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Morning After: Baylor Destroys Creighton on the Offensive Glass in 81-74 Win

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[Box Score]

Trailing 44-33 as the final seconds of the first half ticked away, Nik Graves made a three to send Creighton to the locker room down by just eight. And after beginning the second half on a 6-0 run, they had Baylor momentarily staggered.

But only momentarily. Every time the Jays made a run — CU tied the game three times in the second half but never led — Baylor had an answer. Every time momentum swung Creighton’s way, Baylor made a big play to grab it back. Part of that was because Baylor is a good team. And part of it is because Creighton repeatedly made crucial mistakes at the worst times.

The story of the game, though, is pretty simple: Baylor was red-hot shooting in the first half (including 6-of-8 from three) using the guard-heavy lineup they’ve played all season so far, so Creighton adjusted at halftime and deployed a small-ball lineup of their own that was better capable of chasing the Bears’ shooters around. It worked (Baylor was 1-of-10 from three in the second half), and had the welcome side-effect of being more effective offensively too.

Problem was, that lineup got destroyed on the backboards to such a degree that it erased all the good they did elsewhere. Baylor missed 26 shots in the second half; they grabbed an offensive rebound on 16 of them (61.5%), leading to 16 second chance points. So while the smaller lineup meant better first-shot defense, that only matters if the opponent’s possession stops at one shot. If you can’t rebound and they end up scoring anyway, all you’ve really done is made them use more clock to arrive at the same result.

Sure enough, Creighton trailed by eight at the half and lost by seven, merely treading water at the end of the day despite their adjustments working in a bunch of areas.

“I thought for the first 15 minutes of the game we fought on the glass pretty well,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “After that last media timeout in the first half I didn’t think we were great, and then the second half was an absolute joke. We have to go back and watch it to know exactly what happened, because I know on some of the rebounds, one of our bigs was coming away from the rim to challenge a shot — and a guard has got to come in there and clean up that blockout. We’re just not doing that consistently enough. Clearly.”

Early on, Josh Dix was most of their offense, with the guard hitting a pair of midrange jumpers. His former Iowa teammate Owen Freeman struggled mightily, as CU attempted to play through the post against a smaller Baylor team but were unable to get anything going. Kerem Konan checked in after just 2-1/2 minutes, while Freeman got an earful from Greg McDermott.

A pair of threes, one each from Nik Graves and Fedor Zugic, cut the lead to 15-11. Add in another midrange jumper from Dix, and it was 15-13. But in a sign of things to come, Baylor responded with a 10-2 run to open up a 25-15 lead.

In the midst of that 10-2 run, Hudson Greer turned the ball over on the first possession after checking in. Almost immediately, he settled in — moments later he made his first career basket, a three-pointer.

But the Bears kept burying threes, and had maintained a double-digit lead until for several minutes before Graves’ three at the end of the half.

“I didn’t think, defensively, we were as hooked up as we needed to be in the first half,” McDermott said. “In the second half, our first-shot defense was much better. We just couldn’t get a rebound.”

Two transition layups from Freeman and a pair of free throws from Jasen Green opened the second half, cutting the deficit to 44-42.

But a series of miscues prevented them from putting more pressure on the Bears. Graves missed a layup. Baylor missed a shot, grabbed the offensive board, and scored on a putback. Freeman threw the ball away on an ill-advised pass. Baylor then missed two shots, grabbed the offensive board both times, and finally scored on their third attempt. Adding insult to injury: Dix fouled the shooter, leading to a three-point play.

McDermott pulled Freeman from the game after that sequence, and while the words exchanged in the heated back-and-forth were not audible on the TV broadcast, the noise from the yelling was. The pictures told enough of the story. So did the fact that nine minutes of game clock elapsed before he returned — he checked out at the 17:08 mark and checked in at 8:43 — and after surrendering two shots at the rim, he headed back to the bench 90 seconds later for good.

“Jasen (Green) gave us some comfort at that position,” McDermott said diplomatically. “Certainly not our preference to have to play that many minutes with him at the five, but we felt like it gave us the best chance today. Jasen’s ahead of him defensively right now and probably should be because of of how long he’s been in the program, but with some of our coverages defensively, if you’re a step behind, or if you’re a step late communicating, the integrity of your defense just falls apart. I felt like we’ve made strides in practice in that regard, but it’s just hasn’t been consistent enough in games.”

In the meantime, Hudson Greer provided a spark off the bench and his tenacity seemed to rub off. His three from the top of the circle made it 53-50. Then Baylor fell asleep on an inbounds pass, leaving Graves all alone under his own basket. Dix handed him the ball and Graves made perhaps the easiest shot of his career.

A couple of possessions later, Dix hit a three to tie the game at 58.

And after Baylor responded with a bucket, Greer responded back with a spin-move to create space for a basket at the rim.

But after Dix tied the game for a third and final time in the half on the next possession, Creighton squandered perhaps their best opportunity to take control of the game. Dix missed a shot, and Baylor answered with a jumper from Rataj. Zugic missed a three for the Jays, and Rataj scored again. Graves drove to the rim and got his shot blocked, then Blake Harper fouled the rebounder and gave Baylor two free throws, which they made. CU was never closer than four the rest of the way.

The loss sets up an incredibly important showdown with Iowa State, one-point winners over St. John’s on Tuesday. Win and the Jays can still potentially salvage a 2-1 trip to Vegas and pick up a giant resume-building win for themselves and the Big East. Lose, and their margin for error the rest of the non-conference slate becomes somewhere close to zero.

Inside the Box:

Josh Dix had his best game as a Bluejay so far. Playing all but 36 seconds of the game, he was 7-of-13 from the floor for 15 points, with six assists and only one turnover. The return of his midrange shot, so deadly for Iowa a year ago, is a welcome sign for the Jays moving forward.

His former Iowa teammate Owen Freeman found himself on the opposite end of that spectrum. He played just nine minutes, and after giving up a pair of rebounds in quick succession in the second half, was yanked from the game and berated by McDermott in a conversation loud enough that the TV mics picked up pieces of it. Freeman had four points, one rebound and a turnover before giving way first to the freshman Konan, and then to a small-ball lineup where Jasen Green and Isaac Traudt took turns at the ‘5.’

Meanwhile Hudson Greer, who was going to redshirt a week ago because there seemingly weren’t enough minutes for him, was perhaps their most indispensable player — and in a tacit acknowledgment of that, he played the final 6:55 of a tight game. He led the team with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-2 from three, and repeatedly made clutch plays down the stretch of the game, looking little like a freshman in just his second career game. More importantly, his edge and intensity seemed to be contagious.

“Yeah, I mean Hudson’s not afraid. He plays with plays a lot of confidence and plays a lot of energy,” McDermott said. “And you know, we need him to. We definitely need him to rebound for us. That’s that’s gonna be one area where he’s got to be really consistent for us, because I think he has a chance to be one of the best rebounders on our team.”

Baylor outscored Creighton 27-7 in second chance points, including an 16-2 margin after the break, and that’s the key number in this one. Add in Baylor turning 13 Bluejay turnovers into a 17-9 edge in points off turnovers, and you had a 28-point gap in extra possession points.

“When you’re playing a good team like Baylor, and you have that kind of differential in second-chance points, you’ve gotta be pretty perfect in every other area to have a chance to win,” McDermott said. “We just weren’t.”

Highlights:

Press Conference:

 

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