Key Stats:
Creighton shot 24-33 on two-point shots, and outrebounded Butler 34-30. They were just 7-23 from three-point range, but completely dominated the paint, and blew out the twelfth-ranked team in the country.
Courtesy of WBR’s Matt DeMarinis, who tweeted this out last night, how’s this for a stat? Creighton was out rebounded by 15 against #9 Wisconsin and had more turnovers (17) than assists (14) against #12 Butler. They won both games by double-digits.
Standout Performance:
All season, Khyri Thomas has drawn the assignment of defending the opponent’s best player, and time after time, he’s shut that player down. The latest? Kelan Martin, who came in averaging 17 points a game and scored seven on 3-14 shooting, including zero first-half points on 0-8 shooting.
He’s become as close to a lock-down defender on the wing as Creighton’s had in recent memory, and though Butler fans are blaming last night’s performance on Martin playing poorly, as part of a trend of offensive struggles since Big East play started for their leading scorer, I have to rain on their pity party by saying Thomas surely had more than a little to do with that. Martin’s just the latest in a long line of players to leave a game frustrated by Thomas’ defense — from Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes, to St. John’s’ Shamorie Ponds, to Providence’s Rodney Bullock, to even Villanova’s Josh Hart, he’s made a habit of making life miserable for whoever he guards.
In addition to his defense, Thomas had 14 points and 12 rebounds, splitting them right down the middle — six offensive, six defensive. Justin Patton gets the NBA hype. Mo Watson is getting Big East Player of the Year run. Marcus Foster is their leading scorer. Thomas doesn’t get talked about nearly as much, but he’s as big of a reason for their 16-1 start as anyone.
Recap & Analysis:
In the first 20 minutes of Wednesday’s game, Creighton was as close to unbeatable as you can get. They scored 47 points on 60% shooting, had an assist on 11 of their 18 made baskets, and averaged an absurd 1.38 points per possession. Defensively, they held the nation’s 12th ranked team and 15th-most efficient offense (according to Ken Pomeroy) to 14 points in the first 13 minutes of the game, and eight of those 14 points came on second chances. If not for offensive rebounds, the Jays’ dominance might have extended to a 30-point lead.
They overwhelmed the #12 Bulldogs on offense, smothered them on defense, and by halftime the outcome was more or less assured. The game turned six minutes in; with the score tied 7-7, Marcus Foster drilled a three-pointer and then Thomas threw a lob to Justin Patton for a dunk:
Following a three from Cole Huff, Thomas ripped down a rebound and raced up floor for a ferocious dunk:
Then he blocked a shot and got the ball out to Hegner for a bucket:
After that 12-2 run broke the game open, Creighton continued pushing. Patton used this ridiculous post move to create space for a bank shot:
Foster refused to be denied on a drive to the hole:
They put a cap on the half with back-to-back threes from Thomas and Isaiah Zierden and a shot-clock violation on defense, and went to the locker room up 47-27.
Thomas scored the first five points of the second half on a transition layup and a three-pointer, and with 17:37 to go the Jays led by TWENTY FIVE, 52-27. Their defensive intensity softened a bit from there, but with such a large lead, it hardly mattered. Especially when Maurice The Magician is doing things like this:
For the game, Creighton held Butler’s five starters to 32 points, the fewest by their starting group in three years — a February 26, 2014 loss at Villanova. You have to go back even further to find a game where all five Butler starters were held to fewer than 10 points; November 13, 2012 against Xavier, in the pre-Big East days.
People have wondered what Greg McDermott’s Bluejays — with their “Let It Fly” offense and barrages of three-pointers — might look like with a defense worthy of their offensive firepower. After 17 games, their defensive efficiency is 64th nationally according to KenPom, and they’re winning games in ways you’d have never thought possible three or four years ago.
They Said It:
“Khyri was fabulous, and our execution of our gameplan against Chrabascz was really good: the double-teams in the post, the switches on the ball screens, and keeping the ball out of his hands. When he did get the ball, he’s so good at being a passer that our message to the team all week was ‘as he starts to penetrate, and make his move, you’ve got to get closer to your guys. Don’t lose vision on them.’ Because he wants to beat you with the pass in that situation. Our execution of that in the first half, and our intensity, though we missed a couple of blackouts it was as good of a half as we’ve played all year on the defensive end.” -Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Khyri was amazing on defense. And when you look back, Shamorie Ponds didn’t have a good shooting night (for St. John’s). Rodney Bullock didn’t have a good shooting night (for Providence). Kelan Martin didn’t have a good shooting night tonight. Well guess who’s guarding them? If you go back as far as the Nebraska game, or Arizona State, or even Wisconsin, right on down the line, he’s done a terrific job of taking whoever he’s guarding and making their life miserable. When we were preparing for the Seton Hall game, I was watching the Big East Tournament game from last year, and we hardly played Khyri. He was coming off the bench, he was struggling defensively, he had no confidence offensively, and he was used as basically a last resort off the bench. And to think where this kid is today is really a credit to Khyri and his work ethic in the weight room. He’s gotten stronger, he’s more confident because of that strength, and he’s not allowing a bad game or a bad possession to snowball on him like he did last year. Obviously that’s a sign of maturity, too, but I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s playing great basketball.” -Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“It’s hard to run against Butler. They don’t give you a lot of transition baskets. It’s hard to get easy baskets, and only one team before tonight shot better than 50% against them. We shot 60% in the first half. So we found seams in that defense to get a few easy ones, and now once you’ve gotten a few easy ones, they have to commit to taking those away. That leads to open three pointers, and we got a few to drop for us which was huge and got the crowd into the game.” -Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I’m a huge proponent of this $1 Beer night. I’ve gotta talk to Ras about this. I wasn’t enjoying any of the dollar beers, but I might enjoy one when we’re finished with this interview (laughs). The crowd was awesome. Three games in a row of over 18,000 fans. I mean, Brody (Deren) played at the Civic, and I coached there when I was at Northern Iowa, and if we’d have said in 2002 that if you fast-forward 15 years we’re going to have 18,000 fans watching us three straight games? We’d have looked at each other like we were crazy. Our fans are incredible, this is an incredible place, and our student body was awesome tonight — they were here early, they were having fun, and we’re going to need them because this league is going to be a dog fight. There’s a lot of good teams. We’ve positioned ourselves right where we need to be five games in.” -Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I’ve got to watch the film to see where JP struggled tonight. My initial answer is that JP did it to JP rather than Butler doing it to him. I told him after the game, because he was really frustrated as he came off the floor, ‘Justin, you’re a freshman. Very few times have you played like a freshman, and tonight you did a few times. But the good thing is, we won the game! We’re going to go back and look at this film, and my challenge to you is to learn from some of the loose plays you had. The high dribble in the post. The one-hand pass on an inbounds play that gets intercepted and goes the other way. Those are really correctable errors. But we have to learn from it.’ And the good thing with Justin is, he’s so coachable. He wants to learn. He wants to please. He wants to please me, our staff, his teammates, the crowd, everybody. He’s not selfish at all. That’s just who he is as a person. And he’ll come back tomorrow ready to go. It wasn’t his best game of the year, certainly, but I guess he has a right to be a freshman on occasion because he sure hasn’t been one very often through 16 games.” -Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/819368453953843200
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/819368562892500992
https://twitter.com/ryanholmgren/status/819375369950203904
https://twitter.com/dirkusbh/status/819379147768287233
https://twitter.com/ryanholmgren/status/819377905788710912
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/819378212740304896
https://twitter.com/joejohns402/status/819426033514512389
https://twitter.com/wenthold/status/819398301690822661
