[dropcap]The[/dropcap] home portion of the non-conference schedule wraps up Friday night when the Jays welcome Texas Pan-American to the CenturyLink Center. The Broncs are 5-5 and were picked to finish 7th out of 8 teams in the WAC preseason poll — with only Chicago State trailing them. Creighton dispatched with the Cougars 84-66 last month, but UTPA is a bit better than that, and their style will present some challenges for the Jays.
The Broncs will play a mix of both man-to-man and zone defense, they’ll press occasionally, and they have a terrific shooter who can score from anywhere on the court. In other words, they resemble South Dakota more than their WAC counterpart, and this game will probably resemble that fierce battle with the Coyotes more than the relatively easy win over the Cougars.
The terrific shooter is Janari Joesaar, a sophomore transfer from Ole Miss who received a waiver to play right away. The 6’6″, 208 pound forward didn’t have overwhelming numbers at Ole Miss and didn’t play much — in 12 games for the Rebels last season, he averaged 2.3 points, 1.5 rebounds and 4.3 minutes per contest. However, he shot 47.4% (9-for-19) from the field and 80% (8-for-10) from the line, foreshadowing what has happened through ten games at UTPA. He’s averaging 20.4 points thanks to 41% shooting from three-point range (23-56) and 50% from the field (60-120), and he’s adding an average of 8.3 rebounds per game for good measure. In short, he’s been fantastic.
Wednesday night, fans in Omaha had a chance to see Joesaar in action when his team played Saint Louis on FSN, and he put on a show scoring 26 points (four 3-pointers, 6-9 from the floor, 10-11 from the line) to go along with six rebounds and five assists. He single-handedly kept his team in the game, and the Billikens were never really able to put them away in a 75-69 win.
UTPA has two other players averaging double-digits in points, and they’re both named Shaquille. Senior guard Shaquille Boga and junior forward Shaquille Hines are dubbed as The Shaq Attack, and that’s not just a clever marketing gimmick; they were expected to be the team’s best players before Joesaar exploded onto the scene. Last year in his first season at UTPA, Boga took over at point guard and averaged 14.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and a WAC-best 2.1 steals in 31 games. He also led the WAC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.84. This year, he’s picked up right where he left off, averaging 12.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists, with a solid 1.54 A/T ratio.
Meanwhile, Hines has been a bit more explosive offensively, scoring 24 points on 12-13 shooting against North Dakota, 16 points on 8-12 shooting against Texas A&M Kingsville, and 16 points against Houston, to go along with three other games where he scored 15. The 6’7″, 195-pound forward plays around the rim for the most part, and scores the bulk of his points on close-range field goals, where he’s 55-110 for the season. He’s attempted just five 3-pointers, making none, and is just 12-28 from the free-throw line. As opponents have defended him better, he’s struggled to score; in the last three games, he’s scored a total of 13 points, including three at Saint Louis on Wednesday.
The Jays will come into the game down a player, as the suspension of guard James Milliken for an unspecified violation of team rules opens up about 17 minutes of court time for other players. The guard had a breakout game last week against South Dakota, scoring 23 points in the win. While his overall numbers don’t show him to be an irreplaceable piece, those 23 points were the second-most for any Bluejay in a game this year, and for a team that has struggled to score, losing a player capable of scoring 20+ in a game is a big loss.
His suspension runs indefinitely, though the team has said they’ll consider him for reinstatement at the start of the second semester. That means he will miss a minimum of six games, including the first four conference matchups, and during that span he’s not allowed to practice, travel, or play. In other words, for the next month, he’s basically off the team. Specifics of why he finds himself in that predicament are not public, obviously, but we know he was late for shootaround before the Saint Mary’s game (causing him to be benched for the first half of that game), and in yesterday’s press conference, Coach Mac alluded to the fact that that wasn’t the first time he’s slipped up.
In the short term, it likely means the already stretched duo of Austin Chatman and Isaiah Zierden will continue to have to play 35+ minutes a game, Devin Brooks will have a longer leash, and Tyler Clement — a walk-on who proved to be fairly capable of handling the ball and running the offense in short doses earlier this season — will probably see some playing time. Long term, if this becomes a long term thing, it could be an opportunity for Leon Gilmore to get onto the court in more than the mop-up role he’s had so far.
Milliken’s suspension hurts the Jays the most in the sense that the final two games before Big East play were supposed to be two more chances to improve and define roles before a brutally-tough 18 game conference stretch begins. Now a lot of their plans get up-ended because of the loss of a player that was taking on a bigger and bigger load each game, and he’s gone not because of injury, but because he lost the trust of his coaches and teammates. That’s tremendously frustrating.
About the Broncs:
The Broncs — no “O” — opened up a five-game road trip with a 75-69 loss to Saint Louis earlier this week; they’ll stay in Omaha after tonight’s game to take on Nebraska-Omaha on Sunday … In that game at SLU, Freshman Dan Kimasa posted his second double-double with a career-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with 10 rebounds (four offensive), one block and one steal … For the season, UTPA has been outrebounded by 4.1 boards per contest and shoots 44.0 percent from the field and 63.5 percent at the line … UTPA is coached by Dan Hipsher, who owns a 252-210 record in his 17th season as a head coach, including a 14-28 mark in his second year at UTPA.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™:
Creighton’s played in two straight overtime games for the first time since 1994, and the fifth time in school history. The only other time one of the two games was a double-OT affair? All the way back in 1963. They’ve never played three straight OT games … Sophomore guard Isaiah Zierden played 43 minutes off the bench vs. South Dakota, then added 42 more minutes in a starting role last Saturday vs. Saint Mary’s. In the process, Zierden became the first Bluejay to play more than 40 minutes in consecutive games since Gary Swain in 1986-87 … Creighton has followed all but two of its previous 27 home losses with a win in its next home game by an average of 15.11 points, including 16 double-digit triumphs … Since February of 2000, Creighton has suffered consecutive home losses just twice, as it fell to Kent State and Wyoming in 2004 and in 2011 it fell to Missouri State and Wichita State in consecutive home games.
The Last Time They Played / The Series:
Creighton and Texas Pan-American have never met. However, Greg McDermott is 1-0 all-time against UTPA, as his Northern Iowa team defeated the Broncs 74-66 on Nov. 29, 2001 in a game played at West Gym in Cedar Falls, Iowa. McDermott has never faced Dan Hipsher as a head coach, but did lead Creighton to a 58-57 win over then-associate head coach Hipsher’s Alabama team in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Gratuitous Linkage:
Fox Sports 1 mic’ed up Greg McDermott for a recent practice, and the result was this feature this will presumably air this weekend sometime. But you can watch it on YouTube now!
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On December 19, 1988, Tony Barone’s Bluejays beat Marquette 79-73 at the Civic thanks to a balanced scoring attack — Bob Harstad scored 17 points, James Farr 15, Chad Gallagher 14, Todd Eisner 13, Matt Roggenburk 12 and Troy Bell 8. Harstad scored 12 in the first half, but was slowed by an injury, and Gallagher picked up the slack by scoring 11 of his 14 in the second. “I think you saw great senior leadership from Farr at the end of the game,” Barone said after the game. “Gallagher did a great job in that spurt. Those were big baskets. Harstad got kicked in the head early in the game, so he was a little more goofy than normal as the game wore on, but he gave us a good rebounding effort.”
That leadership from Farr included making 8 of 10 free throws in the final 1:18 to clinch the win.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
I heard this on a random SiriusXM channel the other day. It is terrible. I cannot get it out of my nightmares. You’re welcome?
The Bottom Line:
Creighton wins, but not convincingly, and needs the full 40 minutes to do it.
Bluejays 74, UTPA 65
