Drawing Xavier — a team Creighton split with — as opposed to Marquette, who the Jays swept in two games mostly bereft of drama, would appear to be a tough draw. That’s the consensus on the Bluejay Underground and on social media, anyway. The loss in Cincinnati is fresh in people’s minds, and while a six-point loss stings, with the benefit of a couple of weeks of hindsight it’s not as bad as it felt the day afterward.
The Jays lost the battle of the boards 18-12 in the first half (5-3 in favor of Xavier on the offensive glass), but won it 20-12 in the second (with an 8-3 Creighton edge on the offensive boards). In other words, they rebounded well enough to win and certainly were not beaten up inside like they were at Providence, for example. The loss at Xavier came down to turnovers and poor shooting.
Ethan Wragge was 3-9 from three-point range in that game, and played just 20 minutes due to foul trouble. Austin Chatman was 1-9 from the field and 0-3 from three-point range, and committed five turnovers. Jahenns Manigat was 1-7 from the field, all of them three-point attempts, and also battled foul trouble. And Doug McDermott was 9-18 from the floor, 5-12 from three-point range, and also had five turnovers. A healthy chunk of those missed shots were good looks, within the flow of the offense, and many were open shots. Those are shots Creighton hits on a pretty routine basis, including in the first game against Xavier, but they just didn’t fall that day.
They lost by six; if just three more of those 22 missed three-pointers by Wragge, Chatman, Manigat and McDermott go in, the Jays win. Obviously that’s over-simplifying things, but the point is this — that loss wasn’t the horrible blowout some are remembering it as. CU doesn’t need to bring their A+ game to win tonight, as one poster on the Underground wrote.
As for turnovers, they had 15, their second-highest total of the year. In two games against the X-Men, they’ve committed 29 turnovers, clearly being bothered by the length and athleticism of the Musketeers guards.
Both games were close contests heavily influenced by wild, festive home crowds. Creighton shot really well at home, built a massive lead, then held on to win by six. Xavier shot really well at home, built a 13-point lead, then held on to win by six. On a neutral court, where crowd noise isn’t really a factor, these teams are close enough that it might come down to other factors.
In Thursday’s evening session, Creighton won in a blowout and was able to limit the minutes their key players saw action, at least somewhat. Meanwhile, Xavier played a tight game and did not have that luxury — Dee Davis played all 20 second-half minutes and 38 total, Semaj Christon played 19 in the second half and 36 for the game, Isaiah Philmore and Justin Martin both played 18 in the second half and 33 and 38, respectively, for the game. It was a physically draining game against one of, if not the, strongest, most physical teams in the league. Could that play a factor tonight? Maybe not, but it’s something to keep in mind especially in the second half. You see it a lot in conference tournaments, where a team that’s forced to play its’ starters 36+ minutes each in their first game hits a wall 30 minutes into the next day’s game.
Somewhat surprisingly, Matt Stainbrook came back last night after missing a couple of weeks with what appeared to be a horrible knee injury. He played 15 minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing zero rebounds while looking quite a ways away from being in game shape, even for the generally unathletic-looking Stainbrook. He was statistically ineffective in the matchup in Cincinnati, scoring five points with four rebounds in 23 minutes, but the attention Creighton paid to him made it tougher to defend everyone else. His mere presence on the court, and the double-teams Creighton sent his way all afternoon, opened up driving lanes for Semaj Christon and Justin Martin, both of whom succeeded at creating looks for themselves from inside of ten feet, then knocking them down. It’s a good bet that he’ll play only 10-15 minutes tonight, mostly in short stretches, just like last night. That’s good for Creighton because he’s a guy they can’t really defend one-on-one when healthy. I’d play him straight-up until he proves he can make you pay, then concentrate on slowing down Davis, Christon and Martin.
Of course, if Creighton, and specifically Doug McDermott, shoots like they did in the first half against DePaul, you can analyze the rest of it all you want but it’s irrelevant — they will beat every team left in this field by 8-10 points when they play that well, including Xavier. Vegas thinks so, making Creighton a 6.5 point favorite. If they play more like the second half last night, with sloppy turnovers, missed open looks, and lackadaisical movement offensively, Creighton’s a beatable team, especially for a team like Xavier with offensive weapons to spare and the desperation of knowing they may not *quite* be safely in the NCAA Tournament. Somewhere in between, which is what we saw each of the first two games between these two, and you’ve got a tossup — a one or two possession game. That’s where I think this one ends up.
This should be a helluva game. I’m really looking forward to it.
Catching Up with the Musketeers: Xavier is playing in its first BIG EAST Tournament; XU won 4 tourney titles in the Atlantic 10 (1996-2013) and 6 in the MCC (1980-95) … Semaj Christon, unanimous First Team All-Big East and XU’s leading scorer, has scored in double figures in 20 straight games … Christon passed 1,000 career points during his 18-pt. game last night, only the second XU soph. to ever reach that mark … Xavier has secured its eighth 20-win season in the last nine years and its 16th 20-win season in the last 18 years … I love this stat: Xavier has graduated the last 91 men’s basketball players that have played as seniors, including Isaiah Philmore and Erik Stenger this year.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton went 12-7 all-time in 19 appearances in Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinal games, and won the MVC Tournament nine of its last 13 times it won its initial game of the event … Creighton’s game last night was decided by 22 points, while the other five games of the Big East Tournament to this point have been decided by a combined spread of 14 points … Creighton and Xavier are first Big East newcomers to reach the tourney semifinals in their first year in the conference since Villanova in 1981 … Last night’s win improved Creighton to 72-9 the last three years when shooting 30 percent or better from three-point range, and 54-4 when shooting 40+% percent from downtown the past three seasons … Creighton improved to 6-0 this season in its alternate gray jerseys, including four wire-to-wire victories. Creighton won all six games by double-digits, and has outscored foes 285-161 in the first half of those games (including four leads of 20+ points). In 240 minutes wearing the gray jerseys, Creighton has trailed for a total of just 1:55.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott set a pair of Big East Tournament records in last night’s win, including most points in a half (27) and most points in a tournament debut (35).
Meanwhile, he now ranks seventh on the all-time NCAA scoring list with 3,046 career points. Sixth on the list is Keydren Clark (3,058) while in fifth place is Harry Kelly (3,066). He stands a pretty good chance of moving into fifth place tonight, because he owns 20 or more points in 11 straight games (scoring 25+ in 10 of those).
Out of Context Ron Swanson Quote: “Cultivating a manly musk puts opponent on notice.”
The Last Time They Played: Creighton led just twice, 2-0 and 12-11, and otherwise trailed the whole afternoon in a 75-69 loss at Xavier on March 1. Justin Martin had 19 points and 16 rebounds and Semaj Christon added 21 points for the victorious Musketeers. For his part, Martin had a double-double by halftime with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Christon had 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting and Dee Davis nine points and four assists thanks to 3-for-3 marksmanship from deep. Even with all that, though, it was a one-possession game in the final minute.
The Series: Xavier leads the all-time series, 10-7, and the Musketeers have won both games played at neutral sites — an 80-67 loss in Louisville in the 1967 National Catholic Invitational Tournament (NCIT) and an identical 80-67 score in a loss in the 2009 Old Spice Classic in Orlando.
Gratuitous Linkage: The excellent Xavier blog “Banners on the Parkway” did a great job breaking down their win over Marquette, and in pinpointing the gutsy coaching decision by Chris Mack to leave Semaj Christon in the game with two fouls for the last seven minutes of the first half. The Musketeers went on a 15-6 run to take the lead at halftime, Christon didn’t pick up his third foul, and they went on to win the game.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On March 14, 1990, Creighton toppled #15 New Mexico State 64-56 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Their first tourney win since 1974, it came thanks to complete domination on the glass — they outrebounded the Aggies by 10 in the second half, and Bob Harstad and Chad Gallagher combined for 30 (THIRTY!) rebounds. Their guards also handled New Mexico State’s vaunted full-court press and quickness with little trouble, turning it over just 13 times. As Gallagher described to the media, “Coach Barone told us what we needed to do to win. For Bob and I, it was to rebound. For Duan and Latrell, it was to handle their press. Everybody on the team handled what our goals were really well.”
The win set up a matchup with Seton Hall, a game the Jays would lose to a Pirates team that was en route to the Elite 8.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
The Bottom Line: Creighton wins a close one.
Bluejays 75, Xavier 69
