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Morning After: #20 Creighton 63, St. John’s 60

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton goes +6 on the boards (33-27). St. John’s shoots 1-10 from three-point range, and just 42.9% overall. Jays commit 17 turnovers and dish out only 13 assists in a rare game with a negative A/T ratio.

Favorite Moment: Prior to hitting the game-winner at St. Joseph’s earlier this year, Doug McDermott had never made a last-second shot to win a game for the Bluejays, which was a surprising thing to a lot of people. That one came on the road, making Tuesday night’s game-winner a special moment, and with only four home games left, in all probability a once-in-a-career moment. Knocked to the ground on the shot, after McDermott’s game-winning three-pointer dropped through, he laid on the court for a few seconds not for dramatic effect, but to soak in the immense roar of the fans inside CenturyLink Center.

He was the likely Wooden Award winner as the best player in the country before, but with that shot, he’d given voters his “Wooden Moment” — an indelible memory that all but clinches his coronation. It lit up Twitter like a Christmas tree, with dozens of national analysts from ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC and elsewhere proclaiming that after that shot, in that moment, every other contender for the award was now playing for second place.

That’s a moment.

Recap: After Saturday night’s game, there was a lot of talk about how Creighton was more than just Doug McDermott, and how on a night when McDermott struggled to score 14 points, it was impressive that the Jays won by double-digits over a solid Georgetown squad thanks to contributions from a host of teammates.

That’s great and all, but when push comes to shove, it’s nice to have the best player in college basketball on your team, and to have him seize the moment.

In preparing their gameplan for Tuesday night, Steve Lavin and the Red Storm took a page out of the Duke playbook from last March. In the game that eliminated Creighton from the NCAA Tournament, Duke took away every other offensive option and counted on Doug McDermott not being able to beat them single-handedly. For the Dukies, it worked. For St. John’s, not so much.

The Red Storm used their athleticism and quickness to turn Creighton’s normally well-oiled offensive machine into a one-on-one contest, dictating that the game would be played on their terms. McDermott took 11 of Creighton’s 21 shots in the first half, and scored 20 of their 29 points, nearly doing what Lavin gambled he couldn’t: beat them by himself.

To Lavin’s credit, he doubled-down in the second half and continued with that strategy — unlike Seton Hall and Butler, who tried to guard McDermott straight-up in the first half but abandoned it in the second half after realizing they simply couldn’t do it, Lavin kept it up, kept telling his players that Ethan Wragge and Jahenns Manigat and Austin Chatman and Will Artino were not going to beat them, kept daring McDermott to do it all himself. And with twelve minutes to play, it looked like that strategy was going to blow up in his face. Creighton had opened up the second half on a 19-3 run to take an 18 point lead, and McDermott had the same number of points as St. John’s did as a team (30).

The game appeared to be over; St. John’s had scored roughly one point per minute to that point, and on this night, they did not appear to be capable of erasing an 18-point deficit in 12 minutes. Sloppy turnovers and poor defense by Creighton, combined with better shot selection by the Johnnies, sliced the lead in half by the under-eight timeout, and then the Jays treaded water for the next four minutes, trading baskets back-and-forth, maintaining an eight point lead.

Things unraveled over the next three minutes, an excruciating stretch that saw Creighton do everything they could to give the game away, and St. John’s make every play they needed to make to steal a “W”. Up 56-48 with 4:31 to go, Devin Brooks tried to get fancy with a dribble on the wing, had the ball stolen by Rysheed Jordan, and JaKarr Sampson converted a layup in transition three seconds later to make it 56-50. Brooks was benched by a clearly furious Coach Mac, but Doug McDermott would fare no better the next trip down, having the ball stolen from him by Chris Obekpa while making a move in the paint. Jordan made a slick move to slide past a defender in transition, and it was 56-52.

Manigat temporarily stopped the hemorrhaging with a nifty dribble drive at the 3:07 mark to give Creighton a 58-52 lead, but then a foul by Wragge set up two free throws and cut the lead to four. Avery Dingman turned it over on the next possession, and when Obekpa threw down a monster dunk at the 2:17 mark to make it 58-56, the sellout crowd of over 17,500 groaned, stunned by the turn of events. On the next offensive set, Dingman had a terrific look, wide-open on the right wing, but his shot missed and after the Jays failed to corral the offensive board, JaKarr Sampson took the ball and drove to the rim to tie the game.

Momentum had obviously shifted to the visiting Red Storm, but the home crowd wasn’t about to let their team go down without a fight. As the Jays set up to inbound the ball with just over a minute left, the crowd burst into a chant of “Let’s! Go! Jays!” in an attempt to give the Bluejays a lift. The offense took their time, and eventually got the ball to Doug McDermott, who went to work, dribbling left, then right, backing down the defense, inching his way closer and closer to the rim, before finally putting up a tough one-handed shot that went in. It gave Creighton a 60-58 lead, and while the crowd was going crazy, Dingman — playing with four fouls — stepped in front of a Rysheed Jordan drive to the hoop to draw a charge. Now the arena was really going nuts.

McDermott would get the ball the next time down the floor, but this time his shot misfired; St. John’s had a chance to tie or win the game with the shot clock off. They opted to go for the tie, but as Jordan began his drive, he was fouled by Chatman. The St. John’s guard who had done so much to fuel the comeback calmly sank both free throws looking into the teeth of the student section, and tied the game at 60.

Would the Jays set up a play for McDermott? Would St. John’s allow the best player in the country to even touch the ball? On the Creighton radio broadcast, Nick Bahe speculated that they would not — that St. John’s would double him, and make someone else beat them. Whichever guard had the ball when it crossed half-court would be the player that would have to make the play. Instead, Lavin went down with the ship, opting to defend the final possession straight-up, just as they had all night. Isaiah Zierden put a spectacular screen on the player assigned to guard McDermott, St. John’s shot-blocker extraordinaire Chris Obekpa — putting his backside into him and pushing Obekpa back, allowing McDermott to catch the ball and get just enough of a view of the rim to put up a shot.

Was there any doubt the shot would go in? McDermott told the media afterward that although he didn’t see it go in, he knew it was destined to go in the second it left his hands, and the roar of the crowd let him know he was right.

Quotables:

“The game-winner was a play that we’ve worked on in practice, in end-of-game situational practice. We executed it perfectly. Jahenns came off the handoff from Chatman, pitched it over to Doug, Isaiah had a nice screen, the little flare, and then…money. (laughs)” -Avery Dingman on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s so hard to get momentum back after you lose it, and it seemed like they grabbed the momentum at the right time. We were up almost 20 with ten minutes left and then they started just driving it right at our chest, getting some calls and making some tough, contested layups. It was a really physical, athletic game, and luckily we executed down the stretch when we really needed to.” -Avery Dingman on 1620AM Postgame

“We thought they’d defend us straight-up a little bit, because they’re maybe the most athletic team in our league, but after Doug started doing what he does, I was surprised they didn’t bring a double-team. He just kept doing it. But they stuck with it, and he made them pay.” -Avery Dingman on 1620AM Postgame

(On the charge in the final minute) “Jordan did that about five out of the last ten possessions, where he’d just put it on the floor, put his head down and try to bully his way to the basket. I knew he was going to go right, because that’s what he’d been doing all night, and I knew he wasn’t going to shoot it, so I just kind of sat on that right hand and when he came at me, he hit me right in the chest with his shoulder. I went flying, and got the call. That was a big play.” -Avery Dingman on 1620AM Postgame

(On what it’s like playing with Doug on nights like this) “It’s unbelievable. I mean, I don’t think anybody on our team has ever played with a guy like this. Sometimes, he’ll get the ball and the shot clock is running down, and he’ll hit a shot where it’s just like…you can’t even believe it. For example, the left-handed post move in the final minute to make it 60-58, I feel like I’ve almost become numb to it. I expect those to go in and it doesn’t even surprise me, even when it’s a really tough shot, because he’s been doing it for four years. He’s an unbelievable guy to play with.” -Avery Dingman on 1620AM Postgame

(On the final play) “The play wasn’t even necessarily for me. It was just designed as a ‘read’ where we had different options, and we run those options every day in practice. We saw that Obekpa had run under the screen, which was kind of too good to be true. Jahenns made a great pass, Isaiah made a great read on the screen and then…I knew the shot was in right away. It just felt good.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I expected to take the shot, but I didn’t expect it to be that wide open. It was a read play where we’d use a flare screen, and then if that wasn’t open, there’d be a down screen right after that. If Obekpa would have come down and got me and taken those options away, I could have curled it and popped, or Ethan could have set a ball screen and he could have picked and popped. It’s just a read where there’s a bunch of different options.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I think these guys were thinking they’d make me beat them, and take away everyone else. So we did a great job of recognizing that they were one-on-one against me in the post. I can’t find our shooters when they’re so locked onto them, so I had to take advantage of that. It’s not going to be like this every night, I’m not going to get 26 shots up, but that’s the way they played us tonight. The way they played us was a lot like Duke last year. They’re so talented, long and athletic, they just have so much versatility on the defensive end of the floor. They switch every screen, kind of like Duke did against us.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

(On where this moment ranks) “I think that’s Number One, at least here at home. That St. Joe’s one was pretty cool, and the other night against Villanova was just absolutely a great game, but in this arena, I’ve never had a feeling like that. I’ve never experienced anything like this, even at Ames High. I’ve never had the opportunity where the whole crowd’s with me. I mean, we had 18,000 fans here. I thought time was expired, so I stayed down on the court to soak it in. I wasn’t trying to celebrate too much, but it just felt amazing.” -Doug McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“That team is a nightmare. You know, one of the referees said late in the game, ‘This is a really hard game to officiate because these two teams don’t fit together. What you’re trying to do and what they’re trying to do are two totally different things.’ You’re going to have games where after the season’s over you look back and say, we weren’t our best but we found a way to get it done. Tonight’s one of those nights. We had some guys that weren’t feeling good, some guys that didn’t play well and made uncharacteristic mistakes, and we needed a horse. Fortunately, we were riding Secretariat tonight (laughs).” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“What I’m most proud of is that, Jahenns played as poorly as he’s played since his freshman year. But he recognized that. He didn’t force it. He said, you know, let’s get the ball to Doug. The execution on the final play was a great example of that. He made a great read, Isaiah set a great screen, Doug made a great read and made a great shot.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“St. John’s is playing good basketball right now, and they showed it the last ten minutes of the game. Defensively for 30 minutes we were really, really good, and then they just quit running their offense and put their head down and went to the basket.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s been a tough stretch. When you think about it, since December 31st — what’s today, January 28th — in 28 days we’ve played nine games in the Big East. That’s a grind. We had nine games against teams we’d never played before. Nine new game preps and scouting reports. Four new cities that we’d never been to. So to be in this position, I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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