The Jays returned to Omaha after five days on the road, took Sunday off, then got back to work at the Championship Center on Monday to prepare for their last leg of a three-game road stretch against a Xavier team that has now lost six games in a row and eight of their last 10 in Big East play.
Everyone was a full participant in practice on Monday and Tuesday except for freshman point guard Marcus Zegarowski, who remained in a hard cast after suffering a broken bone in his hand in the first meeting with Xavier back on February 3. Zegarowski did some non-contact defensive drills on Tuesday before the team departed for Cincinnati, but nothing more than that outside of some conditioning work while the rest of the team practiced.
After converting on just six of the 22 layups they attempted in the five-point loss at Seton Hall on Saturday finishing through contact was the first point of order on Monday afternoon.
The Jays also focused on feeding the post, cutting off of entry passes, and playing with more pace offensively after adapting to a more deliberate style due to being short-handed the last two games. They also worked on defending the post and ball screen coverage in their scout for the Musketeers.
NOTES:
Jays know they’re walking into a hostile environment against a desperate team…
Last year, Creighton rolled into the Cintas Center and got blitzed by a Xavier team that was coming off two straight losses in league play. This year’s Musketeer squad doesn’t have Trevon Bluiett or J.P. Macura, but they have lost six straight games. One of the most lopsided of those setbacks came just 10 days ago on Super Bowl Sunday when the Jays beat X 76-54 in Omaha.
Assistant coach Paul Lusk made that the base of his message to the team on Monday.
“The thing that I told them yesterday was think about when we lost at Butler, how they handled us, and when they came back to our place we had a high level of intensity and our sense of urgency was at an all-time high. It’s going to be the same thing [on Wednesday].
“We were very good against Xavier the first time, and now we’re going into their place and I’m sure they’ll be ready to go.”
Getting tired of ‘close, but not quite’…
Creighton’s games at home against Marquette and on the road against Villanova and Seton Hall all came down to the execution in the final minute. All three resulted in losses, and the players don’t seem to be in the mood for more moral victories as the season rolls into mid-February.
“It’s wearing us out, man,” junior forward Martin Krampelj said. “It’s really not enjoyable. We were so close, we were following the game plan and doing all of the right things, and then in the last couple minutes we just can’t execute well enough to score and not let them score. It’s just something we’ve got to work on. We still have a little bit of time left and we’ve shown that we can win against anybody.”
The rest of the conference schedule is favorable, and this was always a stretch that seemed to be a chance for Creighton to string together a winning streak heading into the Big East Tournament, and possibly position themselves for a third straight at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Jays are finished with Villanova and St. John’s — arguably two of the three most talented teams in the league — and have only one game left with Marquette. KenPom has Creighton favored to win six of their final seven games, which would put them at 19-12 heading to New York for what could end up being an unofficial play-in game into the Big Dance.
Supersize me…
On Saturday at Seton Hall, Creighton went with a two-big lineup with Martin Krampelj at the four and freshman Christian Bishop at the five for 25 possessions of offense and 26 possessions of defense. The duo combined for 35 points and 14 rebounds on 10-for-18 shooting. They went a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line and Krampelj went 3-of-6 from behind the 3-point line. In total, the Jays scored 1.280 points per possession with that lineup and allowed just 0.923 on the defensive end. It’s the reason they were able to turn a 12-point deficit into a six-point lead in the second half on Saturday. The coaching staff hopes that more repetition in practice will help that lineup build more continuity and continue to be successful in games going forward.
“There is no doubt from a defensive standpoint we have more length when we have two bigs out there with guys that can protect the rim a little bit more,” Lusk said. “Offensively, Christian provided something for us last game, but we haven’t played that lineup a whole lot. Now that we are down some guys we’ve got to work on that, and the only way you get better in those situations is through practice time.”
Although it means he has to move to a position he hasn’t played as much, Martin Krampelj is a fan of what Bishop brings to the court when he gets in the game.
“I just like his energy, man. He’s just playing with so much passion, so much grit, and that big smile he’s got — that just drives you to play hard and to win the game. When he’s making plays like diving on that ball against Seton Hall, that just brings so much energy to everybody. I enjoy playing with him.”