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Morning After: #20 Creighton Buries Butler With a 32-6 Run Featuring 14 Straight Made Shots, 88-60

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton scores 53 first-half points on 30 possessions, or 1.76 points per possession — to put that in perspective, CU leads the nation in offensive efficiency at 1.20 points per possession, and the national average is somewhere near 1.0, so 1.76 is INSANE even for Creighton. CU outrebounds Butler 44-33, has 19 assists on 35 made baskets, and turns it over just 4 times.

Favorite Moment: Devin Brooks and his uber-quick first step made Butler look ridiculous on numerous occasions. In the first half, he was running in transition with Doug McDermott, and threaded a bounce pass around one Butler defender and in between two others for an easy layup, leaving all three Bulldog defenders completely dumbfounded. On another play, he took the ball from the left wing, dribbled between his legs as he split two defenders, then brought the ball down low in midflight to protect it from another defender; the shot missed, but he got his own rebound and put it back for a basket. That’s the one pictured above.

My favorite? A second-half play where Will Artino passed the ball out of the post to Brooks on the wing, who then passed the ball around his back TO HIMSELF, used the diversion to spin around the defender who was attempting to stay in front of him, and attacked the rim for a layup while 17,500 fans oohed and aahed, not quite sure what the heck they’d just seen. I’ve watched the reply a dozen times and I’m still not sure what the heck I saw. My jaw drops every time I see it.

Brooks-Butler

Quick Recap: Time after time over the last four years, Doug McDermott has shown that no one can defend him straight-up. Yet five or six times a year, an opposing coaching staff decides that they’re finally going to be the one to do it, that they’re somehow better equipped to do something no one else has done, that their players will succeed where everyone else has failed. Butler was the latest to employ this method last night, and it took 16 seconds for McDermott to make them look silly when he completely worked over his defender for an easy jumper.

Seton Hall tried it, and what did it get them? 22 first-half points for Doug, and a game that was basically over at the break. Butler tried it, and what did it get them? 24 first-half points, and a game that was absolutely over at the break. Combined, he was 17-27 from the field in those halves, and against Butler, he scored as many points as their entire team.

For a little while, Butler hung with the Bluejays, despite McDermott doing pretty much anything he wanted to offensively. Up 21-18 with just under ten minutes to go, the Jays unleashed one of the most ferocious offensive explosions I’ve ever witnessed — the type of overwhelming avalanche of points normally reserved for D1-in-name-only SWAC teams. Over the final 9 minutes and 47 seconds of the first half, they outscored Butler 32-6, including baskets on 14 straight possessions.

FOURTEEN. STRAIGHT. POSSESSIONS.

McDermott had 13 points during the run, but he was hardly alone — Will Artino, Devin Brooks, Austin Chatman, Avery Dingman, Zach Hanson and Jahenns Manigat also contributed at least one basket. When halftime rolled around, their lead had swelled to 53-24. They slowed down in the second half, because not even this Creighton team can sustain that sort of excellence forever, but continued to apply the clamps defensively, allowing only 36 points to the Bulldogs while holding them to 43% shooting.

After the game, Creighton remains the #1 offensive team in the country according to KenPom, they’ve moved up to #50 in adjusted defensive efficiency, and they’re #15 in defensive rebounding. It’s rare for any team to be that high in all three categories — if CU manages to keep this up, they’ll be an awfully tough team to scheme against in March, much less beat.

Quotables:

“With Grant being out, I have the ball in my hands a lot more. Avery’s done a great job of stepping in and filling that role. Devin has also done a great job, and he’s given us a lift off of the bench. Our reserves have stepped up a lot to make up for his loss.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“I really don’t know what their plan was (defensively). They tried to not let Wragge get the ball, but he somehow found a way to get it anyway. But honestly, we just have a lot of options. You have to kind of pick your poison. They switched a lot of screens, and when they do that as I’m coming off a pick-and-roll, I try to drag it as far as I can. Then I look back to see if Doug or Ethan has a pop, has a good look. If not, I try to beat my man and get inside to where Doug can get a seal on the opposite side. 4’s and 5’s aren’t used to guarding a guy that moves that much, and that’s where he gets a lot of his easier shots.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“Without Grant being out there, someone else has to step up and be that pinpoint delivery guy. The last couple of games, I’ve just really paid attention to things that he normally does, and he’s given me a couple of pointers on how to get the ball in to guys, and how to find guys in their sweet spot. I really listen to what he has to say, and then go execute it on the court.” -Jahenns Manigat on 1620AM Postgame

“I went 1-6 on offense for a reason, because I was chasing Dunham around all night (laughs). I had no legs left on the offensive end, they were completely shot. He’s a helluva player. He’s only a sophomore, and if he decides to stay all four years he’s going to be a heckuva player for them. He does everything — he has the three, he has the three off a dribble, he had a midrange game and he can get to the rim quick enough to make you feel like you’re a step behind. I tried really hard to make it as difficult for him as I could.” -Jahenns Manigat on 1620AM Postgame

“Before this season started, Coach Merfeld said everybody’s expecting us to play one really good game and then go fall down the next. That’s our challenge: to be focused each and every game, to understand the scouting report, and the importance of knowing their guys and what their weaknesses are, so that we can take their strengths away. Before every game, the locker room is pretty quiet, kind of like a calm before the storm. Last year, it was really loud in there, with music playing and people goofing around a little bit before the game. This year, it’s been quiet, everybody’s at their locker focusing on what they have to do, and intent on executing our plan to perfection like we did tonight.” -Jahenns Manigat on 1620AM Postgame

“When the crowd noise gets to a point where we can’t hear ourselves communicate on defense, that’s what you like to hear. Tonight, especially when we were going on our run, after I got that steal and the layup, I slapped the floor and looked up, and there wasn’t a single seat where there wasn’t somebody standing. It’s just sweet to see. We’re so blessed that we can fill our facility with such wonderful fans, and that we play in a community that supports us.”-Jahenns Manigat on 1620AM Postgame

“We were as good as we’ve ever been during that 32-6 run to end the first half on both ends of the floor. You take a team’s spirit when you do that. We scored on 14 straight possessions. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that. I saw the Globetrotters do that once, I guess. And a lot of the baskets were a result of the guys making extra passes. That’s what I’m most proud of. A guy like Isaiah Zierden plays six minutes in the first half, and has three assists and no turnovers. He’s just out there playing basketball the right way, understanding, ‘Alright, Doug’s got it going, I’ll turn this shot down and make an extra pass.’ That’s what makes us who we are.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We caught Butler at the right time. They’re tired, they’ve played a bunch of overtime games, and Kellen Dunham has played 95 minutes or something like that the last two games. The way he cuts and the way he moves, it’s not humanly possible to continue to do that. I think when we threw the first, the second and the third punch, we broke their will a little bit.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Once we got our transition game started with some stops, we were able to come at them pretty hard and wear into them a little. One of the Butler assistants told me after the game, ‘You guys are a lot faster in person than you look on tape. You come at us much quicker than I realized when I watched film.’ I think they realized that when you’re here, every time we have the ball the floor is spaced, and you turn your head and say ‘I’ve gotta find him, no, I’ve gotta find him, no I’ve gotta find him!’ and there’s all these guys everywhere. That’s a sign that our guys are doing what we want them to do.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I said it after Grant got hurt. Avery and Isaiah have been preparing themselves all spring and summer because we didn’t think Grant was coming back. Devin’s getting better with each passing game. We’ve got capable guys. Do I want to have Grant back on the floor? Absolutely. He’s an important part of our team whether he’s playing or not. Tonight he was over there talking to guys, talking at halftime, and the good news is we’ll get him back. I think the guys have really adjusted to the different role that they now have to play. It really happened in the blink of an eye, and now Avery’s role changed, Z’s role changed, Devin’s role changed. They’ve all answered the bell. Avery was much more at ease tonight, much more comfortable with being in the starting lineup and playing at the start of the game. I thought he did an unbelievable job of attacking the basket, of getting us some extra rebounds. He had seven rebounds and he tipped probably five or six other ones.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“The teams from the Big East that have come in here have been blown away by what we have here. Gus Johnson had never been here, and I had a good conversation with him before the game. He said, ‘People don’t know this about Omaha. They don’t know that this place exists.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re a pretty good guy to tell that story.’ If Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery show up and there’s 9,000 people in this building and it’s quiet, it’s not the same thing. Our fans are sending a message that is going to be huge for us moving forward in recruiting and everything we do to sell this program. We’re fourth in the country, and Louisville, Kentucky and Syracuse are the three above us. That’s pretty good company.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s been fun because there’s energy in this building every time we’ve played. That makes this experience special. With this group of guys, our fans have six more chances to see them. That’s it. That’s tough for people to think about. They’ve only got six more times with Grant and Doug and Ethan and Jahenns. Our fans have six more times to watch them play. It’s a group that ten years from now, twenty years from now, people are going to talk about.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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