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Men's Basketball

Morning After: #18 Creighton 68, Butler 63

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Butler corrals 14 offensive rebounds, and turns them into 15 second chance points. Creighton makes 12-15 free throws after missing 11 at St. John’s on Sunday.

Favorite Moment: Down two with less than a minute to play, on the road against an inspired team playing in front of a raucous home crowd, Doug McDermott calmly hit a long three-pointer from the top of the circle to give CU the lead. Pretty good stuff, but not my favorite moment.

That would come next, when Will “Big Swag” “Gran Artino” Artino played textbook post defense to deny not one but two shots from point-blank range by Butler’s Andrew Chrabascz. It was beautiful — without fouling, Artino managed to make both shots so difficult, so hostile, that neither had any prayer of going in. When he secured the rebound after the second miss, I leapt out of my La-Z-Boy and yelled so loudly that…well, it was a big moment. What do you expect me to do, sit quietly and enjoy it?

It was part of a sensational night for Artino, who had his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, as he made Butler pay for smothering Ethan Wragge. While they successfully kept The Lumberjack from chopping them down with threes, they unleashed Big Swag in the middle, and when the result is a win, that’s a trade any Bluejay fan would gladly make.

Quick Recap: Doug McDermott scored 10 of Creighton’s first 13 points, and 8 of their final 14. In between, Butler was even peskier than I feared they might be. It started out well, as CU jumped out to a ten-point lead after eight minutes thanks to an unstoppable McDermott and the same listless Butler team that got blown out two nights earlier by Xavier. But just as the game teetered on the precipice of Blowout City, Butler regrouped, used defensive rebounds to run in transition and get open threes for Kellen Dunham, used offensive rebounds to give themselves second-and-third chances, and with five minutes to go in the half, to take a 27-26 lead.

The three by Dunham that gave them that lead was the first of 12 lead changes to come, along with eight ties in a wild, back-and-forth game that neither team could seize control of. It was reminiscent of past Bluejay road games in the state of Indiana, which was home to more inexplicable losses during Creighton’s MVC days than any other state thanks to Evansville and Indiana State. This looked a lot like that — an opponent down on their luck, CU lets them hang around a bit too long, they get brave…and suddenly, they believe they can pull the upset. Now you’re in trouble, because they’re hitting shots they don’t normally make, the crowd is going crazy, and the whole thing spirals out of control. Is it possible for a fan to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder from too many horrible losses in the same state? If it is, I think I’ve got a case against Indiana.

But I digress. Creighton managed to re-take the lead before the end of the half, which was a good omen, as they’re 18-0 this year when leading at the half but just 1-4 when they’re behind. Butler went ahead 90 seconds into the second half, when Alex Barlow made five straight points to give them a 39-37 lead. It was the start of an eight-minute stretch that saw six lead changes, as the teams traded big shot after big shot.

At the 12:31 mark, Jahenns Manigat hit a three to give Creighton a 54-47 lead, and it looked like maybe — finally — the 18th ranked Bluejays were done with this nonsense and ready to pull away. Not so fast. A 7-0 Butler run keyed by two jumpers from Dunham tied the game with ten minutes to play. McDermott answered immediately with a three of his own to put CU back in front, and then they held on for dear life, clinging to at most a three-point lead for the better part of six minutes.

Andrew Chrabascz buried a three just prior to the under-four media timeout to tie the game at 61, and after the teams traded empty possessions, Khyle Marshall hit a jumper to give Butler the lead 63-61 with 1:14 to go. It was pandemonium inside Hinkle Fieldhouse. It was fingernail-biting time in living rooms across Omaha and anywhere else Bluejay fans were gathered to watch. Then McDermott went to work, hitting the three-pointer that Ott described as a “Superman” moment. Sandwiched around Artino’s defensive showcase on the following possession and a tag-team effort by Manigat and Chatman on the final possession to deny breathing room — much less an open look — for Dunham and Elijah Brown on the perimeter was four absolutely clutch free throws by Chatman to seal the game.

The good news: no more games in Indiana until 2015. The better news: this was probably the dreaded February swoon, given the way they’ve struggled to hit shots and to bring intensity on defense, and yet Creighton survived with a 3-1 record.

Quotables:

(On Butler’s final offensive sequence) “I had a feeling they were going to go at me. I don’t have the defensive reputation that Jahenns or the other guys do. But I also knew my coaches were confident in me, and that’s why they put me out there in that situation. Coach Sellers has worked a ton with me on defense this season. That’s a real testament to him and Coach Mac and Coach Merf, because I couldn’t have made those plays last year. That I was able to is a testament to how much time they’ve spent developing all of us as players.” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

“I never know what teams are going to do with me on ball screens. Every team does it differently, some stay back and don’t do anything, some switch, some pull and do everything, so I was really watching how they were switching when I was on the bench. When me and Doug were on the court together, we probably could have exploited that lob-over pass a little more than we did, but at the end of the day we got the win so that’s alright.” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

“Doug’s second shot of the night, the little ‘Dirk’ fadeaway? Me and Avery turned to each other and said, it’s going to be a long night for them (laughing). Honest to God, it’s gotten to the point where every shot Doug takes, I think it’s going in. I crash the boards just because it’s my job, but it’s kind of a waste of energy. I’m an energy guy so I need all the energy I can get (laughs).” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s obviously a luxury that no matter who we play, we have the best player in the nation, and you guys don’t. And we have the best shooter in the nation, in Ethan, and you don’t. Whatever he went tonight, what, 0-4? He’s not doing that again. Guarantee it. I’ll put money on it. So when you have the two best shooters in the nation, and we’ve got Jahenns who’s been shooting it really well…we’ve just got so many weapons. And you combine it with how experienced we are, we’ve all been fighting together for three or four years, so when it comes down to the wire in these close games none of us believe that we aren’t going to come away with a win.” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s pretty cool to get to play here in this historic fieldhouse. I liked it because I played really well (laughs). It’s really cool, though, to get to play in the Garden — the modern-day Mecca of basketball — and Hinkle Fieldhouse, which is probably the past Mecca of basketball back-to-back. Not a lot of people get to do that, so it’s been a special two-game road trip.” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

(On why he shaved his beard) “Well, I was trimming it, and I cut it down too low, and — no, no, no, this story gets even worse — we get here, I wake up the next morning and I didn’t really have time to shave. I had to quickly use the hotel shaving cream and a single-blade razor, and it’s just…pain. Painful, the whole time. Then I ran out of shaving cream mid-shave, and Ethan tells me that I need to just use soap. ‘Just put soap on your beard, it’ll be fine!’ (Nick Bahe: “He’s a Lumberjack! What does he know about shaving?”) Exactly! But honestly, the soap worked better than hotel shaving cream, it just took 45 minutes to take a little stubble off my face. Later, when Doug asked me why I shaved, I said, ‘Because we lost? I don’t know…’ (laughs).” -Will Artino on 1620AM Postgame

(On the game-winning shot) “It felt awful. I thought I missed it. I was relieved when that one went in. We run that play a lot, and we just happened to get it open a couple of times in this game. It felt very good to see that one go in.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We just have so much confidence that we’re going to win in games like this. It starts with our leaders. My freshman year, we lost a bunch of games exactly like this, so many that I’d have already been packed up for the bus by this point. Tonight, it’s different when you have four seniors that are constantly yelling, ‘We’re going to win this game!’ and ‘Let’s get a stop!’. Will Artino’s leadership came out of nowhere tonight. He was getting fired up every possession. But honestly, we knew we going to win that game from the get-go.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Jahenns has done such a great job on defense. He was a little rattled at the start of this game, as Dunham got a couple of easy ones that got his confidence going, and I talked to Jahenns at halftime and told him, ‘Man, just do your thing, take it one possession at a time.’ He hit a couple threes of his own, and then his defense got better as his confidence came back, and that was great to see.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’ve got to make the opponent pay when they switch defenses and I have a mismatch, like I did with Barlow tonight. A lot of times, what our coaches are really stressing is don’t throw it in there right away. Make them work a little bit. Swing it around, make a high-low pass, because Barlow has really quick hands, so I couldn’t really post him up at 15 feet. We did a decent job of doing that, but we could do better.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

(On his Dad’s 100th win) “I know, right? We were talking about that, it’s crazy! 100 wins in four years, it just blows my mind. It’s gone by so fast. I know he’s only focusing on ‘101’ but I’m sure he’ll enjoy it on the flight a little bit.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“In huddles during tight games, this is such a veteran team they don’t really get shook. They didn’t get shook at St. John’s the other night either, Doug had the same shot, he missed it, we missed free throws. Tonight, we made the free throws and Doug hits the shot. It’s a veteran group, they’re fun to coach.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’re lacking a little energy right now, and I don’t know why. Coming off the break, I thought we’d have a newfound bounce in our step but it seems like we’re a little bit fatigued. We have to figure out a way as a coaching staff to get around that. We’ve got to get guys off the floor a little more often. But tonight, we had some guys step up big-time. Will Artino was awesome, Austin made big free throws, Grant on all the out-of-bounds situations did great, and then Jahenns hit some big threes in the second half to really stretch that defense. The execution on the play where Doug hit the three was great, Austin set a great screen, Doug made the right read, and then he knocked it down.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I just think we lack a little ‘pop’ on the defensive end of the floor. I don’t see us flying around like we were before. We’ve got to really zero in on it as a coaching staff the next couple of days and see if we can’t fix it. The ‘pop’ was there at the end when we needed it, but obviously, Devin’s still sick, Grant’s trying to get back in shape, so there’s a lot of things to factor in there. Those guys will get a little better with every passing game. We need to get better early, we let Dunham get started early where he made two transition threes — that shouldn’t happen, because when a shooter like that gets one, it fuels him.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Ethan’s going to be fine. Everybody’s asking me about him, and there’s nothing wrong with that cat. It’s hard to get shots when they’re guarding you like that. Then you get a look, and sometimes you rush it a little bit. It’s harder to get into the flow of the game when they guard you like that. He’ll hit big shots for us down the stretch, there’s no doubt in my mind, and he’s doing all the other things we ask him to. He’s just as happy as everyone else in the locker room.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We talked about fouling on their last possession, because we did have a foul to give. As long as we defended their action, I told the guys ‘If you get in trouble, and you feel like you’re in trouble, take the foul. But if you feel like you’re in position, let’s play.’ They were looking for Brown on the slip, no question. We took that away. Jahenns had him at 28 feet right where he wanted him. I was just going to let the guys play. They were all aware that we had a foul to give, they all understood it, I thought about it at about the six second mark to tell Jahenns. But then I thought, you’re screaming from the bench, and all of a sudden they’re going into their shot and you’ve distracted him. So I just let them play defense, which they did, and then we got the rebound and won the game.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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