Creighton completed their overseas trip with a 3-0 record, handling the Bahamas Select team easily on Friday followed by much more competitive battles against BC Zalgaris and Obras Basket. Some high-level thoughts, followed by a quick recap of all three wins:
Don’t pay attention to the defense.
In the two final games against better opponents, the Jays’ defense improved significantly after a rocky start; it’s worth reiterating the complete lack of scouting that teams (including CU) do for games on foreign trips. They basically show up and play whoever suits up for the opponent, then adjust and formulate a plan once they’ve gotten a look at them.
For a defense as heavily predicated on preparation and on the scouting report as Creighton, that means they’re throwing out a lot of what makes them successful. Keep that in mind when you think about how a player like Steven Ashworth looked defensively in these three games; in games that count, the staff will formulate plans to minimize his weaknesses (size and athleticism) and maximize his strengths (an ability to consistently be in the correct spot defensively and to follow a team scouting report, allowing things like help defenders to be more effective).
Ejection aside, Johnathan Lawson had a good weekend offensively
In 2-1/2 games, Lawson made 6-of-10 from three-point range and provided a shooting spark off the bench that the Jays sorely lacked a year ago. The willingness to mix it up and bring an aggressive edge off the bench are traits CU was also lacking a year ago.
Getting thrown out of an exhibition game, and his body language afterward, aren’t traits that help win games, certainly. But if they can find a way to harness his talents, Lawson can carve out a role that will help this team. It seems likely that they’ll employ some sort of platoon with Mason Miller, Isaac Traudt and Lawson at the ‘4’, riding the hot hand unless one of them separates themselves from the pack.
Josiah Dotzler might not be a redshirt candidate after all
Many observers figured the freshman would redshirt, with playing time limited and the opportunity to spend a year in the weight room too tempting to pass up. But his energy and instincts defensively might change that equation. The minutes he played with fellow Omaha native Jasen Green were one of the highlights of the trip — particularly when they threw a full-court press on with Green at the top.
There’s a lot of scorers on this team, and most nights points (or lack thereof) will not be at a premium. If Dotzler can be a defensive specialist off the bench, particularly in a sort of change-up role with Green where they throw a pressure-heavy defensive lineup on the floor? He can help the Jays win games this year.
Fredrick King’s talk about being more comfortable is not just talk
King was 12-of-19 from the floor, scoring 30 points in three games on an array of moves that seemed smoother and more natural than a year ago. His 19 rebounds are skewed by the 13 he grabbed against an undersized Raw Talent Elite crew, but he looked more comfortable and consistently in position for rebounds, too.
Most importantly?
“Nobody got hurt, and we had some fun, so it was a great trip,” Coach Greg McDermott said in summing up the trip.
Now to the games…
Game One: Creighton 108, Raw Talent Elite 55
In the Friday opener, CU won 108-55 over Raw Talent Elite, a team whose two best offensive players did not play (Exhibit A on why Creighton didn’t bother gameplanning or scouting their opponents). Point guard Domnick Bridgewater hung 47 points on VMI a week ago, while Jaraun Kino Burrows scored 25; both were in Puerto Rico with the Bahamas National Team, where they played against Kansas twice in three days. Without them, Raw Talent Elite was wildly overmatched and the Jays led wire-to-wire, steadily building their lead from 29-15 after the first quarter, 52-31 at the half and 82-42 after three quarters.
(As a side note? That Bahamas National team is formidable. NBA players Eric Gordon and Buddy Hield combined for 31 points in a Monday win over KU, and Phoenix star Deandre Ayton was expected to play but didn’t.)
Memphis transfer Johnathan Lawson buried three 3-pointers in 74 seconds, two from identical spots in the corner, as the Jays built their first double-digit lead. Baylor Scheierman hit 3-of-4 from long range, including this one where he took advantage of a defense who fell asleep in transition and left him open:
As a team, CU made 16-of-37 from three-point range, stylistically more reliant on the three than they were a year ago.
But they did plenty of damage in the paint, too. In 18 minutes, Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 13 points with six rebounds and three blocks. He picked right up where he left off a year ago, as illustrated by this 10-second sequence where he blocked a shot on one end, sprinted down the court, caught a pass in transition, and threw down a dunk.
Fredrick King had a double-double with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting with 13 rebounds — six offensive! — and a block, all in just 10 minutes of action. Two of those points came courtesy of crashing the glass on this drive by Trey Alexander, where he grabbed the board and threw down a monstrous dunk.
And freshman Brock Vice had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, with 10 rebounds, in his unofficial Bluejay debut. “Fred and Kalk have helped me so much both on and off the floor,” Vice said in an interview posted to GoCreighton.com. “Practicing against them every day is making me better every day.”
“I thought all the all the new guys, in their own way, impacted the game,” Greg McDermott said afterward in an interview posted to GoCreighton.com. “Obviously Jonathan Lawson goes in and hit back-to-back threes right away. Hopefully our fans were able to see what Steven Ashworth is going to bring to our team. He fights defensively, and he sees things on the offensive end. Brock Vice did some really good things on the backboards and finished around the rim. It was good to see all those guys get a basket.”
Highlights:
Game Two: Creighton 76, BC Zalgaris 62
In the second game, the competition level was ratcheted up several notches as the Jays tangled — literally and figuratively — with a veteran professional team from Lithuania.
They trailed 25-19 at the end of the first quarter and struggled to get the game tied at 39 by halftime. Zalgaris shot 71% from the floor in a scorching opening quarter that saw them carve up Creighton’s defense with shots inside the arc. But after giving up 25 points in the first 10 minutes, CU’s defense stiffened significantly, allowing just 37 points over the final 30 minutes.
“Defensively, we knew that we’d have to really scheme through some things,” Steven Ashworth said. “We got it figured out, luckily, after the first quarter.”
That’s the ‘figuratively’ part. As for the literal part?
Johnathan Lawson was assessed a double-technical and ejected in the third quarter after a shoving match with Zalgaris’ Dominykas Butka.
At first glance it doesn’t look like much; Butka (#24) says something to Lawson as they line up for a free throw, and whatever it is makes Lawson do a double-take and say something back. Lawson gives a pretty hard block to the player on his other side (#23, Aleksas Bieliauskas) as the ball is in the air, and Butka takes exception, checking the ball at Lawson after the shot goes in. The ball hits Lawson below the belt, and things escalate from there.
In a vacuum? Nothing that doesn’t happen a half-dozen times every game in the Big East, though the ball check was a borderline-cheap move. But it came in a chippy, physical game where Zalgaris players and coaches repeatedly trash talked and fouled hard in hopes of eliciting exactly that sort of reaction, not in a vacuum, and the cumulative effect was that they eventually got the reaction they wanted. The ball check was merely the last straw.
Had freshman Josiah Dotzler not been in the way, things could have turned out much worse. Later in the clip, Bieliauskas says something to Lawson on his way off the court that makes him stop in his tracks. But Dotzler’s in his way (along with Fredrick King, who plays peacemaker after the fact) and turns him back toward the bench. When they got there, McDermott stepped in, and a still-emotional Lawson wasn’t immediately receptive to whatever his coach was trying to tell him.
That sort of chip-on-your-shoulder edge can be a huge asset to a team if you can figure out a way to harness it. Alex O’Connell played with that kind of attitude, and indeed is the most recent Bluejay to be ejected from a game (in 2021). Players like Marcus Foster and Grant Gibbs had it, too, channelling their orneriness into a positive in different ways.
There’s another way to channel it, too, as Trey Alexander showed.
In the face of all the trash talk and physicality, Alexander took it personal and decided to make them pay on the scoreboard. He scored 29 points largely by driving into the teeth of that physical defense, absorbing the contact, and forcing a whistle — and then making the resulting free throws (he was 13-of-14 from the line). He did plenty of damage from the field, too, often punctuating made baskets with a little return fire toward the opposing bench. Watch closely at the end of this jumper; once he sees it go in, he spins around so he’s facing the bench as he runs up court, presumably saying something in the process.
It was reminiscent of last season’s games with DePaul where Alexander responded to being heckled by the Blue Demon bench with a career-high 32 points in Omaha, and 21 in the rematch — including 12 in the final six minutes to blow open what had been a close game.
After this one, he took to Twitter and said simply “Don’t poke the bear lol”
“This (type of game) is so much better for us,” McDermott said. “Obviously they’re very well coached. You can tell they’ve played together for quite some time, their play defensively and offensively was really solid, and they were extremely physical which was good for us. It tested us a little.”
Highlights:
Game Three: Creighton 111, Club Obras 89
In the finale, Creighton found themselves in a shootout with Club Obras from Argentina. They were without Alexander, who left the Bahamas early to head to the prestigious invite-only Nike Skills Academy along with 15 other elite college prospects.
And they were without Lawson for the first half, who was conspicuous by his absence in a half where every other player in uniform saw the court. While there was no official word, it’s likely the result of his icy interaction with McDermott following his ejection from Saturday’s game (or from the ejection itself).
He did finally check in with 4:44 to go in the third quarter, and promptly began making up for lost time. He scored five straight points, including a three to put the Jays up by 30, grabbed two boards, had two turnovers and committed a foul in roughly three minutes on the floor.
CU made six three-pointers in the first quarter, including three straight in an electric 65-second sequence. Francisco Farabello got it started, and then Baylor Scheierman hit threes on consecutive possessions to turn a 7-2 deficit into an 11-10 lead.
A layup and a free-throw from Isaac Traudt moments later put CU ahead for good, 16-15. They’d push their lead to 31-18 by the end of the first quarter, and eventually led by as many as 32 points as Mason Miller scored 16 off the bench.
“We got a nice spark from Mason there in the first half,” McDermott said. “He really shot the ball well. We played him a little bit more at the three today with Trey not being here. I’ve been really pleased with his progress, besides shooting the ball he’s keeping a lot of rebounds alive and playing with a lot of energy. It’s been a positive summer for him.”
They put the game on ice with a 14-0 run out of the locker room, holding Obras scoreless for the first 3-1/2 minutes of the second half. Scheierman started the run offensively with a three just 12 seconds in, off an assist from Ashworth. After Scheierman cleared a defensive board moments later, he found Ashworth for a three in transition. A Farabello three capped the run, giving CU a 73-43 lead.
“Defensively, that group that started the third quarter really did a good job,” McDermott said. “We were able to create some separation and some of our young guys found out the difference between high school and competing at this level on a consistent basis — just all the little things you have to do defensively that our older guys already do a pretty good job of.”
Highlights: