Key Stats:
For the third consecutive game, Creighton and an opponent played a close game for 20 minutes, and the Jays took over in the second 20. Actually, ever since allowing UMKC to come back in the second half of the season opener and make what was a blowout into a close game, the Jays have outscored their opponent after halftime in every game since:
- Wisconsin: +9
- Washington State: +2
- NC State: +12
- Ole Miss: +15
- Loyola-MD: +25
- Buffalo: +19
Obviously everyone would like to see the team get off to a better start in the first half, but those are some pretty staggering numbers. Greg McDermott said on the postgame radio show that he attributes it to their pace — teams can’t run with the Bluejays for 40 minutes, and as they tire, Creighton takes advantage and continues to push tempo until they blow the game open. It will be interesting to see how this fast-paced style travels in hostile environments and against top-tier opponents, but for now, goading opponents into wearing themselves out so you can run them to death in the second half is pretty damn entertaining to watch.
If they’re going to turn around their slow starts, doing a better job on the glass is an obvious place to start. Buffalo out rebounded the Jays 22-13 in the first half; CU bested them 29-18 in the second. The Jays’ success on the boards and in the paint in the second half was the difference in the game. Buffalo outscored them 18-16 in the paint and tied them 6-6 on second chance points in the first half, while CU had a 28-18 advantage in the paint and 18-9 edge on second chances in the second half. That’s a combined 19 points, and the Jays outscored the Bulls by exactly 19 in the second half. Funny how that works.
Standout Performance:
Justin Patton and Khyri Thomas both had double-doubles for the Bluejays, as Patton scored 21 points with 10 boards and Thomas scored 18 points with 12 boards. It’s the first time since January 30, 2013 that a pair of Jays did it in the same game (Doug McDermott and Austin Chatman) and the first time since December 29, 2012 that a pair of Jays had 10 rebounds each (McDermott and Gregory Echenique). Oh, and Maurice Watson nearly joined them, with 15 points and 8 assists.
Patton has begun to get national hype with his increasingly impressive performances, but his fellow Omaha native has continued to fly under the radar despite equally impressive games. Thomas is quietly having one hell of a season through seven games, averaging 14.4 points and 4.9 rebounds a game with a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio (17:9), 11 steals, and four blocks. He’s shooting 62.3% from the floor (38-61), 59.1% from three-point range (13-22), and 85.7% from the line (12-14). And perhaps most importantly, he’s defended the opponent’s best guard in most games and shut them down without fouling, allowing him to play the third-most minutes on the team.
Khyri is under the radar for now, but if he continues to play like this, he won’t be for long.
Recap & Analysis:
In the Pregame Primer, we looked at Buffalo’s extreme carelessness with the basketball as a key to the game, as they turned the ball over on 24% of their possessions entering Tuesday night’s game. From the opening tip, Creighton sought to exploit that, and on Buffalo’s first nine possessions, the Bluejays tipped a pass on three of them and forced a turnover on five others. By hedging aggressively on ball screens with their big men, Creighton in effect double-teamed leading scorer Blake Hamilton every time he got the ball. The Bulls turned it over seven times, made just three field goals, and the Jays led 15-6.
Then the game shifted, because Hamilton decided to stop giving in to the double-team and instead tried to split the trap by dribbling around or through them. With their leading scorer showing the way, Buffalo made 11 of their final 17 shots in the half and got to the line for 12 free throw attempts. The shift was immediate: first Hamilton hit a three, then Willie Conner was fouled while shooting a three by Isaiah Zierden and hit all three free throws, and finally Hamilton hit a jumper to cut the lead to 17-14. Suddenly instead of the Bulls, it was the Jays being careless with the ball, making wild passes and missing wide-open baskets. And with 3:03 to play in the half, Hamilton hit a jumper to give Buffalo the lead 34-33 — giving him 13 points for the half after being held scoreless for nearly eight minutes — and forced McDermott to call timeout as a restless CenturyLink Center crowd sat in disbelief.
Patton struck immediately after the timeout with an alley-oop from Maurice Watson to re-take the lead, followed it with a nifty 15-foot jumper, and then nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key. A dunk, a mid-range jumper, and a three-pointer from a seven-foot center in the span of four possessions? That’s almost unfair.
Hamilton hit a shot at the buzzer to make it a 41-39 Jays advantage at the half, but that would be the closest Buffalo would get the rest of the night. As they did on Saturday against Loyola, CU blasted out of the locker room to put the game out of reach.
Thomas got it started with a three-pointer, then stole the ball on the other end and raced downcourt for a layup. After a defensive stop, Patton nailed a shot from close-range to make it 48-42, and then this happened.
Taking an inbounds pass from Watson, Marcus Foster elevated over two completely stunned Buffalo defenders for a spectacular dunk that would go on to be featured on SportsCenter and Fox Sports Live, and on websites too numerous to mention. Foster had apparently grown weary of the Bulls and their upset hopes, and followed up that dunk with a jumper, two free throws, and a three-pointer to make it 57-51; after a tip-in by Patton, he added two more baskets on consecutive possessions to push the lead out to 63-51.
From there, Creighton stepped on the accelerator and pulled away, building a lead as large as 23 points and winning 93-72. In a game where they played far from their best, they scored over 90 points, held their opponent to less than one point per possession (72 points in a 78 possession game) and won by 21.
They Said It:
“D-Rock was like, you’re an athletic guard and you’re only getting two or three rebounds. What’s up with that? I texted him back and said, ‘You’re right!’ We were just kind of texting back and forth about my effort defensively. Today at shootaround I said, I bet you I get ten rebounds, minimum. He said, ‘Oh, we’ll see!’ because he didn’t believe I could! That’s the one thing I was really worried about tonight. When we were at the free throw line while the other team was shooting, I said to Justin, ‘Let me get the rebound!’ (laughs) So yeah, I took some rebounds away from my teammates (laughs) Justin did tell me, though, ‘If you want the ball, you have to go get it!’ (laughs)” -Khyri Thomas on 1620AM Postgame
“It wasn’t only the first half, because we were up 15-6 early. They scored on three of their first 13 positions, defensively we were flying around or getting hands on things that we were converting on the other end…and then we kind of got stuck in the mud. Marcus got to the rim a few times and thought he got fouled. Then they’re running out and to (Blake) Hamilton’s credit early in the game we tried to take it out of his hands and he was willing to just give it up. Sometimes, he maybe took an extra dribble and we were able to deflect their passing lane. Then he started attacking, and then they also came with (Davonta) Jordan, the freshman point guard and we stayed aggressive with our ball screens probably a little bit too long with him because he got into the teeth of our defense and picked us apart. I told the team I just thought we made too many first side plays the first half, rather than relying on ball reversal and getting ourselves moving and then running an action. The second half we did a much better job.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Justin and Khyri were really good. In the first half, I didn’t think we were creating the vacuum with the block-outs, and nobody was going to get the ball. I remember one where everybody was blocking out, Maurice gets it on the bounce right under the basket. It’s like you have two jobs: block out and then pursue the basketball, and we were better at that the second half. And I just mentioned in the media room that the reality of it is our pace isn’t going to have much of an impact on our opponent in the first half. It will in the second half, as time goes on and we keep going at’em and at’em and at’em and now all the sudden you’re not quite sure: do I really want to go to the offensive glass because I know they’re coming, or do I want to get back? As a result, the three that was going in maybe now is hitting the front of the rim. That pace is going to wear in to people because a lot of teams are used to playing possession games in the mid-sixties and this one was in the high 70s. There’s a huge difference. So you just have to trust your pace and trust what you’re doing and probably most importantly trust each other. I didn’t think we did that the first half but the second half was much better.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“When Justin sets a ball screen and he dives to the rim he put so much pressure on the defense. Our guys know we can throw it to the top of the backboard and he will go get it. Tonight we didn’t read the situation; a few times we threw it to him where the throwback was open instead of the flip up to Justin. But we’re using him a little bit more in the high post where he can catch it, he can dribble handoff, guys can back cut out of it, and then we’re running into ball screens. I mean he’s a gifted and skilled player; he can pass the basketball, he can handle it and obviously he showed his face up game again tonight. He just keeps getting better and better and now the challenge for him is can he play longer through fatigue. He didn’t have to do it with Zach here because every three or four minutes we could get him out of there. It’s a little tougher now because we don’t have the experience of Zach although I thought Martin came in the second half especially and gave us a nice lift. But we don’t have that experience coming off the bench, so we need him out there for longer periods of time.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I thought Martin in the second half really played well and did some good things. Obviously he had a big offensive rebound and finish, he gets his hands on a lot of things, he took a charge on a ball screen out here that didn’t get called — he really got out there and it took it in the chest. Toby did some really good things, he was active on the backboards making hustle plays get to the free throw line and knocking his free throws down. I expect that out of Toby, he’s a fourth-year player; he’s been around. Tini is still learning and will continue to use all those guys.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“We still want Toby to shoot it. And he’s still got the green light as we saw in the Virgin Islands. Our offense goes to another level when Cole and Toby are making shots, because now you’ve got to worry about that 4-man popping out for a three. It really puts pressure on the defense. We have to get a little more consistent there, and I think as Cole continues to get a little healthier we will. I also like that Toby’s more than a shooter. He’s doing the dirty work that he didn’t necessarily do earlier in his career. That’s encouraging to see.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“The Buffalo team that I saw in the first half — I watched them play against Nevada, a really good basketball team, Weber State is a really well-coached team, and they didn’t play very well at all against Xavier, not near as good as tonight. This is a team that’s going to win a lot of games. Akron is a team that’s going to go right down to the end and probably be in the conference finals and play one game to see if they go to the NCAA tournament. That’s the way it’s been in the MAC. These are games vs teams that at the end of the season their RPI is going to be in there somewhere probably between 75 and 125 where it looks good in March that you play games like this. So that’s why we schedule them and obviously you know they give us a great game tonight. Akron will as well on Saturday.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I’ve known Greg for a long time. He’s a good friend of mine in the business. Aside from basketball — we’ll get back to that in a minute — Greg was unbelievable to me during my wife’s cancer treatment. Financially, he helped out with some stuff. For all you writers in Omaha, you’ve got a big time coach. I talked to him almost as soon as I found out, because I knew his wife had gone through the deal about ten years ago. He kept talking to me and checking in with me the entire time Crystal was going through all of her treatment. He’s been as good to me as anybody in the entire business.” -Buffalo Head Coach Nate Oats in postgame press conference
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/cjlathrop/status/803777790398976000
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