[dropcap]Wednesday[/dropcap] night, Creighton plays host to Arizona State, a team still trying to get it’s sea legs under new coach Bobby Hurley. They’ve gone 4-2 in the first six games of the Hurley regime, including a couple of nice wins over NC State (#65 in KenPom) and Belmont (#90). Unfortunately, those first six games also include a loss to Sacramento State at home (the 202nd ranked team by KenPom), an overtime loss to Marquette where four starters fouled out, and most recently, a 70-68 win over UC Santa Barbara where they needed late-game heroics to escape.
To say they’ve had some growing pains would be an understatement. Five of their six games have been decided by fewer than 10 points, three came down to the final possession before being decided, and a fourth went overtime. There’s no rest for the weary, however, as tonight’s game against the Jays is the start of a brutal four-game stretch. After tonight’s game, they play #18 Texas A&M at home, followed by road games at #1 Kentucky and at UNLV. Holy crap. Hurley told the Arizona Republic, “I don’t know what a good record would be over the next four games. We have our work cut out for us. We got to figure out a way to get a couple wins out of this.”
Statistically, it’s uncanny how even they’ve been with their opponents through those six games. They’ve made 42.6% of their shots (158-371), and allowed opponents to shoot 42.1% (146-347). They’ve made 72.0% from the free throw line, and their opponents have made 69.8%. They’ve committed 137 fouls, and their opponents have fouled 134 times. They have 76 assists, and their opponents have 81. Both ASU and their opponents have exactly 79 turnovers and 20 blocks. They have 31 steals, their opponents have 33. No wonder they’ve had so many close games.
The only major discrepancy between the Sun Devils and their opponents has come on the glass, where they own a massive +10 advantage. They average 43.8 boards a game, have five players averaging 5.5 rebounds or better a game, and each of those players has had at least one game with double-digit boards in a game. Incredibly, they have 39 more offensive rebounds (91-52) than their opponents.
Individually, they’re led by 6’4″ senior guard Gerry Blakes, who averages 13.0 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. Blakes has 14 assists and 13 turnovers, which isn’t great, but he does have seven steals to offset some of the giveaways. On the plus side, he’s been their best three-point shooter so far this year, both by percentage and volume, making 10-30 (33.3%), and he’s also regarded as their best defender, so it will be interesting to see which of Creighton’s guards he matches up with given his length.
6’1″ sophomore guard Tra Holder is their second-leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, and he does the bulk of his damage off the dribble — 23 of his 28 made-baskets have come inside the arc, and he’s both attempted and made the most free throws on the team (25-31, 80.6%). Following a trend with their guards, he has 16 assists and 15 turnovers.
Rounding out the players averaging in double-figures is forward Savon Goodman, a 6’6″, 220 pound junior who averages 12.3 points and 7.8 rebounds a game. He’s their most athletic big man, and when he’s been in foul trouble — which, unfortunately, has been pretty much every game (he’s fouled out twice in six games, and has had three or more fouls three other times) — the Sun Devils are forced to play small because they really only have one other serviceable big man on the roster.
That other big man is Eric Jacobsen, a 6’10” senior who averages 9.3 points and 6.0 rebounds a game. He’s also had foul trouble more often than not this year, and when both he and Goodman are on the bench due to fouls, the Sun Devils become very one-dimensional — opponents don’t have to respect the perimeter due to their mediocrity from behind the arc, so when their big men are out, they become awfully predictable. As a result, they’ve faced a lot of zone defenses this year, and in nearly pulling the upset over the weekend, UC Santa Barbara played zone for nearly the entire 40 minutes, frustrating the Sun Devils.
Given all of that, the two big keys to a Creighton win seem to be keeping Blakes or Holder (or some other player that hasn’t shot well this year) from shooting uncharacteristically well from three-point range, something that’s plagued the Jays far too often in recent years; and getting to the rim, whether that’s Khyri Thomas or Maurice Watson off the dribble, or Geoff Groselle getting position on the block, because if they can get Goodman and/or Jacobsen in foul trouble, the Sun Devils will be in trouble.
Quick Notes on the Sun Devils:
- ASU is scheduled to play 31 games this year, 14 of them against projected NCAA teams according to Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology.
- Coach Hurley and Wake Forest’s Danny Manning are the only current college coaches who earned NCAA Final Four MOP honors.
- The Sun Devils went 23-of-26 (.885) from the free throw line in its 70-68 win over UCSB on November 29, which included making their final 14. The .885 mark is the second-best in school history for at least 25 attempts, behind only the 24-of-26 mark set on December 19, 1981, vs. Cal State-Los Angeles. ASU is 93-of-123 (.756) from the free throw line in the past five games. In case you were wondering, Coach Hurley made .776 of his free throws while in college (441-of-568).
- This will mark just the sixth game a Pacific-12 Conference team has played at CenturyLink Center, and the second time against the Bluejays. The first? Everyone probably remembers it was California, who the Jays beat 68-54 on December 22, 2013 in the first visit by a Pac-12 team in the regular-season since 1978. The other half of this fun fact is trickier. The other Pac-12 teams to play in the venue? USC (one game in the 2008 NCAA Tourney) and Oregon (2011 CBI, two games in the 2015 NCAA Tournament). There’s a trivia question/answer for you!
Bluejay Bytes:
- Creighton has scored 97 points in each of its last two games. It’s the first time the Bluejays have reached that mark in consecutive contests since February of 1990 in wins over Bradley (98-85) and Wichita State (105-95 in double-overtime). They had the ball and dribbled out the clock in the final seconds in both victories, forgoing one final opportunity at the century mark — incredible, and kind of too bad in hindsight, because they’ve not scored 100 points in consecutive games since 1966!
- Creighton ranks 11th nationally in scoring offense, averaging an even 90.0 points per game to date. This year’s team has scored 85 points or more in all five victories, significantly better than last year’s team that reached 85 just twice all winter. That’s significant because since 2000-01, Creighton owns 54 games of 85+ points in the eight seasons it has made the NCAA Tournament, compared to 19 such games in the seven years it has missed the Big Dance.
- Saturday night vs. Western Illinois, Creighton had 97 points and just four turnovers. Per Basketball-Reference.com data, Creighton is the only school in the nation to do that this season. Creighton scored on 42-of-66 possessions, averaging 1.470 points per possession.
The Series / The Last Time They Played:
Creighton and Arizona State have split eight all-time meetings, with the Bluejays owning a 2-1 lead in Omaha. Creighton has won the last two meetings, winning in 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada (87-73) and in 2013 in Fullerton, California (88-60). The Bluejays trailed for a total of 64 seconds in the two games. We looked back at the latter of those two games in the “This Date…” section of the Primer on Saturday.
Gratuitous Linkage:
In their game preview, the Arizona Republic notes that “Creighton is a basketball school. It annually finishes among the country’s leaders in attendance. Former coach Dana Altman – now at Oregon – took the Blue Jays (sic) to seven NCAA Tournaments from 1999-2007. More recently, All-American forward Doug McDermott – the coach’s son – brought even more national attention.” It has some great thoughts from Bobby Hurley on the Jays and Sun Devils match up, too.
Gratuitous Linkage, Part II:
Following a 78-73 overtime loss to Marquette in which four of their five starters fouled out, and the other starter, Tra Holder, had four fouls, Coach Bobby Hurley tweeted the following:
At least he had a sense of humor about it!
Gratuitous Linkage, Part III:
Speaking of Twitter, the official ASU basketball account has shared several photos of their trip to Omaha, including the debut of their Adidas winter gear, a funny reply bragging that they don’t have to wear it at home, the team outside the CLink, the team enjoying steaks at Mahogany, and Willie Atwood doing homework in the hotel lobby at midnight.
Hopefully they continue documenting their trip to Omaha through the day today. I love this kind of stuff.
What the Other Side is Saying:
“The Sun Devils need to get off to a quick start and not be intimidated by the big crowd. This team has looked nervous at several different points already this season, and that can’t happen if they want to escape with a win. If they play with confidence and get off to a hot shooting start, it should be a close game. I’ll take Creighton as the ones getting out on top for an 85-80 win.”
-Connor Pelton from “House of Sparky”, WBR’s From the Other Side
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On December 2, 1977, Creighton beat Loyola-Chicago 63-55 on Homecoming weekend in front of a crowd of 5,886 at the Civic. The Jays jumped out to a 21-12 lead with 11:09 to play in the first half, keyed by 14 points from junior forward David Wesley. Then they went ice-cold, made just three field goals the rest of the half — one of them a tip-in by Wesley at the buzzer — and trailed 33-28 at the half.
“I kind of chewed Rick (Apke) and Tim (McConnell) a little bit at half,” Coach Tom Apke told the World-Herald after the game. “I thought they were a little lethargic. They are two guys who are supposed to be poised. They have been through the wars. And I thought they did a good job in the second half.”
Indeed. Rick Apke made six of seven field goal attempts in the second half, including four straight during a 10-2 surge to begin the half. One of those was a dunk off a pass from Randy Eccker that cut Loyola’s lead to 35-34; another Apke basket moments later gave them the lead for good.
They’d take leads of as big as eight points, though Loyola fought back to make it 56-53 with 2:02 to play. Eccker and Apke iced the game at the line, with Eccker going 3-4 and Apke 2-2 in the game’s final minute.
Remarkably, Creighton assisted on 23 of their 27 made baskets, and turned it over just six times. Apke wound up with 19 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, while Wesley added 18 points and eight boards.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
Sometimes, the creative department listens to vinyl records, and I don’t always get to pick what goes on the turntable. This week it’s been a journey through multiple early-1980s Rick Springfield albums, and I have to say, the guy gets a bum rap because of the soap opera career and the overplayed big hit “Jessie’s Girl.” He has way more solid tracks than I remembered, or recalled.
The Bottom Line:
Behind another monster game from Geoff “GOAT”selle (love that nickname he’s earned on Twitter), the Jays pick up win number six.
KenPom: Jays 80, Sun Devils 73
WBR: Jays 85, Sun Devils 78
