Creighton is scheduled to tip off the 2020-21 season a week from today in South Dakota, though like everything else in 2020, that’s subject to change. But assuming the season tips off that night, it’s time to get back into the basketball mindset after the longest offseason — literally and figuratively — anyone can remember. So WBR thought we’d take a look back at each of the Jays’ 13 Big East wins last winter en route to their first regular season conference title since joining that league.
January 1, 2020
Win #1: Creighton 92, Marquette 75
In the 2018 meeting in Omaha, Creighton led by as many as 16 before surrendering 49 second-half points to Marquette and losing 90-86. In 2019, the Jays led for 39 minutes and 18 seconds, by as many as 13 points, were ahead by five with 10 seconds to play — and by three with 0.8 seconds left. But a wild inbounds pass, a crazy three at the buzzer from Sam Houser to tie it, and 14 overtime points from Markus Howard led Marquette, not Creighton, to victory.
For all 40 minutes in the 2020 meeting, they dismantled a good Marquette team that possessed an All-American shooter, better height and length, more depth, and the confidence that comes from winning past battles. How? By insisting that the game be played the way they wanted it, with such tremendous execution that the visiting Golden Eagles had no choice but to pull their big men and go small themselves in a failed attempt to fight smallball fire with fire.
“Our guys fight hard. There’s a grittiness to this group. They understand who we have to be defensively if we’re going to be successful,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame interview on 1620AM. “We have to fight for every 50/50 ball. We have to dive on the floor for loose balls. We got to a point tonight where Marquette took all of their bigs out, and I told the guys that’s quite a compliment to you. They’re got a three-headed monster over there and they decide not to play them.”
As it turned out, that was a sign of things to come.
January 11, 2020
Win #2: Creighton 77, Xavier 65
Following two losses to Butler and Villanova, Creighton desperately needed a win. Then they began the game 5-for-23 from the field, and made just one of their first nine 3-pointers. But their defensive plan kept Xavier from exploiting their size advantage, and got the Musketeers to settle for jumpers and three-pointers. The execution of that plan kept the game close.
“Especially early, we did a good job keeping it out of (Tyrique) Jones’ hands so we didn’t have to deal with him,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “The defensive plan was executed well. But the plan isn’t any good if you don’t have some fight and some teeth behind it. Today we did.”
The game was tied 15-15 after 16 minutes of play, largely because of their defense. And then Creighton got hot, making all seven shots they attempted the rest of the half, while Xavier remained stymied by CU’s defense — and the Jays built a lead.
They held that lead most of the rest of the way, and four days after failing to do so against the Wildcats, they slammed the door on a Xavier team that had clawed to within a single possession at 51-48 and then dead-bolted the door with a big run — on the road, in front of a hostile, sold out crowd, in one of the toughest venues in the country.
January 18, 2020
Win #3: Creighton 78, Providence 74
After a 83-80 road loss to Georgetown, the Jays stood at 2-3 in the league and at an early crossroads in the conference schedule. And two weeks after Villanova stole a game from Creighton in the final minutes when the Jays had controlled it for most of the night, CU did the same to Providence. The Friars turned 19 offensive rebounds into 25 second-chance points. They dictated tempo and forced the Jays to match their bullish style of play. Their star guard David Duke scored 36 points — 24 in a scorching second half where he made 9-of-11 overall and 4-of-5 from three-point range. They led 74-69 with 1:41 to play. But from that point forward, Creighton found another gear.
In a game that instantly moved near the top of any list of all-time classics in the Qwest/CenturyLink/CHI Health Center era, Creighton hit one clutch shot after another, got big defensive stops when they needed to, and ended the game on a 9-0 run to steal one back. Marcus Zegarowski’s three-pointer with 3.2 seconds to play proved to be the game-winner, and was the first time in six years that the Jays have made a go-ahead basket in the final 10 seconds of a win at home. The last? Doug McDermott’s three-pointer with 2.8 seconds left against St. John’s on January 28, 2014. The 9-0 rally marked the first time in eight years that Creighton’s won a game where it erased a two-possession deficit in the final two minutes at home. The last time THAT happened? Antoine Young’s buzzer-beater to cap a 10-3 run against Long Beach State on February 18, 2012.
“If you’d have told me before the game,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame radio interview, “when Marcus Zegarowski was so sick he couldn’t even walk, that he was going to hit the game-winner? Crazy. Kelvin (Jones) gets hurt, Christian (Bishop) gets in foul trouble, Ty-Shon (Alexander) hurts his knee, we had a lot going against us today. It was a crazy finish.”
January 22, 2020
Win #4: Creighton 83, DePaul 68
The Bluejays led for all but 96 seconds and cruised to a 83-68 win in Chicago over DePaul. There’s not a lot more to say about this one nine months later, but the highlights are worth re-watching to see another game against the Blue Demons where Mitch Ballock torches them from downtown.
January 26, 2020
Win #5: Creighton 77, Xavier 66
Mismatches can work both ways. Xavier’s four-forward lineup, featuring 6’9″ Tyrique Jones, 6’8″ Jason Carter, 6’7″ Naji Marshall and 6’9″ Zach Freemantle, gave them an edge on the glass and in the paint. But they were ultimately no match for the Jays’ speed and ability to score in transition, and after falling behind by ten at the under-12 timeout, Xavier (at least for a while) abandoned that lineup. In a battle of strength versus strength, Creighton’s backcourt — just as they did in Cincinnati two weeks prior — got the better of Xavier’s frontcourt.
The Jays jumped out to a 10-1 lead five minutes into the game and held the Musketeers without a field goal for nearly six. Given Xavier’s difficulties scoring, it was fair to wonder if the outcome was basically decided at that point. It sounds ridiculous but coming back from a double-digit hole is tough to do when you can’t make a jump shot. And though Xavier made a handful of surges to get the game as close as six points, the outcome was never seriously in doubt after that initial burst.
February 1, 2002
Win #6: Creighton 76, #8 Villanova 61
Creighton led for 34 minutes and 33 seconds on January 7 against Villanova, and by as many as 14 points. But the Wildcats stole the win late with a game-ending 20-7 run. One month later in Philadelphia, a similar script unfolded. Creighton led for 37 minutes and 22 seconds, and by as many as 17 points. But in the second half, Villanova began creeping their way back into the game, and cut the deficit to 54-50.
Here we go again, right? Not so fast.
The Jays answered with a 9-0 run of their own this time, building the lead back to 13 at 63-50. When Villanova came back a second time and cut the lead to 63-57, they clamped down defensively and only allowed one made field goal over the game’s final 4:37.
“When you lose a game the way we did against them the first time around at our place, you owe ’em one,” Mitch Ballock said in a postgame radio interview. “We’ve been talking all week that we owe these guys. Today we put a full 40 (minutes) together.”
February 8, 2020
Win #7: Creighton 94, St. John’s 82
Creighton was buried by a 34-11 run at Providence a few nights later, and when they returned home, a super-aggressive St. John’s team awaited them. But Marcus Zegarowski led the way with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes against the Red Storm. It was one helluva bounce-back game after his 1-for-10 night at Providence.
“I was pretty pissed off after the Providence game,” Zegarowski said on the postgame radio show. “I didn’t play well. That’s really close to home and I really wanted to beat them.”
The same could be said for Denzel Mahoney, who went scoreless against Providence and took just five shots. He scored 18 on Saturday on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range.
“Denzel and Marcus both did not play well at Providence. They had two of their poorest offensive performances of the season,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “They didn’t hang their head, and they didn’t pout. They got back to the practice floor and they did what they did tonight within the scope of our offense.”
Mitch Ballock only took six shots, but made three 3’s and had an enormous stat line despite scoring “only” 10 points — he had eight assists and six rebounds, plus a steal, in 39 minutes. And in CU’s 94-82 win, the Red Storm played right into the Jays’ hands by turning the game into a track meet.
“We like any team that likes to run with us. We feel we have the advantage there,” Marcus Zegarowski said in the postgame press conference. “I think down the stretch, they got a little tired. We kept pushing. That’s just a testament to our system and how we play.”
February 12, 2020
Win #8: Creighton 87, #10 Seton Hall 82
In a game with 15 ties and 20 lead changes, the two best teams in arguably the nation’s best conference took turns throwing haymakers at one another, changing momentum nearly as often as they changed the score. It’s a game Creighton wouldn’t have won the year before, which is something we can confidently say because they played games similar to this a year ago and found ways to lose nearly all of them. But in 2020 against the toughest team in the league, it was Creighton who was tougher, and it was Creighton who made the bigger plays.
After Seton Hall scored seven straight points to go ahead 66-62, it looked and felt like so many of those games Creighton played a year ago — a good effort turned into a loss in crunch time. Except this time was different. Because this team was different.
Denzel Mahoney drove into the paint and drew contact on the next possession, and hit both free throws. 66-64 Seton Hall. Christian Bishop knocked the ball loose from Myles Powell on a jumper, and Damien Jefferson scored a stylish layup in transition to tie it at 66. Then Kelvin Jones blocked a shot, starting another transition break. This one ended with Mahoney splashing home a three from the corner in front of his own bench, giving Creighton a 69-66 lead. No big deal, just your everyday run-of-the-mill 7-0 run on the road to erase a deficit.
Moments later, if it wasn’t clear already how much different this team is from those of recent vintage, Damien Jefferson made it crystal clear. He deflected a pass to the opposite end of the floor, beat the nearest Seton Hall player in a foot race to secure the ball by laying out onto the floor, and threw a pass the other direction while starting to slide on the floor to a streaking Marcus Zegarowski, who coasted to the rim for a layup.
“Man, that was huge,” Jefferson said on the postgame radio show. “That really gave us a spark. It really got us going. I told Coach Huss, I was going to try to outrun him so I could get a dunk but that would have been selfish of me. I knew the coaches would want me to lay out for that ball instead.”
Huge is an understatement. Jefferson’s hustle gave Creighton a 71-66 lead, capping a stunning 9-0 run, and sparked by his effort the Jays made all the plays they needed to in the final four minutes to secure a massive, massive victory.
February 15, 2020
Win #9: Creighton 93, DePaul 64
After a choppy-at-best end to the first half on Saturday night, Creighton didn’t mess around and let DePaul build any momentum out of the locker room. The Bluejays assisted and scored on each of their first eight possessions of the second half, outscoring the Blue Demons 18-3 over a 3-minute and 45-second span to build a 29-point lead and never look back en route to a 93-64 victory.
“We didn’t want any let downs,” junior guard Ty-Shon Alexander said of the second-half barrage. “We wanted to lock in defensively, and as soon as we did that we ended up bringing the lead up … our guys really put it on them.”
That 18-3 run — a “tidal wave of transition offense” as WBR’s Matt DeMarinis wrote — is included in its entirety in this highlight reel for posterity. It turned a 14-point lead into a 29-point blowout in less than four minutes by scoring on eight straight possessions without a missed shot.
February 18, 2020
Win #10: Creighton 73, #19 Marquette 65
During Creighton’s “Let it Fly” era, two fairly constant criticisms have been their struggles against teams who challenge them physically and their inconsistency on defense. On this late February night in Milwaukee, faced with the task of beating a Bluejay team flying high off of three straight wins where their offensive skills were on full display, Marquette decided to test their willingness to fight.
The Golden Eagles seemed determined to see how physical they could get before the smaller Bluejays were intimidated. They turned it into an old-school Big East brawl complete with super-hard screens and bodies thrown to the floor in the paint. And the Bluejays stood their ground, absorbing body blows, making one big play after another, and gutting out their third road win over a Top 20 team in as many weeks.
“We took a beating,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “This was a toughness test against a really, really good basketball team.”
February 23, 2020
Win #11: Creighton 81, #21 Butler 59
The first 30 minutes of CU’s 81-59 win over #21 Butler were as good as they’ve played in his ten years as head coach, according to Greg McDermott. There’s been some pretty great performances over those ten seasons, so that seems like a preposterous statement on the surface.
And yet, is it?
After 30 minutes on Sunday, Creighton had doubled up the Bulldogs 70-35. To that point of the game, they were unstoppable offensively and scoring both on three-pointers and poster-worthy dunks, often making Butler’s vaunted defense look stuck in the mud. They were stifling defensively, routinely stepping into passing lanes for steals or deflections, blocking shots, and making every shot attempt difficult. And as a result, they made a team ranked in the top 25 and headed for the NCAA Tournament look like a SWAC team playing a buy game in November. The level of domination was that thorough, the gap in execution that complete.
Afterward, WBR’s Tom Nemitz asked, “How good is this Creighton team? The short answer is that we don’t know, because they continue to move the mile marker further and further ahead, piling up progressively more and more impressive wins as the season heads toward its climax.”
Indeed, in going 6-1 through the month of February, they beat four ranked teams — including three on the road at #8 Villanova, #10 Seton Hall, and #19 Marquette — and smacked around DePaul, St. John’s and #21 Butler at home.
March 4, 2020
Win #12: Creighton 91, Georgetown 76
“Our guys played hard, they moved the basketball, we shot at a high level and the crowd was awesome,” Greg McDermott said to open up his postgame radio interview. “It was a lot of fun.”
Creighton followed up their second-worst shooting performance of the year with their best, just three days later. Their 17 three’s were a season high. They emphatically showed that this team is who we thought they were — mentally resilient, tough, and worthy of a title bout three days later.
Afterward, WBR’s Tom Nemitz wrote, “And so they turn the page to the single biggest game of the 10-year Greg McDermott Era, and perhaps one of the biggest regular season games in Creighton basketball history. By virtue of Villanova upsetting Seton Hall later on Wednesday, the race for a regular season title is now up for grabs.
On Saturday afternoon, #11 Creighton hosts #8 Seton Hall on network television with a Big East title at stake. Biggest game of the McDermott Era? You’re damn right it is.”
Prophetic.
March 7, 2020
Win #13: Creighton 77, #8 Seton Hall 60
Seven years after joining the Big East, in a year where they were picked seventh in the league, on the seventh day of March, the Creighton Bluejays earned the biggest win in at least a generation, if not the history of the program.
Think of the touchstone markers along the way — Coach Red and the Travelin’ Jays; Eddie Sutton and Tom Apke’s clubs giving CU their first taste of NCAA success in the ’70s; taking down Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores in 1978 to win the MVC title at the Civic; Tony Barone’s fiery teams with Bob Harstad and Chad Gallagher upsetting #15 New Mexico State in the ’91 NCAA Tourney; Dana Altman’s teams beating first Louisville in ’99 and then Florida in ’02 in double OT on a buzzer-beater by Terrell Taylor, followed by the 29-win club who rewrote the record books the next year; Greg and Doug McDermott rewriting them again a decade later. It was all leading to this moment.
March 7, 2020. The day the Creighton Bluejays became regular season champions of the best league in the country after 10 weeks of thrilling their fans with one huge win after another. And there was none bigger than this one — a rollicking 77-60 win over Seton Hall in front of a standing-room-only crowd, some of whom have been waiting for a moment like this for decades. To the doubters who said the Bluejays could never succeed in the big time, CU had now emphatically answered them by finishing in the top half of the Big East in five of seven seasons culminating in this championship. To their fans who wondered if a program that made cutting down nets and raising up banners a March routine in the MVC could reach that pinnacle again at college hoops’ highest level, CU proved it could by literally raising a banner right after the game that said “Big East Champions.” This day was a long time — for some, a lifetime — coming.
Days later, the coronavirus ended the season early and made that moment the conclusion to a magical season. Look at that photo — it seems like another universe, another time, doesn’t it?
One week from today, the core of that team returns to the floor with unfinished business and March glory on their minds.
