Game One: Creighton 88, Arizona State 60
Creighton headed into the Wooden Legacy on the heels of a win over Tulsa that gave them a 4-0 record, a #20 ranking in the AP poll, #18 ranking in the Coaches poll, and #1 ranking in the Holy Land of Hoops Big East Power Ranking (as voted on by legit media members such as yours truly). Still, there were concerns aplenty, given the way Tulsa hung around and made things interesting, since the first round opponent in California was the Arizona State Sun Devils.
On Monday night, those pesky Sun Devils dispatched with fellow Big East frontrunner Marquette in a non-conference tuneup, 79-77, with big man Jordan Bachynski tearing the Golden Eagles to shreds in the paint. His line? 14 points, 11 rebounds and 7 blocks, including a swat on the would-be game tying shot at the buzzer. Combined with Creighton’s first-hand knowledge of Jahii Carson’s exploits from the 2012 Las Vegas Invitational, it was clear to fans, coaches and players the Jays were in for a formidable task in the opening game of the 2013 Wooden Legacy.
Instead, the game was competitive for all of about 15 minutes. Arizona State’s Jermaine Marshall hit a three on their first possession to put them up 3-0, and it would be the only lead the Sun Devils would hold the entire evening. By the first media timeout, it was 14-5 Creighton thanks to three-pointers from Jahenns Manigat and Grant Gibbs, and six points in the paint from Doug McDermott. By the second media timeout, it was 24-9 Creighton, with a red-hot McDermott making shots from everywhere on the floor. Eight minutes into the game, it was eerily similar to these two teams’ meeting in Las Vegas the year before, where CU jumped out to a huge lead early (27-9 in that instance).
Arizona State is a more experienced group than that bunch that wilted in the desert heat a year ago, hardened by a year of tough Pac-12 battles, and they fought back into the game. Up 30-15, the Jays surrendered three consecutive three-pointers over a two-minute stretch — one each from Carson, Marshall and Richie Edwards — to cut the lead to 30-24. Suddenly, Doug McDermott was struggling to get shots off, a 15-point lead was down to six, and the ASU fans in attendance were making a lot of noise.
Before they knew what hit them, Devin Brooks took the game over, going on a personal 8-0 run to push the lead back out to 13. Highlighted by two treys bracketing a nifty dribble drive to the rim, Brooks’ run took the wind out of the Sun Devils’ sails and the Jays coasted into the locker room up 45-31.
ASU wasn’t done, however. After Creighton increased their lead to 52-31 in the first two minutes of the second half, the Sun Devils rattled off ten consecutive points to slice the lead in half. Once again it was Brooks to the rescue, with the junior guard scoring baskets on three straight possessions to push the lead back to 59-42. The game was never as close again.
Austin Chatman’s defense was key to the Jays’ win over ASU. (Photo by Adam Streur/WBR)
There were a lot of things to like about the 88-60 win, besides the simple fact that the Jays blew out a very good team. Devin Brooks had a star-making performance, overshadowing his All-American teammate and earning the praise of both the ESPN crew working the game and the SportsCenter hosts that ran highlights of his acrobatic shots after the game. He scored 23 points off the bench despite playing only 19 minutes, going a perfect 4-4 from behind the arc and 9-11 overall. Doug McDermott had his fifth-straight game of 20 or more points to start the season, making him the first Bluejay to do that since the legendary Bob Portman in 1968.
But it was their defense that was the unsung hero, in particular Austin Chatman, who chased Jahii Carson around for all 25 minutes he was on the floor and held him to just 15 points on 5-12 shooting, while forcing him into more turnovers (5) than assists (4). The harassing defense of Chatman never let Carson get going early on, preventing him from driving into the lane and keeping him from getting the ball back once he passed it off. And he did it without fouling, as Carson attempted just five free-throws.
Jahenns Manigat also deserved praise, holding Jermaine Marshall to just 12 points while preventing the Sun Devils’ second scoring option from getting hot. Inside, the Jays were able to get Bachynski into foul trouble early (he played just seven minutes in the first half) and took advantage of the big man’s absence; by the time he returned in the second half, the game was more or less out of reach, and because of his fouls he was unable to be as aggressive as he’d prefer. The 7’2″ center wound up a non-factor, scoring four points with two rebounds and three meaningless blocks late in the game.
Game Two: San Diego State 86, Creighton 80
The next night, the always-tough, always-physical San Diego State Aztecs awaited, but just as they had the night before, Creighton threatened to blow the game open early. Up 14-2 after just 4:10 of action, McDermott had 11 points including three treys. Undeterred, the Aztecs weathered the storm and tied the game at 22 with 9:07 to play on a three by Matt Shirgley. Then, they kept right on rolling, using their length and athleticism to frustrate the Jays in the paint, building a lead as big as ten points (40-30) with a minute to go in the half.
While Creighton had an average first half in terms of field goal percentage (42.3%) and held San Diego State to a manageable percentage (43.8%), SDSU destroyed Creighton on the glass in that first period, outrebounding them 22-13. Coupled with CU receiving zero production from their bench (getting outscored 11-0 by SDSU’s bench), in large part due to Devin Brooks struggling against the length of San Diego State’s guards, the Jays found themselves down 10 at the break.
Ethan Wragge was 5-7 from three-point range in the second half against SDSU. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)
The second half was more of the same. An 11-2 run to open the half made it 51-32 SDSU, and put Creighton on the wrong side of a blowout for the first time in a long time. To their credit, they didn’t back down and didn’t give up, chipping away slowly at the 19-point deficit. Ethan Wragge got scorching hot, nailing 5-7 from three-point range in the second half alone, Devin Brooks figured out a way to get to the rim against the SDSU defense, and Doug McDermott was his usual self (14 second-half points on 5-7 shooting while playing the entire 20 minutes).
With 27 seconds to play, Creighton had cut the lead to 80-77, and had a chance to tie the game on the final possession. Instead of going for three, they ran a play for McDermott, who missed a shot under the rim against two defenders. Grant Gibbs snared the rebound, and was hacked, grabbed and molested as he put up a shot at the rim, though the officiating crew led by old CU nemesis Tom Eades swallowed their whistles and let the play go. The Jays had no choice but to foul to extend the game; after SDSU made one of two at the line, Brooks turned it over driving the lane, and the game was over.
Though the no-call in the paint was frustrating, and the source of much ire on social media (including from yours truly), it was not the deciding factor in the game. Getting outrebounded 37-29 and giving up 12 offensive rebounds was a killer, as was getting 13 completely ineffective minutes from their starting center, Will Artino (4 points, zero rebounds, and just four minutes played in the second half). Those two facts, combined with three turnovers apiece for all three of Creighton’s top guards (Chatman, Gibbs and Brooks), were much bigger factors in the 86-80 loss.
Game Three: George Washington 60, Creighton 53
After a day off, the hope was that the Jays wouldn’t let SDSU beat them twice, i.e. that they wouldn’t allow the disappointment of not playing well lead to an even poorer performance in their next game. Instead, that’s exactly what happened, as CU played their worst game since the debacle in Terre Haute last February.
Picking up where they left off Friday night, they were beaten on the glass and received little to no production from the center position, as Artino played just nine minutes with two points and a rebound, and played only three minutes after halftime. As it had been Friday night, his lack of court time was strictly a coaches’ decision, since he had zero fouls in the game.
Seven first-half turnovers led to nine points for George Washington, but it was their offensive inefficiency that was the big story. The Jays shot 29.6% from the floor (8-27) and 25.0% from three-point range (3-12), as the entire team struggled to get open, much less to make a shot. McDermott was 2-7 from the field, and unbelievably was the only player to make more than one basket in the first half!
Their 24 points were a season-low for a half, though they did end it on a 5-0 run to make things a bit more respectable at 32-24. A bookending 5-0 run out of the break cut the deficit to 32-29, as a better defensive effort combined with better shot selection allowed them to get back into the game. It wasn’t until the six-minute mark that they were finally able to get over the hump, though — a three from Gibbs and a three from Wragge got the Jays to within two, and then a one-handed dunk from Gibbs tied the game.
Or so everyone thought. During the ensuing timeout, the officials looked at the monitors and determined Wragge’s shot was only a two, and that his foot had been on the line when he released it. A new rule this season meant to prevent the momentum-killing replays that haunted games in years past, it led to some confusion in the arena when a point was taken away from a shot taken two minutes prior.
Grant Gibbs played a key role in Creighton’s rally against GW. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)
Wragge made sure his next one was a no-doubter, nailing a long three with 6:16 to give the Jays a 44-42 lead. It was short-lived, unfortunately. GW’s Isaiah Armwood scored buckets on back-to-back possessions to give them back the lead, 46-44. Another Wragge three gave the Jays a 47-46 lead, followed by another Armwood jumper to give GW a 48-47 advantage. Chatman scored on a nifty move to the rim to put CU back out front, and then Gibbs threw down his second dunk of the game to extend the lead to 51-48. A layup from Jahenns Manigat moments later gave CU a 53-50 lead at the 2:15 mark.
They’d not score again, as GW rattled off a 10-0 run over the game’s final two minutes. It was an infuriating stretch, never moreso than on their penultimate possession. Down 54-53 with 1:05 to play, the ice-cold McDermott never got a touch, instead deferring to Gibbs, whose drive down the lane resulted in a blocked shot which was chased down by Chatman; before he could get off a shot of his own, the ball was stolen by GW’s Maurice Creek, who was sent to the line. After sinking two free throws, the Jays still had 14 seconds to get the ball upcourt for a potential game-tying three, but Devin Brooks was whistled for an offensive foul trying to get open on the inbounds pass, and that chance never came.
The Bluejays first-half deficiencies from the field didn’t get much better in the second half; they shot slightly better both overall (37.9%) and from three-point range (30.8%) than they had in the first stanza. Given the fact that they shot so poorly, it’s rather amazing they were in the game at all, much less had a chance to win it.
If there’s one thing to take away from this weekend in Orange County, it’s that this is a very, very dangerous team when they have time to scout, prepare for, and focus on an opponent. That’s been a trademark of Coach Mac’s teams at Creighton, and it continues to be so this year. Given time to prepare a gameplan for Arizona State, they were damn near flawless on both sides of the ball — they had a great plan on offense, devised a scheme to frustrate Jahii Carson, and succeeded at both.
To make up for what they lack in athleticism and sheer talent, this team excels at watching film, breaking down an opponent, devising a plan, and practicing to execute that plan; when they’re able to do those things, they’re one of the 15 or 20 best teams in America. When they don’t have time to prepare, they’re forced to play almost straight-up, and their lack of athleticism and sheer talent is more easily exposed, especially against teams with the length and athleticism to frustrate them (like SDSU and GW). It takes them time to figure out what’s going on, and devise a plan on the fly — that’s why you saw massive improvement in the second half of both games, after the players had begun to figure out what was working and were given adjustments to their gameplan by the staff. It’s no coincidence the team that played in the second half of both losses looked remarkably different than the one in the first half.
The rest of the season, the team will have time to gameplan to take away an opponent’s strengths and to do the things they want to do offensively. There’s a very strong probability they won’t look this bad again all year — they’ll lose their share of games, but they won’t look this bad very often, if ever.
Even if you don’t buy that theory, it’s undeniable that despite four of their worst offensive halves of basketball all season, in spite of the worst game of Doug McDermott’s career (at least, since his Freshman year), and a horrible performance on the glass in both games, they were one or two plays away from winning both games — they played about as badly as they could play, and just about won anyway.
If they can take care of a listless, struggling Long Beach State team on Tuesday night and head home 2-2 from this trip, I think they’ll roll through the rest of December looking nothing like the team we saw the last two games of this weekend — the losses to SDSU and GW will be firmly in the rear-view mirror, lessons on the road to a top-half finish in one of the toughest leagues in America.