Rocky IV is widely considered the most popular film in the series mainly because of the U.S.A. vs. Russia face-punching dynamic, but it also goes a bit deeper and fleshes out an athlete’s willingness or lack thereof — as we learn in tragic fashion midway through the movie — to be self-critical.
In the movie’s case, it was about retired former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed thinking he had one more fight in him (spoiler alert: he very much did not). In Creighton’s case, it was about whether or not coming out on the right side of the ledger against an extremely short-handed DePaul squad on Wednesday night met the standard because of the result or in spite of it.
Long-time head coach Greg McDermott and his fifth-year senior leader, Ryan Kalkbrenner, undoubtedly determined it to be the latter. Outside of a 16-3 run late in the first half and a 15-0 run midway through the second, the Blue Demons outscored CU 62-34 over the remaining 30 minutes of game time. The math still worked out to give the Bluejays a 75-65 win in front of 17,213 fans on Abide Night at CHI Health Center Omaha, but the result itself wasn’t enough to overtake the ability to honestly assess a sub-standard performance.
Coach McDermott didn’t shy away from what the Bluejays need to do better (Spomer / WBR)
“A ton of credit to DePaul,” McDermott said. “They were short-handed, but they played harder, and they were grittier. The one thing we did a good job of was on the glass on both ends and that ended up being the difference in the game. But 13 turnovers, unacceptable; 50% [shooting] from the field, basically, in the second half by DePaul is not acceptable — we’re going to have to be better. We are going to go into a hornet’s nest on Saturday, and if we think this is good enough, we’re kidding ourselves.”
Creighton’s 16-3 run in the first half helped them open up a 9-point lead that was back down to four at halftime, and the 15-0 run in the second half extended their lead to 20 only for the Blue Demons to erase half of it by the final buzzer.
“We were a half a step slow and maybe a little late on some communication at times,” McDermott said. “Then you get them down by 20, you have a chance to knock them out, and missed free throws, defensive breakdowns, kind of a lack of focus in those situations.”
“I don’t ever want to overreact too much until I watch the film, but I think there’s going to be some things I’m not going to like very much that we have to clean up as we move into next week.”
Ryan Kalkbrenner was dominant against DePaul’s depleted front line. (Spomer / WBR)
That sentiment was shared by senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner, who recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 25 points and 13 rebounds on 12-for-17 shooting against depleted DePaul front line that was down a pair of starters in NJ Benson and David Skogman. The Big East Player of the Year contender was as dominant as he needed to be against the severely undersized Blue Demons, but even he could sense that his squad wasn’t at its best for large enough stretches on Wednesday.
“It just felt like everything that we do in general was a half a step too late, or half a second too late on communication,” Kalkbrenner said. “Obviously there are specific things you can point out, but the overarching theme, I think, for all those things is that they just weren’t quite sharp enough. Not godawful, but not sharp enough to win big games.
“We’re going to have to be sharper against good teams like Xavier and the teams in the Big East Tournament and March Madness. We just have to clean it up a little bit.”
DePaul was led in scoring by senior guard Isaiah Rivera, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds and 6-of-10 shooting. Junior wing CJ Gunn added 14 points and six rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting, while sophomore guard Layden Blocker rounded the Blue Demons’ trio of double figure scorer with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting.
DePaul shot 48.1% from the field in the second and 44.6% for the game, while their guards connected on seven of their 15 shots attempted from 3-point range.
Fedor Zugic had some key minutes for the Jays on Wednesday (McAtee / WBR)
First-year guard Fedor Zugic echoed all of the defensive concerns raised by his head coach and his veteran big man when it came to evaluating the standard separate from the end result.
“It just wasn’t sharp enough,” Zugic said. “I feel like we were missing that focus. There was a lot of switching and a lot of communication that we had to do because they were missing their big guys. As Ryan said, we were half a step late a lot of times, which led to scrambling and them getting threes … we have to be better at that and more locked in because with the teams we’re going to be playing soon we have to be at the top of our game.”
Thanks largely to the efficient performances of Kalkbrenner down low and Steven Ashworth — who finished with 16 points, six assists, and knocked down four of his seven 3-point attempts — on the perimeter, the Bluejays shot 51.8% from the field and averaged 1.23 points per possession for the game.
Zugic led a strong performance from Creighton’s reserve unit by tying his season-high with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting, including a go-ahead 3-pointer and a chin-up dunk as the Jays made their push down the stretch of the first half.
“It’s great being out there — I love it, I enjoy it,” he said. “Tonight was really good for me to get my groove back before the Big [East] Tournament starts and before the do-or-die games start.”
The Bluejays also got eight points, including a pair of tide-turning 3-pointers in the second half, by third-year forward Isaac Traudt and four points in the first half from backup big man Fredrick King. Creighton’s bench ended up outscoring DePaul’s 21-10 to more than produce an advantage that ended up being the difference in the final tally.
Steven Ashworth was solid at the point for the Jays with 16 points in the win (Spomer / WBR)
“We needed it because Jasen [Green] only gets five [points], Jackson [McAndrew] three, and Jamiya [Neal] was in foul trouble and only gets five,” McDermott said. “Points had to come from somewhere, and fortunately Isaac knocked down some shots, Fedor knocked down some shots, and then Mason [Miller], while he didn’t score, those two offensive rebounds in the first half — which both led to baskets — were a huge turning point for us to create a little bit of separation as we went into halftime.”
Creighton improved to 20-8 on the season with the win, including a 13-4 mark in the Big East with just three games remaining before the Big East Tournament gets underway. After tonight, the Jays are still two games back of St. John’s, who clinched at least a share of the regular season title with a 76-70 win at Butler, and one game ahead of Marquette for the No. 2 seed in the upcoming conference tourney.
After getting his point across about what was lacking in performance evaluation, he wanted to make it clear that he’s no less appreciative that his team was able to secure a win on a night when they clearly weren’t at their best.
“I’m not frustrated, I’m happy as hell we won,” McDermott assured. “It’s hard to win. Especially in this league to have 13 wins already, I mean, come on. I’m thrilled about that. I just know this group and I know they have a standard for themselves, and it’s my job to hold them to that standard. I’m not asking them to do anything that they don’t want to do themselves.
“We just need to refocus. I think sometimes it’s human nature; you look at a team’s record and you look at who’s out, but as I told them, this DePaul team doesn’t quit. The Butler game went right down to the last six minutes before Butler created some separation, and Butler is [gave] St. John’s everything they [wanted] tonight. I’m not surprised that DePaul came in here and played well. I just know there’s going to be 12-15 possessions that the guys probably aren’t going to enjoy watching on film tomorrow.”
As someone whose college basketball career has weeks, not months left, Ryan Kalkbrenner was matter of fact about the team’s need for heightened focus when they convene for their pre-practice film session.
“When you have year after year of consistent success you definitely hold yourself to a higher standard and the program to a higher standard,” Kalkbrenner said. “Like Mac said in the locker room to us, we’re happy we won, but we have to be better for these games coming up. We’ll be sharp and focused the next couple days in practice, and we’ll be better for the next game.”
That next game is a trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to take on a resurgent Xavier squad that has had a week to prepare for the Jays and will enter the game squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble and will be looking to use their performance against Creighton to make a lasting impression on the selection committee.
“They’re going to play desperate, you just have to match that,” Kalkbrenner said. “In our own sort of way, we’re still trying to get position in the Big East and still trying to get as good of a seed as we can in the Big East Tournament, so we have to play desperately, too, and try to match that. They’re on the bubble and obviously a really good team, so we’re going to get the best version of them.”
Aside from the pre-Christmas debacle at Georgetown, the Bluejays have actually performed well on the road in Big East play. They are 5-2 away from Omaha since the calendar flipped to 2025 with the only setbacks being an 8-point loss to third-place Marquette and a 6-point loss to regular season champion St. John’s.
In terms of environments and level of opponent, Saturday’s matchup at Xavier projects to be just as challenging as either of those games, as well as the wins they pulled out at UConn and Villanova. It’ll be the start of a long stretch away from Omaha as McDermott will fly east to take on Seton Hall after the game against the Musketteers before returning to Omaha to prepare for their regular season finale at home against Butler on Senior Day, March 8.
“We just have to prepare,” McDermott said of the trek ahead. “We have to prepare like we did when we went to St. John’s and UConn and Villanova. You just have to be really on point with understanding the plan and then being ready to execute the plan regardless of the emotion in the building.
“We’ve played decent basketball on the road this year. Really outside of that Georgetown game everything else has been a game we’ve won or been really competitive. I expect a really good mental day [on Thursday] and a good run through on Friday to get ready for what we have to do Saturday. We’re staying out [on the road] this trip. Seton Hall led Villanova most of the game tonight before Villanova came back and won, and they’ve got a win against UConn at home, so they’re playing with a lot more confidence than the first time we saw them. This extended road trip is going to be really important for us.”
Tip-off at the Cintas Center between the Creighton (20-8, 13-4 Big East) and Xavier (18-10, 10-7 Big East) is set for 3:30 p.m. CT on FOX.