The Creighton men’s basketball team heads into Saturday’s 1:15 p.m. game against the 19th-ranked Seton Hall Pirates (12-3, 2-1) facing something they haven’t faced in their time as a Bluejay — a four-game losing streak. In fact, no Creighton team since the 1999-2000 NCAA Tournament team has lost four games in a row during a season. Just like this year’s team learning without the services of all-time leading scorer and NBA lottery pick Doug McDermott, that ’99-’00 team was learning to play without Creighton’s all-time leading scorer — before McDermott showed up — Rodney Buford.
As this year’s team has figured out, finding an identity less than a year removed from playing alongside one of the most prolific scorer’s in NCAA history can be a bumpy road. After non-conference wins over then 18th-ranked Oklahoma and instate rival Nebraska, the Bluejays have struggled, losing five of their last seven. In those five losses the Bluejays are shooting a combined 38.9% from the field, and an even worse 29.9% from the behind the 3-point line.
Despite his team’s cold stretch shooting the ball, head coach Greg McDermott says his team is continuing to work at getting better. “Our energy’s been good. Our execution wasn’t great today, yesterday it was better, but we rested a few guys with some bumps and bruises.
“I think they’ve done a decent job of preparing themselves for the game,” McDermott said.
McDermott says that while this group hasn’t faced this type of adversity on the floor, they have no choice but to respond to it.
“It’s not easy, certainly. It’s a situation that not many of them have been in before,” he said. “But they’ve continued to forge forward and I’ll be shocked and disappointed, and frankly I won’t allow it to be any other way.”
Senior forward Avery Dingman said after Wednesday’s 70-60 home loss to league-leading DePaul that this was still the same group that beat Oklahoma and Nebraska, and the players need to remember what they are capable of on the court. The coaching staff, McDermott said, is doing what they can to lift the team’s shooting confidence while also getting them to get better at other areas.
“We’re trying to clean up our mistakes, obviously, and just trying to instill confidence into some of our shooters who aren’t shooting it up to the level that they’re capable of.”
The challenge of building that confidence is made more difficult by the gauntlet the Jays will have to go through in the Big East. Facing a schedule full of teams that most believe are capable of at least making the NCAA Tournament will naturally bring down those averages, but especially so when a team is struggling. Their next opportunity on the court will come against the aforementioned Seton Hall Pirates who started conference play with home wins over two top 15 teams in St. John’s and Villanova before dropping a road game, 69-58, at Xavier on Wednesday night.
The Pirates are led by junior guard Sterling Gibbs (16.1 ppg, 3.9 apg, 1.3 spg) on the perimeter and freshman forward Angel Delgado (8.8 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 1.4 bpg) down in the paint. Even without the services of their second-leading scorer in highly touted freshman Isaiah Whitehead, McDermott says the Pirates have more than enough healthy players to come in and hand the Bluejays a fifth consecutive loss.
“They are really talented,” said McDermott. “Sterling Gibbs is one of the top couple of guards in the league and he’s played that way from the start and Delgado gives them a presence inside both on the backboards and defensively. [Brandon] Mobley is an improved player from a year ago and their role players are doing a nice job — [Jaren] Sina and the rest of the bunch. It’s a good basketball team. There is a reason they beat two ranked teams last week.”
One adjustment the Bluejays made last year after hitting a minor rough patch was going with a smaller lineup, moving 6-foot-8 Ethan Wragge to the five spot and spreading the floor with shooters. That is something the Bluejays might again this year after seeing it have some success in their most recent outing against DePaul. While not ideal for rebounding, it does allow for better floor spacing on the offensive end.
“We did it against DePaul and there are certainly some good things offensively and certainly some negatives on the backboards because we become really small,” McDermott said. “But it’s an option we’re going to have to look at.”
Injury Report
- Center Geoffrey Groselle and forward Ricky Kreklow were back at practice on Friday after battling the flu throughout the week.
- Center Zach Hanson left Thursday’s practice with a shoulder injury and didn’t take part in any of the contact activity the Jays ran through on Friday. Greg McDermott said he’s feeling better than it was on Thursday and the team will see how it improves on Saturday before determining his status for the Seton Hall game.
- Junior guard Mo Watson Jr. returned to practice earlier in the week after recovering from a foot injury and his impact is already being felt on the scout team, “It’s hard to prepare for him,” Greg McDermott said. “In terms of being shifty and seeing the floor, making reads and being a point guard, he gives us a great look. A look not many teams have the luxury of getting on the scout team.”
- Freshman guard Ronnie Harrell also returned to practice on Friday after being out with a concussion suffered prior to the Christmas break. Harrell was a full participant on the scout team helping the team prepare for Seton Hall.