo Oginni.
It seemed like last year, the Jays played solid defense a lot of the time but didn’t have the ability to get a key steal in their arsenal. On Sunday, they had eight steals, with Jahenns Manigat and Austin Chatman chalking up two apiece. They were a big factor in forcing 23 turnovers, an impressive performance even against a clearly overmatched DII team.
The Jays, unfortunately, had 20 turnovers of their own, although more than a few of those seemed to be the result of new players getting the butterflies out. That’s a bit of a deceiving stat; half of the 20 turnovers were committed by players either new to Creighton this year or who haven’t played a real game for Creighton yet. Chatman had three, Gibbs and Will Artino had two apiece, and Geoff Groselle, Mo Oginni and Alex Olsen all had one. That can be chalked up as much to first-game jitters as anything else, in my opinion. If they’re still committing 20 turnovers a game in December, we can be concerned, but after this game, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
“There were some good things, there were some bad things, and there were some ugly things, and I would expect nothing different this time of the year,” Coach Greg McDermott commented on the AM590 postgame show. “We’ll break that film down and pull each of the three parts out of there and try to fix it in the next three days.”
The Newcomers
“Geoff is a banger, he’s a big body,” Echenique assessed afterward on the AM590 postgame. “You could see a couple of times when people tried to shoot a layup by him he just stood there like a brick wall. I like that, because I feel like I do that too, so I can identify with that.”
Commenting on Artino, Echenique noted, “Will has a lot of skills. He can put the ball on the floor, he has very good skills on the perimeter, so he definitely gives our team a different look. I feel like each post brings something different to the team, so when people are scouting us they have to prepare differently for each guy which I think makes us better.”
Austin Chatman, backing up Antoine Young, played 16 minutes and dished out six assists. He played a little fast initially, but once he got the nerves out, he showed that he should be more than capable of being Young’s primary backup at the point — and then take over the position for the next three years. On AM590 after the game, Coach Greg McDermott said, “Once he settled in he made some great reads in transition. He threw the ball ahead a couple of times when he should have, held on to it a couple of times when that was exactly the right read, and he made some good plays going to the basket.”
His presence also had the effect of allowing Young to play all-out the entire time he was on the court, knowing that there was a solid backup ready to come in when he needed a break. Combined with Grant Gibbs, he gives the Jays two pass-first guards to compliment their scorers. “It’s something we were missing last year,” Coach Mac said on the postgame show. “They’re both point guards, essentially. That’s how Grant thinks, and Austin’s a pass-first point guard. They don’t need shots to be effective. You have to have guys like that on your team, because you don’t have enough basketballs to go around if that’s not the case.”
For his part, Chatman said he’s learning a lot from his veteran backcourt teammate. “Antoine and I have a pretty good relationship on and off the court, we like to hang out a lot, just kick it and play video games and stuff like that. We’re similar in a lot of senses.”
Ethan Wragge played nine games last season before taking a medical redshirt due to a foot injury. His shooting stroke looked as good as ever, and he looked improved on the defensive end as well. “He got his points on shots within the offense,” Coach Mac noted on the postgame show. “We weren’t going to run any plays to get him shots in this game, for everybody to see; we’ll save those for when we need them. I thought defensively, for the most part, and blocking out and rebounding, he did some good things.”
Avery Dingman wasn’t mentioned by Coach in the postgame, but he showed a surprising touch from outside the arc for a true freshman in his first college game. Dingman made his first two three-point attempts, and wound up with three on the day en route to 11 points. It will be awfully difficult to redshirt him given their inability to consistently hit three-pointers a year ago.
Nevin Johnson played ten minutes and attempted just two shots, looking tentative offensively and looking very much like a true freshman on the defensive end. He also showed the athleticism and basketball IQ that fans first saw in summer league, so now that the first game jitters are out of his system, his play should be much more confident.
Fro’s Final Five
5. Jahenns Manigat had a very nice line, with 10 points, 4 assists and 2 steals in 22 minutes in a starting role. He also continued to be the team’s most energetic player, and his teammates’ biggest cheerleader.
4. Rockhurst’s “ROCK U” uniforms were excellent. Early leader in the clubhouse for favorite opponent’s unis this season, and as a graphic designer, yes, this is a subject that matters to me.
3. At the under-four timeout, Creighton was 17-18 from the free-throw line. They finished 18-20, which is simply outstanding. Teams that connect at that high of a rate generally win close games, and teams that win close games hang banners. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.
2. The four freshmen combined for 24 points and 15 rebounds. Wow.
1. Awesome to see Random High Five Guy in mid-season form already. Gonna be a great season of celebrating dunks and big defensive stops.
You bet.
