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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 67, Cincinnati 63

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton outrebounds Cincinnati 16-13 in the first half, and 32-31 for the game. Cincinnati makes eight more shots than Creighton, but the Jays make 18 more free throws than the Bearcats.

Favorite Moment: With the score tied 54-54 and three minutes to play, the large contingent of Creighton fans in attendance broke into cheers of “Let’s! Go! Jays!” — so loudly that it was clearly audible on television. The Twitterverse lit up with people noticing. Almost immediately after, Gregory Echenique broke the tie with a tough, gritty post move for a bucket, and Cincinnati was never that close again the rest of the day.

Favorite Moment, Part Deux: When the horn sounded and Creighton had more points than Cincinnati. Winning in the NCAA Tournament is always a favorite moment.

500-ish Word Recap: In the contrast of styles that was Cincinnati-Creighton, the Bearcats succeeded at forcing the game to be played their way, which was the only way they could win — to turn it into a knock-down, drag-out football game on hardwood. It was a style of play that many national pundits apparently believed Creighton couldn’t succeed at, as the litany of ESPN talking heads picking against them proved, but the Jays’ success wasn’t surprising to anyone who watched them defeat the similarly disruptive defense of Wichita State twice in the last two weeks.

Early on, Gregory Echenique set the tone, blocking a shot and altering several others that gave Cincinnati’s guards pause before driving the lane. He brought the same intensity he showed in St. Louis during his weekend of domination, putting teeth in their interior defense and making the paint off-limits for opposing shooters. The big man even brought some offense of his own: he went 5-7 from the floor and 3-3 from the line, scoring 13 points to go along with seven boards.

Ethan Wragge got red-hot from downtown, torching Cincinnati for four 3-pointers, including a stretch of three straight that had TV analyst Reggie Miller — himself no stranger to big threes — impressed. The #wraggebombs were deadly, stretching Cincinnati’s defense and allowing Doug McDermott a little more room to maneuver down low, where he took the game over.

McDermott was brilliant offensively, scoring 27 points on 7-15 shooting, and took advantage of the Bearcats relentless defensive physicality to get to the line — where he made all 11 free throws he attempted. He scored on a dazzling array of drives to the hoop, fadeaway jumpers, circus shots, and long-range threes. Unfortunately, he also struggled when Cincinnati pressured him, turning it over five times.

They turned it over 10 times as a team in the first half, a big reason why they were up only five despite shooting 63%. All those turnovers gave the terrible-shooting Bearcats 14 more shots than the Jays, keeping Cincy in the game. In the second half, Creighton turned it over just six times, controlling the pressure much better.

Quotables:

“I was scared to death of this game, just because the more I watched Cincinnati, the more I realized it probably wasn’t the best of match‑ups for us because of their length, their athletic ability, their ability to be disruptive on the defensive end of the floor, and I wasn’t sure we could rebound with them for 40 minutes. And to our guys’ credit, they did rebound with them for 40 minutes. Cincinnati hasn’t been out‑rebounded much this year, and we found a way to do it. We had some self‑inflicted turnovers that we don’t normally have, but fortunately we came out of the gate strong.” -Greg McDermott

“Gregory Echenique was huge for us; his ball screen defense, his ability to protect the paint, and then I think he had the basket of the game when it was tied at 54 out of that time‑out.  He made a tough man‑type play to get us two points to regain the lead there.” -Greg McDermott

(On Grant Gibbs) “He’s a winner. He won in high school. I probably started watching him when he was in eighth or ninth grade and recruited him when I was at Iowa State. And obviously he’s had a rash of injuries starting with a broken wrist in high school that caused him to miss most of his senior year, he tore his labrum and has knee problems, foot problems, you name it. But from the shoulders up, he’s one of the better basketball players I’ve ever been around. He absolutely gets it, understands it. He’s got a great feel for his teammates, when they maybe need a kick in the rear, when they need a pat on the back, when they need a touch in the post. Those are things that are really hard to teach, and they’re inherent to Grant. We would not be where we’re at today without him. I mean, you take ‑‑ there’s a lot of guys that have scored a lot more points and got a lot more rebounds, but he is our ultimate glue guy. He held everything together when we had a tough stretch in February.” -Greg McDermott

“I thought our toughness was good the whole game. Cincinnati hasn’t been out‑rebounded much this year. We did a good job defensively the first half on Kilpatrick. He got loose a few times the second half. But at times we had the guys shooting the shots we wanted them to take. They made a few of those, but frankly I was okay with that as long as some of the other guys didn’t have the ball in their hands.

Our guys for the most part executed our plan, and they were tough enough to stay in the fight on the back boards, and it’s not easy against a team like Cincinnati because they’re not going to stop coming. I was hoping we could get the pace more in our favor, and it was only a 29‑possession game the first half, which isn’t close to what I wanted it, but that, again, is a credit to them.  In some ways we had to beat them at their own game.” -Greg McDermott

(On beating a Big East team) “It’s definitely a good feeling because I know I took a lot of heat when I left Rutgers and went to Creighton and all that. People questioned it, why would I leave a Big East team and all that. And definitely, I mean, it’s good now. It’s good to prove to people why I did what I did and how special of a team we’ve got and how special Omaha and Creighton and the whole family that we have is. That definitely means a lot to me.” -Gregory Echenique

(On the team’s toughness) “Yeah, it’s funny how somehow it always goes back to people questioning our toughness, but I honestly don’t think that’s true at all. I think we can definitely play tough.  We’ve showed it before, and we just proved it today again. And yeah, we take it personal. Obviously it’s disrespectful when people say that, but it’s okay, we had a chance to prove it and we did, and if we get challenged again, we’ll be there.” -Gregory Echenique

(On the matchup with Duke) “Well, I’m really excited. I mean, last year we got to play North Carolina, this year we get Duke. I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s a great opportunity for us, another great tradition, a great program, and like I said, I think it’s just a big opportunity for us to, once again, try to prove people wrong, and this is what we worked for.” -Gregory Echenique

“We’ve been working for this moment since we lost to North Carolina last year, so I think it’s every kid’s dream to get a chance to play against Duke in the NCAA Tournament. It really doesn’t get much better than that. They’re a great team, especially with Ryan Kelly in the lineup. We know it’s going to be a huge challenge, but it’s what it’s all about. We’re going to get ready, have a good practice tomorrow, and I know our coach will put together a good plan, and we’ll be ready to go.” -Doug McDermott

(On the Flagrant Foul call) “I mean, it’s just natural. I maybe was a little too high with the ball, just probably a call you’ve got to make in that situation. I was being aggressive, and they got me there.  It’s too bad it happened, but our team found a way to fight through it, and I’m really proud that Austin go to the line and hit those free throws there at the end of the game to give us a chance to win.” -Doug McDermott

(On whether his team’s success this month will factor into coming back next year or not) “It means a lot. Since last season we wanted to get back to this game like we’ve all been saying, and I mean, it definitely plays a big factor just because I want to go as far as we possibly can. And when we’ve got seniors like Grant Gibbs and Gregory, we just want to do it for them, and that’s really all I’m focused on right now is just trying to get as far as we can and that decision will come later. But I feel like it definitely does play a part in it.” – Doug McDermott

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