Key Stats:
Butler grabs 17 offensive rebounds on 43 missed shots. Creighton outrebounds Butler 29-21 on defensive boards, but loses the overall rebounding margin 38-36. Creighton commits a season-high 19 turnovers.
Standout Performances:
Despite playing only 23 minutes, Devin Brooks had a team-high 10 rebounds, as the 6’2″ guard equaled the beefy Roosevelt Jones’ 10 boards for Butler. Brooks also had seven points and six assists, and even ran the point for a few possessions in the second half.
Over the last four games, Rick Kreklow has emerged as a consistent scoring threat — after scoring in double-figures just once in the first 16 games, he’s scored in double-figures in four straight. His 16 points against Butler were a team-high and came from everywhere on the court, from three-point shots to drives to the rim, and although it’s slightly hyperbolic, it seemed like he was single-handedly keeping the Jays in the game for large stretches because of the timing of his buckets. He also had four rebounds and three steals, while playing solid defense. It’s a shame he doesn’t have one more year, because on a better team, this version of Kreklow could be a tremendous asset.
Recap & Analysis:
Odds are, one of these games, Creighton will figure out a way to win a close one. Until the law of averages catches up to them, or they make their own breaks, the pain and heartbreak continues. Heartbreak? You bet. In a losing streak that has now reached eight games, three of the last four losses have been decided in the final minute, with seemingly every break and every bounce going the other way.
In this latest loss, they fell behind 10-4 in the opening minutes, and trailed for the entire first half despite three instances where they had possession with a chance to tie the game or take the lead. In each instance, they either missed a shot or turned it over. The last of those came after Kreklow made a three to cut the deficit to 24-23; Creighton committed two turnovers to kickstart an 11-4 Butler run to end the half that gave them a 35-27 halftime lead.
It was a first half where Butler dominated the offensive glass, partially because Creighton was throwing a series of junk defenses at them to slow down their shooters, and those defenses kept them from being in good rebounding position, and partially because Butler is a tremendous rebounding team to begin with. One possession in particular was a perfect microcosm of the half. With 11:32 to play, Kelan Martin missed a three-pointer but Roosevelt Jones rebounded it. Alex Barlow took a three, missed it, and got his own rebound. Austin Etherington missed a jumper, Tyler Wideman secured the offensive board, and Jones missed a shot. The ball went out of bounds but was controlled by Butler; Kellen Dunham subbed in and immediately hit a three-pointer. 69 seconds had elapsed since Creighton last possessed the ball.
The second half was characterized by Butler trying time after time to put Creighton away, and time after time Creighton refusing to go quietly. Five separate times, Creighton rallied to cut the deficit to four or fewer points; each time, Butler immediately pushed the lead right back to eight or nine points. Finally with 3:18 to play, they drew even after a 9-0 run featuring an old-fashioned three-point play from James Milliken, a corner three from Kreklow, and a three from the same corner from Milliken. Moments later, Kreklow stole the ball and got it to Milliken in transition; he was fouled and sank both free throws to give Creighton their first lead of the night at 59-57.
On their next possession, Jones was fouled and made one-of-two free throws to draw Butler within one; after Milliken missed a shot on the other end, Andrew Chrabascz made a layup to give Butler the lead. Brooks pushed the ball upcourt for Creighton, but as he drove to the rim, he was whistled for a questionable charge call — one of those 50/50 plays that never seem to go your way when you really need it to, like in the final minute of a winnable game when you’re mired in a seven-game losing streak. Butler milked most of the clock away, missing two shots and ultimately getting two free throws from Kameron Woods.
With six seconds left, Jones committed a foul, his fifth, and put Milliken on the line. It kept the Jays from attempting a potential game-tying three-pointer, but it fouled out the Bulldogs leading scorer. Milliken made both to make it 62-61, but then the Bluejays had a brain cramp. They trapped Barlow in the corner after he caught the inbounds pass and tied him up, taking half of the remaining six seconds off the clock in the process. Problem was, Butler controlled the possession arrow. The brain cramps weren’t over. Creighton fouled before the ball could be inbounded and more time could tick away, but they fouled Barlow — an 88% free throw shooter. He made both, and after a 45-foot heave at the buzzer from Kreklow was wide, Butler escaped with a win.
For once, the loss couldn’t be pegged on poor shooting — the Bluejays were somewhat efficient offensively for once, making 45% of their shots for the game and 5-8 from three-point range in the second half. This loss can be attributed to turnovers. They committed 19 of them, 12 in the first half alone, with Austin Chatman being the worst offender with four by himself. Defensively, their junk zones held the Bulldogs’ shooters down (Dunham was 2-12 from the floor and 1-8 from three). They managed to outrebound Butler on the defensive glass. They had their second-best shooting night in Big East play, both from the field and from three-point range. But every time they tried to comeback, or extend their lead once they got one, they turned it over. The lesson, as always, is this: just when you think you’ve got this team figured out, they find a new, more frustrating, way to lose.
Quotables:
“The shoulder felt good. The last few days, it’s really had a lot of improvement. It’s a little sore after this one, but nothing too bad.” -Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame
“We had the right intentions, but we gave up way too many offensive rebounds. And in the first half, I think we turned it over 12 times. It’s hard to win when you turn it over that much. They’ve got some big, strong guys. We may not have guys that are thick like that, but I think we’re definitely capable of competing with people like that.” -Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame
“Everybody’s still working, and everybody’s still so positive. Everybody on the team loves everybody else, we love the coaches, they’re all with us, so we just have to keep positive and keep working. It’s hard to lose like this, but everybody gave a lot of effort. In the games I was out, I definitely tried to support the guys as much as I could. It’s hard because I wanted to be out there helping, but I was proud of my teammates for the way they worked and even though we didn’t win, they gave it their all.” -Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame
“I mean (exhales) shoot. Going down the stretch, there was a lot of times where we were attacking the bucket but some nights you’re just not going to get calls, some nights those shots just aren’t going to fall. We were putting ourselves in a good position, we were still being aggressive until the end of the game, attacking on the break, trying to get easy buckets. One of them, we didn’t get the foul call, and I’m not saying it was or it wasn’t a foul, we just didn’t get the call. On another, a layup didn’t fall, and some other shots didn’t fall. A loose ball here and there didn’t go our way. It’s just, in this game and in the other ones we’ve lost by a few points, there’s always a call here, a shot there, a turnover here — maybe just one different possession — and you’re looking at 3-4 instead of 0-7 in one of the best conferences in the country.” -Rick Kreklow on 1620AM Postgame
“Everybody’s frustrated. Everybody’s hurt. Nobody comes out and wants to lose the game. Everyone’s put in a lot of work, not just this year, but their whole lives and it all kind of leads up to this point. The thing you can’t fault is everyone is bringing it every day. Every day in practice it’s intense. Everyone is focused. We bring it out on the floor, and we can’t seem to play a perfect game. It’s like a broken record. We do a lot of things well, but have a few mistakes here and there. I think on one play, Dunham drove around, went down the baseline, and dumped it in to put them up one. He ran off the three-point line. It’s little plays like that that are just tough. And obviously he’s a tough guard, especially in that position, but it’s little plays like that where if you can do them differently, you’ll win the game. It’s the same thing we’ve said before. We’re close. We could very easily be 3-4 instead of 0-7. We’re not playing bad basketball. We’re playing against good teams in the Big East and sticking with these teams on the road no less. And I truly believe that if this team hits that right stride, just as easily as we lost seven games, we can put a string together. But we’ve got to do it one game at a time. Coach Mac talked in the locker room that the rest of the year is one-game seasons. Villanova, that’s our season. That’s our next game on Sunday, and we have to prepare for that and try to win one game at a time to put ourselves back in position to start putting some wins together. There’s a lot of good teams in this league, and you can put four or five good wins together to put yourselves right back in a good position.” -Rick Kreklow on 1620AM Postgame
“Roosevelt Jones is awkward, but he’s really good at what he does. He’s a big body, he’s slow, he’s patient, he’s shifty. He’ll throw it up from his waist as he’s falling away, he’ll roll it under, he’s just tough to guard. Especially when he’s coming downhill. But the way they’re calling fouls, you can’t really bump anymore. You kind of have to give them space, but at the same time you have to stand your ground. He’s really tough to guard, and he takes advantage of that.” -Rick Kreklow on 1620AM Postgame
“The difference the last four games is I’ve just kind of gotten over that hump to where I’m consistently comfortable. It’s just knowing where your shots are coming from, and knowing where you’re expected to shoot, just makes a big difference. Knowing that the shot you’re taking is what we’re looking for.” -Rick Kreklow on 1620AM Postgame
(On why the team plays well with him and Devin Brooks on the floor together) “Devin is tough to guard. He’s shifty. And one thing he’s done a good job of lately, and he still has a turnover here and there, is that he’s playing within himself. He’s playing under control. He has great vision, and he is a guy that can take a broken play, drive it to middle, and shoot it, or kick it out, and create. There was one play in the first half, where he got me going offensively with a three, a give-and-go. He drove down into the paint and kicked it out to me. That’s something we practice every day. Drive and kick. He drives it right into the middle, kicks it out, and it’s a step-in three. I love it. It gets everything going. Those are the kinds of things he does. He plays so hard. Everyone’s going to make some mistakes, and sometimes he does, but you can never question whether Devin’s going to go out there and play hard. He’ll go rebound, he go defend, he’ll run, and you can always count on that with him.” -Rick Kreklow on 1620AM Postgame
“To say this was a game of missed opportunities is somewhat accurate. Our guys competed their tails off. I certainly can’t fault their effort. We executed our gameplan relatively well with the changing defenses, to try to keep Dunham out of rhythm, and I thought we did a good job of that. We knew rebounding was going to be an issue, and that turned out to be the case. I did not anticipate the 19 turnovers. We thought we could get into the teeth of the defense, and our message to the guys was, when you get in there, you have to set your feet. You can’t go in there and fly because they’re going to take charges, and they’re going to rotate, and we didn’t heed that message very well the first half. That middle in the first half…those four or five empty possessions hurt.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I’m proud of my team, I really am. I hurt for them so bad. There are coaches in the country that are winning a lot more than we’re winning that aren’t having as much fun coaching their team as I am. I hurt for those guys in that locker room, because this program means a great deal to them. Obviously they’re struggling right now, and they’ve struggled the last few games with what’s transpired, but they continue to come to work and do what we ask them to do.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“At the end, we were going to attack if we were down one or two. And we had a play called, I think somebody fouled out so I had a chance to talk to the guys. If they went up three, we’d made the determination we were going to take a timeout and run a play we hadn’t run all year and hope we could catch them off guard so we could get a three. But they did a good job defending it, we went into a dribble handoff and they fouled us. After the free throws, we went into a full-court pressure. The plan was to try to steal the inbounds, and then foul if that wasn’t successful. I just think Will felt like he could grab the ball. And in your natural reaction, you’re not thinking about whose possession arrow it is, and all that, so we probably let two valuable seconds get away that we shouldn’t have.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“They shot 33%, and 20% from three, so our defense did what it had to do. I don’t know how many possessions were in the game…it was a 67 possession game and they scored 64 points. Defensively, that’s good enough. But unfortunately, our offense, once again, when we got a shot at the basket we were fine. We shot 45% and almost 40% from three. But those 19 turnovers, and I’m guessing 10 of those were self-inflicted, were really foolish. That could have changed the game. This is the darndest team I’ve ever coached to try to figure out. Last game, we lost at home and turned it over five times. Turnovers have not been a problem for us all year. It’s the one thing we’ve consistently done well. For the year we’ve turned it over on less than 20% of our possessions. For that to happen here surprises me. As a coach, it wasn’t something that I was anticipating that would be a problem.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I thought Devin gave us some good lift, and found some guys penetrating the lane. I think he had an assist on both of those threes where we tied the game. James attacked and got to the free throw line. And Ricky made some good decisions again. Ricky’s playing his tail off. Jeez. He’s bought in. I can’t imagine a graduate transfer in that situation on a team that’s 0-6, 0-7, anywhere in the country could be bought in the way that kid is. It’s like he’s been here the whole time and this program means the world to him. I think it’s because he’s been other places and he understands that our fan base is different than other places. It’s different from what he experienced at Missouri and at Cal. He knows how much our fans care and he knows what they expect. He knows what they want to see out of us. They want to see what we did tonight. Obviously they don’t like the mistakes we made anymore than I did, but they can’t question the effort. I’m proud of the effort. I’m torn up inside for them because they’re investing a lot, and they’re not getting rewarded much.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Obviously, we’re playing Devin a little bit more. It’s a matchup deal. Defensively he was pretty good tonight, and that’s usually the issue, is Devin’s ability to follow the gameplan, and have his teammates be able to count on him doing what he’s supposed to do. I thought he did a good job of that. He had good questions at the film session this morning and last night. He’s making good strides. I don’t think the news on Isaiah is going to be good when it’s all said and done. We’ll see what we can find out when we get back and have it evaluated, but I don’t think it’s good. That throws a guy like Devin and even Tyler Clement into the mix a little more.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame