The NCAA Tournament was lost last year. Creighton looking for their opportunity 2 years in the making (Spomer / WBR)
Every year that Creighton has been fortunate enough to see their name pop up on the television screen on Selection Sunday, the same question immediately comes to mind with the fans: who is the potential second round opponent that will stand in the way of the Bluejays reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history?
This year that answer is either 13-seed Ohio or 4-seed — and the reigning national champion from the last time we actually had an NCAA Tournament — Virginia. While it is perfectly acceptable for fans, media members, video coordinators, and an assistant coach or two to look ahead to the second game, it would behoove Creighton’s players not do the same. The reason that would be a potential season-ending mistake is because of what lies directly in front of them on Saturday afternoon: the 12-seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.
UCSB has 22 of 26 games this season, including an 18-1 mark since January. Under 4th-year head coach Joe Pasternack, the Gauchos won the Big West Conference regular season title outright by two games over UC Irvine despite getting swept head-to-head during the regular season. Then they put a stamp on it by walking through the Anteaters in the championship game of the conference tournament last Saturday.
While it’s true that their strength of schedule on KenPom is far from a gauntlet at 185, they didn’t exactly barely squeak by their competition this season either. Since dropping back-to-back games to UC Irvine on December 27th and 28th, 13 of their 18 wins have come by at least 14 points.
Contrast that with Creighton, who enters the NCAA Tournament on the heels of a humiliating 73-48 loss to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament title game, and you have two teams who may be on opposite ends of the confidence spectrum heading into Saturday. That would be cause for concern on its own, but it’s also paired with formidable first-round opponent. After getting a few days to familiarize himself with UCSB, Bluejay head coach Greg McDermott thinks it will take his team’s best effort to advance to the Round of 32.
“As a team, they are similar to us in that they have a lot of experience,” McDermott said. “They have guys that have been around and guys that have been together. They don’t foul, they don’t turn it over, they plug up that lane pretty well and make it difficult for you to get into the teeth of the defense.
“On the offensive end, to a man really, they play together. They move the basketball. They take good shots. As a result, they’ve won 18 out of 19 or 19 out of 20, whatever crazy number that it is. They’ve kind of steamrolled through their conference, especially since the first of the year. They’re a very, very talented team and we’re going to have to have our ‘A’ game without a doubt.”
The tip of the spear for the Gauchos is 5th-year senior combo guard JaQuori McLaughlin. He leads the team in scoring (16.2 points per game), facilitating (5.2 assists per game), and 3-point shooting accuracy (40.4% on 4 attempts per game). He’s also sporting a 2-point shooting percentage of 53.7%, averaging 1.6 steals and just 2.0 turnovers per game. He was named the 2020-21 Big West Player of the Year on March 8th. He then backed it up with a 3-day performance in the conference tournament where he averaged 20.3 points, 3.3 assists, and shot 61.9% from inside the arc and 40.0% from beyond it to earn Tournament MVP honors. Then two days ago, he was selected as an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American, becoming just the eighth UC Santa Barbara player in the last 80 years to earn All-American recognition.
“He’s terrific,” McDermott said. “Obviously he’s a high-level scorer, but his assist to turnover, I don’t have it in front of me, but going into the [conference] tournament I think he was at 120 assists and 40-something turnovers. He also really makes plays for his teammates. He plays with really good pace; doesn’t get sped up, and doesn’t take a lot of bad shots.
He’s really, really efficient … he’s a talented young man.”
Among the players in this field, McLaughlin is about as tough as it gets. According to Synergy, he’s the fourth-most efficient scorer as the ball handler in pick n’ roll situations at 0.993 points per possession and the 19th-most efficient as a cutter off the ball at 1.50 points per possession. At 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, he’s built like UConn superstar James Bouknight, who famously lit up the Bluejays for a career-high 40 points back on December 20th. Like Bouknight, he’s as dangerous without the ball as he is with it.
“He’s probably one of the best movers off the basketball that we’ve played this season in terms of his ability to read screens and to be patient when the action is coming towards him,” McDermott said of UCSB’s talented, versatile, floor general. “Sometimes shooters and scorers get a little jittery and maybe take off too soon when in actuality they should wait a little longer and keep that defense thinking they could either way until the last second. He’s as good at that as anybody we’ve played.”
“And it goes without saying that he’s great with the ball in his hands. While he’s patient off the ball, he’s very patient with the basketball as well. It’s tough to get him to speed up. Sometimes you attempt to get a great scorer just to play a little faster than maybe they would like to play. He’s just got a great pace about his game. When he gets into the paint he uses the shot fake and the pass fake incredibly well, and he always makes the right read. His assist-to-turnover is incredible for someone that has the ball in his hands and is in a playmaking situation as much as he is.
“I think with a guy like that you have to show different looks. If he sees the same thing all the time eventually he’s going to pick you apart. We’ll guard him with size some, and physicality. We’ll try to guard him with quickness at times. We’ll run some guys at him at times. We’ll give him some different looks in hopes that we can keep him as uncomfortable as possible.”
The Bluejays (20-8) tip off against the Gauchos (22-4) at 2:30 p.m. from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The game will be televised on truTV.