[dropcap]Creighton’s[/dropcap] much-maligned defense made a stand on Tuesday night, holding Georgetown to just three baskets on their final 14 possessions. Sometimes there’s clarifying facts needed for such a stat — the opponent got good looks but just didn’t make them, they went cold at an inopportune time, etcetera — but this was not one of those times. Creighton’s defense over the final eight minutes was fantastic at forcing turnovers, coming up with steals, and generally harassing Hoya ballhandlers to make poor decisions.
“These guys needed this,” Coach Greg McDermott said on the 1620AM Postgame after the game. “It’s been a tough couple of days. We got embarrassed by a very good Villanova team. They were disappointed in the way they performed, so to be able to win tonight the way we won is great for our growth and great for our confidence.”
Going forward the most promising development isn’t just the win, it’s that the Bluejays won a big game by being mentally tougher down the stretch than their opponent, and making winning plays on both ends of the court. They failed to pass that test time after time a year ago in a season where they lost seven Big East games after leading in the final minute, including in each of their last four league losses. The only thing you could count on the 2014-15 Bluejays doing consistently was finding a way to lose a game they led in the final minute, and never was that more evident than against Saturday’s opponent, the Seton Hall Pirates.
Creighton led with 17 seconds to play in both games against Seton Hall last year, only to lose both times. In the first meeting, a 68-67 Seton Hall win in Omaha, Will Artino gave the Jays a 67-65 lead on a tip-in with 17.2 seconds to go, but the defense gave up a three-pointer to Sterling Gibbs with 2.2 seconds left and James Milliken’s potential game-winner rimmed out. In the rematch, Angel Delgado got a tough rebound and putback to give the Pirates a 67-66 lead, and the Jays missed four chances for victory in the final 15 seconds — Austin Chatman was stripped while attempting a potential game-winner, Milliken grabbed the ball and missed a shot, Geoff Groselle rebounded the miss and missed a shot of his own, and Milliken rebounded that miss but missed again as the buzzer sounded.
In the first game, there were eight ties and 13 lead changes. In the rematch, Creighton led by as many as 14 points and trailed for only 65 total seconds. They lost them both. I know results of games from the previous year usually doesn’t matter a ton to players or coaches, but speaking for myself, I haven’t forgotten the heartbreak of those two losses.
Creighton owes these guys one.
***
This year’s Seton Hall team is off to a 12-3 start, but they’re struggling to garner respect, both nationally and within the league — despite being 12-2 and 2-0 in the league when the Top 25 polls came out, they failed to garner a single vote, and were 14.5 point underdogs to Villanova in the early season showdown of the only undefeated teams in Big East play. This is where their reputation for hot starts and late-season flameouts hurts them; over the last three seasons the Pirates have started 12-2, 10-4 and 12-2 over their first 14 games, but have finished 15-18, 17-17 and 16-15, respectively, in those seasons. Until Kevin Willard’s team proves they can sustain that early season success, there will be more skeptics than believers outside of the Seton Hall faithful.
If they’re to buck that trend this year, it starts with Isaiah Whitehead, one of five sophomores in The Hall’s starting lineup. Whitehead has lined up alongside classmates Khadeen Carrington, Desi Rodriguez, Ismael Sanogo and Angel Delgado in the starting lineup 11 times and the five have combined for 836 points through 15 games (55.7 ppg) – a huge increase from the 469 points (31.2 ppg) they had collectively at this point last season. Overall, the sophomore class is responsible for over 75 percent of the team’s points (836/1109, .754), assists (163/205, .795) blocks (51/67, .761) and steals (92/117, .786) as well as nearly 70 percent of its rebounds (402/590, .681).
Whitehead leads the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game, which isn’t surprising as he was a dynamic scorer a year ago. What is surprising is that he leads them in assists, averaging 4.5 a game. His 67 total assists are nearly twice as many as anyone else on the team and nearly as many as he had all of last season (78 in a freshman season shortened to 22 games by injury), which has gone a long way towards shedding his reputation as a player who never saw a shot attempt he didn’t like.
He’s one of just two Big East players who rank among the top six in the league in both scoring and assists — along with Kris Dunn of Providence — and one of just 13 such players in high-major conferences. Make no mistake, though, he remains a great scorer, and has logged 20 or more points five times so far this year, including earlier this week against Villanova.
Khadeen Carrington is second on the team in scoring at 13.9 per game, and has been in double-figures in 13 of their 15 games. He has nine steals through three Big East games, and 20 over his last seven games. Carrington scored in double-figures in both games against the Jays last year (11 in Omaha, 13 in Jersey). Their third player averaging in double figures, Desi Rodriguez (12.0 points per game), has been a consistent scorer all year, with seven games of 12 or more points so far after just three last year. He had 16 points in the two games vs Creighton a year ago, eight in each game.
And then there’s Angel Delgado. The 6’9″ forward had a streak of seven straight double-doubles snapped against Villanova earlier this week, and is averaging 9.3 points and 9.9 rebounds a game. In their eight home games, he’s been sensational, averaging 10.5 points and 10.6 boards. He was a wrecking maching against Creighton a year ago; in Omaha he had 7 points and 9 rebounds, while in the rematch he had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and made the game-winning shot.
Transfer Derrick Gordon, who previously played for Western Kentucky and UMass, has excelled as the Pirates’ sixth man. Against Villanova, Gordon had eight points, his second-straight 8+-point effort and 10th of the season, while hauling in a team-high 10 rebounds. A starter in all 100 of his career appearances coming into this season, Gordon is averaging 8.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in Big East play, all off the bench.
As a team, Seton Hall is the top defensive unit in the Big East on the perimeter, holding their opponent to 20 percent or worse from beyond the arc in four of the last six games. In those six games, they’ve allowed just 32 makes on 105 attempts (.305), and for the year, they’ve held their opposition to a .315 mark from deep.
Given how close these teams were a year ago, it’d be foolish to think either team will run away in this one. It’s a cliche, but if there was ever a case where it’s legit, it’s this game. Whichever team makes the fewest mistakes — turnovers, bad shots, missed free throws — probably comes out on top. For the Jays, it’s a vitally important game because they’re favored by KenPom to win each of the next three (home games with Providence and Butler sandwiched around a road game at DePaul), and an early-conference run would do wonders for the perception of the team and for their confidence. Not everyone agrees with them being favored to win those three, and it’s premature to say that the winner of Saturday’s game is a contender for the Big East title as Andy Katz did today. But it’s always better to be perceived as a contender than a pretender, premature or not.
First things first, though.
Quick Notes on the Pirates:
- The one-point margins of victory in both games a year ago are a reflection of just how little separated the two teams in those games — it’s quite remarkable, really. Across the two meetings, Seton Hall totaled 50 FGM while CU recorded 52. Each side knocked down 14 3-pointers during the season series, and SHU finished with two more free throws made (19-to-17). It doesn’t get much closer than that.
- The Pirates pulled down 15 offensive rebounds as a team against Villanova, continuing a run that has seen them collect double-digit offensive boards in 13 straight games. Seton Hall leads the league with 13.7 off rebounds/game and have recorded 37 second chance points in three conference outings. For the season, SHU is averaging 12.9 ppg on second opportunities.
- Seton Hall is 8-0 at home for the fourth time in the last five years, but it looking to move to 9-0 for the first time since 2011-12.
Bluejay Bytes:
- Maurice Watson Jr. scored 20 of his career-high 27 points against Georgetown in the second half, an impressive figure considering his previous career-high for a game was 21 points. Watson made 6-of-7 field goals in the second half, including three lay-ups, two mid-range jumpers and a three-point try. He also sank 7-of-8 free throws while playing all 20 minutes.
- CU has allowed just five offensive rebounds the past two games, and seven second-chance points. The Jays have grabbed 74.5% of available defensive rebounds, second best in the Big East, and in conference games have improved that mark to 80.6%. Given Seton Hall’s prowess on the offensive glass — and the fact that they converted 13 offensive boards into 18 second-chance points, including the game-winner from Delgado — something’s gotta give here.
- Creighton has scored 79 points or more in all 11 wins thus far. The only opponent to score more than 76 points against Seton Hall this season has been Long Beach State, which scored 80 against the Pirates on November 19th while handing SHU its first loss of the season.
- Geoff Groselle entered his senior season averaging 3.2 points and 1.6 rebounds per contest, collecting 200 career points and 102 career rebounds in his first 63 games. This year alone, Groselle averages 12.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and has 194 points and 103 rebounds in 16 starts.
The Series / The Last Time They Played:
Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Creighton 8-3, including a 6-2 record in New Jersey. The last three meetings have each been decided by exactly one point — in addition to the two last year, the Jays won 72-71 in February of 2014 in a game with a completely bananas ending featuring two straight near-turnovers, four straight missed CU free throws by their two best shooters (Doug McDermott and Ethan Wragge) and a panicked final possession by a Seton Hall team with no timeouts that resulted in them not even really getting a shot off.
Gratuitous Linkage:
CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander wrote this excellent, long-form analysis of the effect of college basketball’s much-discussed rules changes so far this season. It takes about ten minutes to read but it’s well worth the time.
The summary: possessions per game are up, scoring is up, assists are up, three-pointers made are up, and time of game is down…yet the number of fouls are actually down, not up, which is perplexing. More possessions should mean more fouls, especially with the directive to call games tighter, and yet they’re not. And the number of fouls called has fallen by 15% as the season has gone on and is trending lower than a year ago, bizarrely.
Gratuitous Linkage, Part II:
McBuckets doin’ work.
When Dougie gets McBuckets 👌🏽 (@CSNChicago) https://t.co/B4dMOkn6RU
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 8, 2016
Gratuitous Linkage, Part III:
Earlier this week, it was former Creighton player and coach (and current Oregon assistant) Kevin McKenna’s birthday, and the crowd in Eugene serenaded him in song. Among them: ESPN’s Bill Walton, who held up a giant cutout of McKenna from his playing days at Creighton.
Happy birthday Dad!!! pic.twitter.com/NFdU7UDbRZ — Megan McKenna (@ThisIsCoach) January 7, 2016
What the Other Side is Saying:
“Against Villanova — largely due to the Wildcats’ airtight defense — the Hall reverted to one-on-one hero ball on offense. Creighton’s defense is not nearly as good, although the Jays did score 25 points off turnovers in Tuesday’s 79-66 win over Georgetown. Still, the Pirates’ ability to feature four different players should be hard for Creighton to defend if utilized properly.”
–“Three Keys for Seton Hall vs Creighton”, Jerry Carino, Asbury Park Press
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On January 9, 2011, Creighton defeated Evansville 74-69 to cap a rugged, hard-fought two game road trip to two of the more distant outposts of the Valley — Carbondale, where they beat SIU 72-65 in OT, and Evansville. The latter was keyed by Kaleb Korver, who broke a 50-50 tie with 11 minutes to go with a three-pointer, then extended it with a second 3-ball moments later. It was one of the best stretches of Kaleb’s career, as he scored 29 points with 10 rebounds in the two wins, with all but one of his baskets coming on a three-pointer.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
Any day with new David Bowie music a good day. Today is one of those days.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton does what they couldn’t do a year ago, and finishes off Seton Hall in a close game.
Bluejays 74, Pirates 72
