Getting a new coach can’t necessarily be easy. It might be a little fun and exciting, but there are still questions on what will happen. For a majority of the Creighton roster, Dana Altman was all that these players have known for a college coach. With Altman leaving for Oregon and Greg McDermott coming in, many have had to adjust to some different schemes and to some different philosophies. The freshmen have been able to adjust right away.
If you watched either of the first two Creighton games in the past 48 hours, then you have seen some flashes of the old, the new and somewhere in between. Creighton survived a nail-biter against Northern Arizona 74-70 on Sunday in the latest episode of what’s new.
First, let’s jump back to Friday night’s opener against Alabama State. As many expected, the Bluejays and the Hornets were pretty even to start the game and eventually Creighton was able to walk away with a decent 71-57 win to start the McDermott era. Antoine Young showed right away that this is his team to run this season leading with 21 points, a team high 7 rebounds while dishing out three assists.
Doug McDermott made a nice regular season debut as a starter pitching in 16 points and 7 rebounds as well. After the impressive exhibition game, this might have been expected, but impressive none the less. The last time a true freshman played his first game and scored this many points and grabbed that amount of rebounds was back in the 1970’s. The other new guy, Jahenns Manigat showed his play from the outside contributing 12 points of his own on 3-of-5 shooting from downtown.
Fast forward to Sunday’s game against Northern Arizona. Creighton started out early hitting shots and was out to a comfortable 9 to 11 point lead throughout the first half. By the second half, the lead grew to as much as 15 and it looked like the Bluejays were going to coast to victory. But then something happened that I never saw before–Northern Arizona’s next 7 possessions scored three-point shots, they went on a 31-11 run and had a five point lead heading down the stretch.
But the Bluejays were able to calmly stay in the game and get things down to a final couple of possessions. With the game tied at 70 and under 45 seconds to go, Kenny Lawson, who had been relatively quiet throughout the game, got the ball down low and threw down a monstrous dunk to take the lead. Northern Arizona came down and missed a three pointer and Lawson grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He calmly sunk the two free throws to put the lead to four and the Bluejays walked out of the Phone Booth with a 74-70 victory.
Wayne Runnels had a huge game off the bench with his first career double-double (17 pts., 10 reb.), Kaleb Korver’s shot came back (3-8 from three and 12 points), and five Bluejays scored in double-figures.
Two different games–Two different sets of heroes. That could be a good thing. You may never know what to expect or who might be the “star” for a particular game. At the same time, you don’t want a night where everyone is completely off.
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It is obvious that as the season continues, Creighton will be taking baby steps to keep building the team of past years, but to have their own look under McDermott. Creighton has another game before the showdown in Des Moines against Iowa State next Sunday. Some initial chemistry has been created through these first two games and I walked away this weekend with a few different questions:
- Will we see Ethan Wragge soon? It has been reported that he has some foot problems and he took part in warmups on Sunday, but did not play. If he is available, how long will it take him to be re-integrated into the lineup.
- How many minutes can Casey Harriman play? His shoulder injury limits him and in tight games, how many minutes will he play? He was in two minutes today.
- Everyone is anticipating the insertion of Gregory Echenique when he becomes eligible, but how will it affect things? After the first two games, Kenny Lawson has gotten into early foul trouble in the first half limiting his time. Will Gregory’s presence change things?
- Doug McDermott has averaged 31 minutes in the first two games. As coach McDermott said today in the post game, “Doug is playing over 30 minutes a game and he shouldn’t be. He should be able to play a few minutes and then get taken out and taught.” As deep as the team appears to be in the frontcourt, the players mentioned above are key to what Coach McDermott wants with the playing of Doug.
Each of these player situations are more baby steps to develop this Creighton basketball team. But we can walk away with several great things.
- The Bluejays have shot 53-of-61 from the charity stripe. Last season in the first two games, Creighton only got to the line a total of 36 times and making 27. So it is nice to see a Creighton team not afraid to take it to the basket. Last season it was rare for the Bluejays to take it to the rack.
- Wayne Runnels is a lot more aggressive. After having to adjust to an unfamiliar role last season, Runnels is embracing the utility role he is in this season. His play on Sunday is something you wish you could see from everyone all the time.
- Getting the ball down low. There still is some work to do to continually get it down low to Lawson and the others like McDermott wants, but it has improved from last season. Through two games last season, Creighton had shot 19-of-54 from three point range. This season it is 12-of-38. Neither one is a great percentage, but there is an obvious change that the ball is being shot from 18 feet in this year.
- Winning the rebound battle. Through the first two games, the Bluejays have won the rebounding battle which was always a big story with the past few seasons of Altman ball. In the first two games last season, the Jays lost the rebounding battle in both games–one win and one loss.
Coach McDermott has talked about defense. Looking at the stats above, it appears the Bluejays are showing some improvement in that area, even though some may say they haven’t noticed anything.
From my standpoint, the Bluejays have probably looked like everyone has expected. Those baby steps will hopefully grow into something bigger by the time the season ends. But for now, they aren’t off to a bad start. Let’s see who the hero will be Wednesday night against Louisiana.