Recap:
There was a lot of chatter before the game (in the Primer and elsewhere) about handling Texas Tech’s swarming pressure defense; it really felt like how well (or not) the Jays handled it would be the key to the game. And sure enough, the Red Raiders set the tone early and often — they swarmed to the ball and forced four turnovers on Creighton’s first four possessions. The Jays didn’t even attempt a shot until the game was 3-1/2 minutes old, and they had seven turnovers in six minutes after averaging eight turnovers per game in their first four games.
To say it was a wake-up call would be an understatement. Tech did more than just deny passing lanes — their length and athleticism stopped the Jays’ perimeter movement completely, and they pushed them off their spots.
“I don’t know if it was the anticipation and excitement of playing in Maui, but we weren’t ourselves. We were in too big of a hurry,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “But this is a hard team to prepare for. It’s hard to simulate their pressure in practice. Things look open, but they close out so fast that they really aren’t open.”
“We knew they were going to be aggressive. We knew how they play,” Ryan Nembhard added. “And our first four opponents didn’t really pressure us or get into us defensively, so we needed some time to adjust. We calmed down and relaxed, and that allowed us to get back to our gameplan — drive into the defense knowing that the result is going to be a play for someone else, not to get your own shot.”
Every defense has a weak spot, and because Tech was switching every screen, it made them vulnerable to being caught over-committing. And as the Jays’ started moving the ball more forcefully and adjusted to the physicality of the game, they began to have more success. Their drives were made with the intent of making Tech’s defense scramble, not to look for a shot. Their extra passes found wide-open shooters. And by the midpoint of the first half, they had a 18-14 lead behind five straight points from Ryan Nembhard, and a three from Baylor Scheierman from near midcourt.
Despite all the turnovers, they kept the lead because their own defense was strong and disciplined — and because Scheierman hit one tough shot after another.
“It’s a small gym, and these rims are really soft,” Scheierman said on the postgame radio show. “It feels like I’m back in Aurora Nebraska.”
ESPN’s Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas had the same thought, with Shulman jokingly calling them the “softest rims in America.” And that’s what made the turnovers doubly frustrating — when the Jays did get a shot off, they were just about unstoppable. CU had 1.63 points per possession when they took a shot; the problem was 40% of their possessions ended without taking a shot.
With four minutes left, Ryan Kalkbrenner had finally slipped behind the Tech defense for a lob dunk to make it 27-22. It looked like the Jays might be about to unleash a run to create separation before the half, and the decidedly pro-Bluejay crowd in the Lahaina Civic Center could feel it. But Scheierman picked up two fouls in 20 seconds, Kalkbrenner landed awkwardly on defense and rolled his ankle, and the air was sucked out of the building.
Freshman Fredrick King immediately responded with a block on Tech’s next shot attempt, but the loss of those two players swung the momentum — after CU had led for nearly 10 minutes, Tech briefly took the lead and went into the locker room tied 31-31.
At the half, the Jays made some adjustments schematically. In the first half, they’d tried to drive the baseline and often found themselves stuck in the corner against a double-team or collapsed defense. That’s where the length of a team like Texas Tech can really cause havoc. In the second half, they stayed out top and replaced a lot of their typical actions with high ball screens.
But mostly, they accepted that the game was going to be a physical challenge — so they needed to take the battle to the Red Raiders. Sometimes it really is as simple as that. Their passes were crisper. Their decision making was smarter. And with Kalkbrenner back on the floor after being taped up, a 7-2 run by the Jays in 90 seconds forced a quick Tech timeout — a three by Trey Alexander assisted by Scheierman, a putback for an easy layup by Kalkbrenner, and a layup by Nembhard assisted by Alexander. Bilas was impressed on ESPN’s telecast, saying that with Nembhard and Scheierman on the court together the Jays have essentially two point guards — “there isn’t a team in college basketball with a better pair of passers,” he said.
Emblematic of the Jays accepting the physicality of the game instead of shying away from it, Nembhard and Alexander both absorbed contact to draw and-one opportunities in the first four minutes, and by the first media timeout it was 45-38 Jays. With a majority of the crowd in the Lahaina Civic Center clad in blue, the energy and noise reverberated back to Omaha.
Another 7-2 run shortly thereafter made it 49-40. In that stretch, Kalkbrenner slipped a screen and drove to the rim for a wide-open dunk. Because they were connecting on so many threes, they’d begun to spread out Tech’s defense — and as a result, it opened up things that weren’t there in the first half. Like Kalkbrenner’s dunk.
Alexander’s defense was the story, though. Primarily guarding Harmon and occasionally switching onto Obanor, ESPN’s Jay Bilas was impressed. Everywhere Harmon went, Alexander was in his face. At one point, Bilas said on the telecast, “Creighton’s defense is excellent. They have multiple players who can guard multiple positions with a legit shot blocker behind them. They are not just an outstanding offensive team. They can guard.”
And when Nembhard sank a long three with just over 11 minutes to go, it gave CU a 52-40 lead. They had zero turnovers through the first nine minutes. That they built a double-digit lead once they took better care of the ball was not a coincidence.
The back-breaking sequence came moments later. Two offensive rebounds off missed shots gave the Jays extra opportunities, and it ended with Alexander nailing a three. They kept Tech at arms-length the rest of the day, never leading by fewer than eight after that shot.
Ultimately, what Texas Tech — and a huge national TV audience —learned is that Creighton has so many weapons that not even an elite defense can hold them down when they’re firing on all cylinders. Especially when it’s in front of their fans, and as they always do, Creighton fans turned a holiday tournament into a home game by traveling in huge numbers.
“It was a crazy environment. It’s such an amazing feeling to see this place full of our fans,” Scheierman said. “It’s a small gym, but our fans made it feel electric. This is what you dream of playing in as a college basketball player. It’s why you come to a place like Creighton.”
The win sets up a top-ten battle on Tuesday in Maui between Creighton and Arkansas. The Razorbacks dispatched Louisville rather easily 80-54 in their first-round game, looking every bit like a team coming off back-to-back Elite Eights who added the #2 recruiting class in the country. Much like Texas Tech, they’re an elite defensive team with great length; they’ve forced a turnover on 29.1% of opponent’s possessions so far and held opponents to a 38.8% effective field goal percentage (9th best in D1). Their adjusted defensive efficiency is 85.9, third-best in D1. They’ve come away with a steal on 17% of opponent’s possessions.
That’s the bad news. The good news is Creighton shouldn’t need 20 minutes to adjust to that sort of pressure after facing the Red Raiders.
Inside the Box Score:
Turnovers, obviously, are the headline number from this game as we knew they would be. In the first half, Creighton turned it over on 40% of their possessions and was tied at 31. Trey Alexander and Arthur Kaluma were the biggest offenders — eight of the Jays’ 13 turnovers came from those two. Alexander wasn’t playing strong and would routinely get pushed off his spots; Kaluma looked a deer in headlights, taking a split-second to decide what to do with the ball instead of reacting, and then finding Tech’s outstanding perimeter defender Kevin Obanor smothering him.
But in the second half? Zero turnovers.
“I thought those two really settled in and made plays for themselves and for their teammates in the second half,” McDermott said in the press conference afterward. “That has to be who we are.”
Alexander finished with 17 points, three assists, a block and a steal in 34 minutes — and after four first-half turnovers, zero in the second. He hit one clutch shot after another. And his defense smothered Tech’s guards.
“Besides scoring himself, Trey read the defense and made the right play. When we’re unselfish we’re a pretty good basketball team,” McDermott said. “It’s hard against Texas Tech, because a lot of the things we practice on a daily basis are just not there. We had to adjust as the game went on — we scrapped some of our plays, went to that high-ball screen to try and spread them out a little bit, and we had more success.”
Kaluma had 18 points, two blocks and a steal, and after four first-half turnovers of his own he also had zero in the second. McDermott said that while Kaluma’s ability to get into the paint and make plays is really good, “he’s been going off of one foot a lot and taking tough shots through their first four games. But today he set his feet and used the shot fake, used the pass fake and he also made a couple of threes which makes him difficult to guard — when you have to stretch out to guard him at the perimeter, that opens up his driving lanes.”
Kaluma is now shooting 35% from three-point range for the season. He doesn’t need to be a high-volume shooter from out there for the Jays to be their best, but if he can continue hitting at that clip he’ll be very difficult to guard. Defenders did not have to respect him behind the perimeter a year ago; if they do have to guard him tighter out there, it opens up his game and allows him to dig deeper into his bag of tricks — dribble drives, pump fakes, pass fakes. All were on display in this one.
Scheierman did Scheierman things — after five games as a Bluejay, he’s already become irreplaceable. He had 11 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, and probably made the pass that led to an assist for someone else at least a half-dozen times. Despite some physical limitations, it seems like he can sense where the ball will come off the rim on a missed shot, and combined with a desire to simply get the ball it makes him an elite rebounder.
As for Kalkbrenner, he gutted out 30 minutes on the floor despite rolling his ankle twice. He had 10 points, six boards and two blocks, altering countless others.
“He showed a lot of toughness and a lot of heart today,” McDermott said. “He anchors our defense and does a lot of good things for us back there, and I’m really proud that he was able to suck it up and play through that.”
Whether he can go the rest of the tournament, once the adrenaline has worn off, will remain to be seen. If he can’t, Fredrick King will be thrust into the spotlight. He had four points, four boards and a block in nine minutes on Monday, and while his defense is nowhere near as polished as Kalkbrenner, he’s a capable backup.
Highlights:
Press Conference:
