Well, that was something. Fourty-eight hours after a clunky offensive performance in a season-opening win over North Dakota State, ninth-ranked Creighton helped Bluejay Nation remember, remember all the reasons it dreamt of November. If Jays fans have spent the last handful of months wondering “what could have been?” had a once-in-a-century global pandemic not picked up steam in mid-March, Tuesday evening changed the question to “what could be?”
In their first regular-season tussle with crosstown rival Nebraska-Omaha since 1995, the Bluejays unleashed an absurdly efficient offensive onslaught — 94 points, 57.6% shooting, 28 assists on 34 baskets, and six players in double figures by the end of a 27-point win.
“Our goal was to be better today than we were on Sunday, and I think that was the case,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said.
That’s likely a statement many, if not all, who have seen the on-court product in its entirety thus far would agree with. Junior point guard Marcus Zegarowski was surgical with his decision-making as he finished with a career-high 11 assists while only turning it over two times in 29 minutes. His classmate Christian Bishop led the Jays in scoring for the second game in as many opportunities, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Bishop’s backups at the five spot, true freshman Ryan Kalkbrenner and junior Jacob Epperson, added 16 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks in the 23 minutes that Bishop was off the court.
Sophomore newcomer Antwann Jones came off the bench on Tuesday to make way for the return of senior wing Denzel Mahoney to the starting lineup, but Jones was just as productive as he was in the opener, finishing with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists, and no turnovers in 22 minutes against the Mavericks. Mahoney, who opted out of Sunday’s game due to not having a practice under his belt after going into quarantine, didn’t look rusty at all as he poured in 17 points in 22 minutes and knocked down five of his seven attempts from the 3-point range. Oh yeah, and there was Damien Jefferson chipping in 11 points, four rebounds, and three assists along with a 1-for-2 performance from beyond the arc to put his 3-point shooting percentage at 42.9% through two games — last year he was 1-for-13 in the first seven games of the season.
All of that mostly highlights the improvements on the offensive side of the court. The defense, by all accounts, also graded out better than it did on Sunday. They held the Mavericks to 35.6% shooting and 67 points on 75 possessions. Marlon Ruffin, the reigning Summit League Player of the Week, was the only player for UNO to score in double figures. He had 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. The rest of the team was held to 49 points on 31.1% shooting overall.
“I thought our activity and our communication was better [than Sunday],” McDermott said. “Omaha is really electric in transition and I thought for the most part we got back, especially for the first 15 minutes of the game, and got our defense set and made them run their quarter-court offense, which is what we wanted to do.”
Zegarowski’s shooting touch returns to form
After missing nine of the 11 shots he took from 3-point range in Sunday’s win over North Dakota State, preseason Big East player of the year Marcus Zegarowski looked more like his old self from the perimeter on Tuesday against UNO. He missed his first two attempts of the game to extend his slump to 2-for-13, but he bounced back to knocked down three of his next four attempts with the only miss coming from way downtown late in the shot clock.
“I actually didn’t get shots up yesterday,” Zegarowski said when asked if he did anything during the off day that led to him shaking some of the rust off on Tuesday.
“I decided to just work on our scout and lock in mentally for the game. Shots will fall whenever. It’s the game. I’ll make shots, I’ll miss shots, it’s a make or miss game. I trust my teammates and I trust my coaches to put me in a position to be successful, and it’s going to happen.”
Bishop continues to ball out
It’s a small sample size, but so far Greg McDermott’s assertion is ringing true that junior big man Christian Bishop had made the most improvement from the end of last season of anyone on the team. Through two games he’s leading the team in scoring (17.0 ppg), rebounding (6.0 rpg), steals (1.0 spg), field goal percentage (76.5%), and is shooting 88.9% from the free throw line on a team-best nine attempts after converting 53.8% of his freebies for his career entering the season.
Due to Creighton’s improved depth at his position, as well as the comfortable margin of victory in their first two contests, Bishop also has had a relatively small window to put up those numbers. He scored 16 points on 12 shots (seven field goal attempts and five free throws) in 21 minutes on Sunday against North Dakota State, and put up 18 points on 14 shots (10 field goal attempts and four free throws) in only 16 minutes of action against Nebraska-Omaha.
“He’s just really efficient,” McDermott said. “He’s got a tremendous understanding of our offense and operating at the top of the floor, and probably most importantly I think his teammates have an unbelievable amount of trust in him. When he dives to the basket they know that if they flip it up there he’s going to go make a play on the basketball, get them an assist and keep it from being a turnover. He’s running the floor. He’s making his free throws. He was active on the glass today. He’s had two really good games for us … Christian’s playing at a really high level right now, and he’s been practicing at a high level so I don’t think any of us are surprised.”
What’s next?
In a season as fluid as this one, particularly when it comes to player and opponent availability, it’s probably a good suggestion to not look too far ahead on the schedule as things are very likely to change at some point along the way. As it stands currently, the Bluejays (2-0) are set up to face Kennesaw State (2-0 with a game to UAB coming up on Wednesday night) this Friday at 4:00 p.m. at the CHI Health Center. As was the case with Creighton’s first two games it is also scheduled to be broadcast on Fox Sports 1.
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