Greg McDermott noticed something interesting when he re-watched his Creighton team’s Big East Tournament game against Providence. On the court at Madison Square Garden to start the overtime period against the Friars was senior Marcus Foster, junior Khyri Thomas, and freshmen Jacob Epperson, Mitch Ballock, and Ty-Shon Alexander.
It wasn’t by accident. As a coach who emphasizes development away from the bright lights, McDermott typically brings his fresh faces along slowly, but this group has forced his hand by speeding up their own development.
“I think that speaks volumes to the progress that they’ve made,” McDermott said on the eve of the trio’s first NCAA Tournament game. “It wasn’t a typical freshman year because we really asked them to get out of their comfort zone and do different things, and if one of them fights us there or one of them can’t embrace the role we’ve asked them to play, we’re not here today.”
It hasn’t been a smooth road for any of them, but when faced with a hurdle, a setback, a slump, or a challenge, they’ve found a way to break through and come out better for it on the other end.
Alexander was thrust into the role of point guard, backing up sophomore Davion Mintz when Syracuse transfer Kaleb Joseph was saddled with a hamstring injury. In a position he had hardly played before getting to Omaha, the soft-spoken Charlotte native thrived. After starting the season with two home games, the Jays hit the road to play three teams that were ranked in the Top 25 at the time in Northwestern, UCLA, and Baylor. Alexander scored in double figures each game — including a season-high 14 points at Northwestern. In the three games he averaged 12.0 points and 2.7 assists per game on 54.5% shooting from the field — Creighton beat the Wildcats and Bruins before losing to Baylor by six.
Ballock scored a season-high 22 points in the win over UCLA and notched 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists to help the Jays rally to beat in-state rival Nebraska at home. Those two wins turned out to be their most high profile of the non-conference portion of the schedule. After a slow start to Big East play, Ballock dropped 16 points on the road against then 10th-ranked Xavier and helped Creighton secure an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament with a 13-point, 8-assist, 6-rebound performance in 43 minutes to get an overtime win over third-ranked Villanova — both the Musketeer and Wildcats would eventually earn number one seeds in March Madness, and both brought out the best in the freshman from Eudora, Kansas.
Freshmen Mitch Ballock and Jacob Epperson battle for a rebound. (Photo by Mike Spomer / WBR)
As for Epperson, the 6-foot-11 wirey center from Melbourne, Australia spent most of the early portion of the season rehabbing a knee injury and was planning to redshirt before deciding to pull it and get on the court to help his team in the wake of Martin Krampelj’s season-ending knee injury in late January. After a slow start and some sporadic playing time, he seems to be hitting his stride at the most important time of the season. He scored 14 points in eight minutes against Marquette, and was huge in the aforementioned win over Villanova with 12 points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocked shots in a season-high 23 minutes of action.
Despite a redshirt season being better in the long term for his physical development, he is glad he decided to get on the floor with his teammates and prepare himself to help them make a run in the NCAA Tournament.
“I feel good about it,” Epperson said of the decision to play. “Coming out here and getting ready to play I’m glad I made the decision to get out here with these guys.”
All three of them have faced challenges in their first season that most players won’t see during a four or five-year career. A fact that wasn’t lost on their head coach when asked about how they’ve impacted the team the day before they face off against Kansas State in their first NCAA Tournament game.
“I had lunch with those three the other day, and one of the things I talked about and actually thanked them for is they’ve all had to play a role different than probably what they anticipated,” McDermott said. “Ty-Shon really got thrust into the point guard role because of Kaleb’s injuries and he did a good job so we left him there. That’s not his true position. Ronnie recently goes down late in the year when we’re playing the three most important games of the year to try to get into this tournament and we slide Mitch Ballock full-time to the power forward position, a position he never really played except for a few minutes with us early in the season. And Jacob Epperson was going to redshirt. He was sitting there in the middle of January just icing his knee, taking his time before getting back to the practice floor after the meniscus surgery, and all of a sudden on January 27th he gets thrown to the wolves because of Martin’s injury.”
They cleared all of those hurdles because their team needed them to, and they did it without a complaint. That poise and maturity beyond their years was on display again when all three gave Creighton a fighting chance against the Friars in their first Big East Tournament game at the Mecca of college basketball. The trio combined for 25 points, seven rebounds, and six blocked shots on 60.0% shooting from the field at The Garden, and they didn’t surprise themselves by doing it either.
“Obviously everyone wants to play at Madison Square Garden,” Ballock said before the team’s open practice in for their first round game in Charlotte. “It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a little kid. When you get the opportunity you have to take it all in, but at the end of the day it’s just another arena, so you just have to do what you need to do and lean on the preparation, the details in practice, and the scouting reports. Everything else will play itself out because the hours are there and the shots are there, so you just have to put it all together when you play.”
The game against Kansas State will be another first for the trifecta of newcomers. How are they approaching this challenge with the season on the line?
“I just want to win,” Ballock said. “We’ve been through a lot this year, obviously, losing some pieces, pulling some redshirts, and playing different lineups throughout the year. I think the way we’ve played together, played unselfish — we all don’t really care who does what. We just want to win. I think that will translate and carry over into tomorrow. We’ll have an opportunity to be in a good situation to win, advance, and keep going. It’s do or die.”