Key Stats:
39 (!!) of Wisconsin’s 63 shot attempts came from three-point range, and they made just 11 of them — meanwhile, the Badgers shot 15-24 on two-point baskets. CU’s defensive strategy of doubling the post every time the ball went inside left the Badgers with open looks on the perimeter, and the gamble paid off.
Speaking of Creighton’s defense, they had eight steals and forced 16 Wisconsin turnovers, which led to two big advantages: 26-13 in points off turnovers, and 13-0 on fast break points. It also helped get the Jays out in transition and play the game at a faster pace than Wisconsin would have liked.
Wisconsin, one of the nation’s leading teams in terms of free throw attempts (and makes), attempted just five free throws the entire night as a result of all their jump shots, which accomplished two big things: it robbed the Badgers of one of their primary methods of piling up points, and by keeping them from standing at the free throw line for large chunks of the second half, it allowed Creighton to build momentum and keep the crowd into the game.
Standout Performance:
Lots of players shined on Tuesday night. Marcus Foster scored 15 points and got the Jays off to a good start. Maurice Watson had a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists, while also coming up with four steals. Justin Patton played 29 (!) minutes and managed to stay out of foul trouble despite defending some of the best post players he’ll face all year, and did an excellent job preventing Nigel Hayes, Ethan Happ, and Vitto Brown from doing damage in the paint. He also scored 10 points, grabbed seven boards, and had one of the most ferocious blocks a Creighton player has swatted in the post-Echenique Era.
But Khyri Thomas shined brightest. The sophomore from Omaha did a fantastic job of executing the defensive gameplan to limit the effectiveness of Big Ten Preseason POY Nigel Hayes by double-teaming him anytime he caught the ball near the rim. Hayes scored 16 hard-earned points but took just four shots inside the arc. And if that’s all he’d contributed, it would have still been a solid effort. Oh, but he did so much more. Thomas scored 18 points, and scored from everywhere — dunks, three-pointers, jumpers, free throws. With 6:55 to play and the Jays up by a precarious five points, he stole the ball from Bronson Koenig and drove the length of the floor for a layup and a free throw. Then after a defensive stop, he nailed a corner three in transition and suddenly it was an 11 point lead.
In the final minute, he may have single-handedly sealed the win with a 10-second sequence where he grabbed a hard-fought rebound, threw an outlet pass to Patton for an uncontested dunk, then stole the ball from Ethan Happ and raced downcourt for a dunk of his own.
Recap & Analysis:
On a night where the CenturyLink Center crowd was over-stuffed and extra-loud, the Bluejays did exactly what you hope to do in that situation: get off to a fast start. Patton got things started with a nifty shot in the post, and then Foster followed with a three-pointer. Patton knocked the ball away from Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown on the next trip, Foster hit another three, and it was 8-0 Creighton after 1:21 of action. Badger coach Greg Gard called for time to allow his team to catch their breath, but on their first shot attempt following the break, Patton blocked a Zak Showalter shot from behind and knocked it three rows deep into the crowd.
Creighton’s defensive strategy was to send a double-team at any Badger player that caught the ball near the paint, whether that was Ethan Happ or Nigel Hayes or Vitto Brown. The doubles often resulted in a wide-open shooter on the perimeter, and the Badgers took full advantage. They rattled off a 28-10 run that not only erased CU’s lead, but threatened to take both the crowd and the team out of the game. Eight of the Badgers’ ten field goals in that stretch were three-pointers, and they were 8-13 from long range at that point.
Wisconsin’s a good three-point shooting team, but not THAT good. No one’s that good. Not even 2013-14 Creighton was THAT good at making three-pointers (well, other than at Villanova…) So the Jays stuck to their gameplan and continued doubling the post, denying close-range shot attempts, and forcing long jump shots.
Regression to the mean for Wisconsin was not kind. After starting the game 8-13 from three-point range, they went 3-26 the rest of the game and missed 13 straight threes at one point.
Once they cooled off, Creighton mounted a comeback. Down 28-20 with just over seven minutes left in the first, CU ended the half on a 13-2 run, highlighted by six points from Foster including a monstrous dunk in traffic and an alley-oop from Patton.
The defensive gameplan that looked like a disaster early was looking genius — forcing Wisconsin into a jump-shooting team robbed them of their ability to score in the paint, robbed them of their ability to draw large numbers of fouls and thus slow the game down at the free throw line, and once the jump shots stopped falling at an alarming rate, made it extremely difficult for Wisconsin to score.
In the second half, the Badgers were once again forced to rely on the three-pointer, with 14 of their 30 shot attempts coming from behind the arc — they made just three of them. Their rebounding advantage gave them countless second-chance opportunities, however, and they used that to make the Bluejays defend for 40-50 seconds at a time. With 11 minutes to play, the Badgers had a four-point lead, 48-44, and as in the first half, were on the verge of seizing control of the game.
Watson drove to the rim for an acrobatic shot in between two defenders to slice the lead in half, Isaiah Zierden drew a foul on the next possession and made both free throws to tie the game at 48, and then a steal by Watson led to a Cole Huff jumper for the lead. Nigel Hayes answered with a dunk to tie it at 50, Justin Patton replied with a nifty hook shot to make it 52-50, followed by a ridiculous up-and-under move that not many big men anywhere could pull off, and the Jays would never trail again thanks in large part to the exploits of Khyri Thomas we outlined above.
The 79-67 win is a helluva statement, coming as it did over a team that will contend for the Big Ten title and be a favorite to advance deep into March. Wisconsin is a great team, and Creighton beat them in a way they might not have been able to in previous years under Greg McDermott. They did it not by making a ridiculous number of three-pointers, or with an all-time performance by one player, or with an overwhelming offensive explosion. They did it by executing great team defense, scoring in a variety of ways from multiple players, and beating a great team straight-up.
Foster and Watson have gotten the lions’ share of the accolades this preseason, with good reason. But if Patton and Thomas, the two Omaha natives, can parlay Tuesday’s performances into the rest of the season, Creighton could be destined for big things too. A point guard that can dish out double-digit assists and create his own shot. An off-guard that can score from anywhere and explode over defenders for a dunk, while keeping opposing guards from getting shots off. A 7-foot center who can run like a guard to get easy transition dunks, defend opposing bigs without fouling, and protect the rim with long arms that long to deny opponent’s shots. And a big guard who can defend forwards or guards, use his quick hands to come up with steals, fight for rebounds, and score from either outside or at the rim? That’s a helluva lot of dimensions for an opponent to gameplan for, and that’s without even mentioning Cole Huff, Isaiah Zierden, Toby Hegner or Zach Hanson, veteran players who have had huge performances in the past. And it doesn’t include young players like Ronnie Harrell, Davion Mintz, Martin Krampelj or Kobe Paras who have the talent to contribute to wins later this year.
Creighton’s a legitimate top-15 team, and the nation found that out Tuesday night.
They Said It:
“Really proud of our guys, because that’s hard to do to a team as good and as experienced as they are. We executed so well. We decided to stick to our guns; they have eight three-point shots in the first 20 possessions and you’re tempted to try something different. I just kept telling my staff, we’ve missed some layups, we’re getting to the basket and they’re chucking threes. Nigel Hayes has made three of them and he’s a 28% three-point shooter. Let’s roll with the numbers and try and box somebody out once in a while. Fortunately, it worked out for us.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“That first half, for us to weather that eight three-pointer storm, and still be standing is probably the biggest thing I’m going to take away from this about my team tonight. That could have been deflating. They could have been looking at me like, ‘Are you sure this is what we should be doing?’ They stuck to their guns, and those rotations eventually got us turnovers, got us easy baskets. While the post double exposed us at times, it certainly was good for us at times.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“We got to the free throw line some in the first half, and kept them off it, which is huge. And then I told the guys, we just have to keep running and keep running. Wisconsin is going to be the hardest team we play all year to break their will in transition. They’re going to get back and get set, and they’re going to get back and get set time after time. You think you’re going to run and do something, but they’ll take it away. But I knew sooner or later, we’d go on a little mini-run that would be the difference in the game, and sure enough, in the second half we were able to do that — I don’t know how much time was left, nine minutes? Or whenever it was when we were able to put that run on them. But we were able to create some separation and get the crowd into the game.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“The crowd was fabulous. Wisconsin has played in a couple of Final Fours and a Sweet 16 and played in tough venues across the country. Our environment needed to be tough, and our fans answered the bell big time. I’m really appreciative of everybody that was here. I just wish I could get them back from the Bud Bar to start the second half a little bit faster (laughs)! I understand it, but I don’t know what I’m going to do, maybe I need to turn the lights off up there with three minutes left or something because tonight we’ve got a three-point game and we needed them (laughs). The good news is, when they get back, they’re in a really good place! They’re ready to get into it. But no, they were fabulous. You can’t not play hard when you’ve got 17 or 18,000 people cheering and giving you energy.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I was concerned, because it was five fouls to two. And on the fifth foul, there was I think 14 minutes left or something. I was thinking, ‘Oh boy, they’re going to be shooting free throws the rest of the half.’ We talked about that with our guys in the huddle, and said, ‘We fouled them twice in 20 minutes. The same guys, the same dudes. You need to sit down, get your hands back, move your feet, and guard the dribble so this doesn’t rack up. It ended up being six to six after that. We kept them off the free throw line, and that was really critical. It allowed us to get our run, because they weren’t standing at the free throw line taking the momentum away from the game.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“The poise of Justin Patton against this front line, to not look overwhelmed at all? I don’t think he knows any better (laughs). I really don’t. What’s interesting about Justin that people really don’t understand is, the dude really understands the game. He’s really cerebral. Tonight there was a play where he threw it to Cole for a 15-footer. He was supposed to screen for Cole, and I said to him, ‘Justin, what are you doing?’ He waited a little bit, and then he said, ‘Coach, Cole’s man helped on the drive. He wasn’t even there, Cole’s wide open.’ For a guy to read that, that quickly? I’m sure when I watch the film he’ll be right. He’s learning to play harder for longer. As you look at the box score, Ethan Happ has seven points and ten rebounds. Justin Patton has 10 points and seven rebounds. And Ethan Happ’s a pretty doggone good player. I thought Justin’s activity, getting to the post trap and then getting out of it, getting hands on basketballs…he’s becoming a more physical rebounder and he’ll get even moreso as time goes on. He and Khyri were outstanding tonight. Obviously, Marcus got us off to the great start tonight. Maurice did some great things. But without Tazz and Justin stepping up like they did we’d have been in big trouble.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“The bench was great tonight. Toby Hegner was on scout team this week for three days. For him to be able to do what he did, go in and execute our plan, outstanding. Because when you’re on the scout team, you’re not getting reps, so you better be watching. You better understand it. Toby’s always been one to ask questions. ‘Coach, what am I supposed to do here? If I’m in this situation, what do I do?’ He prepared himself mentally even though he didn’t get the reps. We rolled with him tonight, because I felt he matched up better. That’s what I’ve told the guys. We have a lot of guys that can help us. The freshmen, Davion and Kobe, are going to be able to help us before it’s all over. Martin is going to be able to help us. Ronnie didn’t play as much tonight but he’s going to help us. I have the flexibility to use our bench to play to the matchup on a particular night. Guys have to be unselfish enough to understand that, to keep working and keep preparing themselves and there will never be a better example of that than what Toby did tonight.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/cjlathrop/status/798702981965377537
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/798704089911742466
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https://twitter.com/cjlathrop/status/798709281688317957
https://twitter.com/meganobsports/status/798712327461806080
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/798713996476088320
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https://twitter.com/meganobsports/status/798725931204538368
https://twitter.com/cjlathrop/status/798727355762176001
https://twitter.com/prspcderek/status/798727686021595136
https://twitter.com/cjlathrop/status/798734699401187328
https://twitter.com/doublegfor3/status/798807221119242241