Subscribe to our Newsletter

Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 102, Coppin State 77

By
0
Share

[Box Score]

Key Stats:

Creighton outscored Coppin State 46-10 on points in the paint, 16-3 on second chance points, and 16-2 on fast break points. The Jays outrebound Coppin State 42-20, including an 11-6 edge on the offensive glass. And thanks to the blowout, CU’s starters play an average of just 23 minutes, with no player lodging more than 26.

Standout Performance:

Last Monday against North Texas, Ronnie Harrell had a breakout game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. One week later, another newcomer had a breakout — junior college transfer Malik Albert. Playing a season-high 18 minutes, Albert had 13 points, three assists and two steals, while shooting 4-5 from the field and 4-5 from the line. The shots weren’t garden-variety, either:

Albert was brought in to be the backup point guard, but like most (all?) JuCo transfers, it took the first semester before he settled in. Fans on social media and message boards who were upset at Tyler Clement, a lower-ceiling player but one with experience, playing the backup point guard minutes early in the season can relax — as conference play begins, Albert has supplanted him in that role. Clement did not play at all against Oklahoma, and saw four minutes against IUPUI, five against North Texas, and six last night, none when the game was being decided. And if Albert continues to play like he did last night — setting up his teammates for good shots, while using his athleticism to create shots for himself — he’ll continue to be the first option when Mo Watson needs a breather.

Recap & Analysis:

As the non-conference season comes to a close, two things are blatently obvious. One, Creighton’s defense is still a work in progress. Two, their offense can be ruthlessly efficient. To that end, on Monday night against Coppin State, they shot 68% from the field in the first half, had 15 assists on 22 made baskets, scored 30 of their 56 points in the paint including 22 on dunks or layups, and scored on 24 of 33 possessions. That’s 1.64 points per possession, in case you were wondering.

That first half featured 12 points from Geoff Groselle and 11 from Isaiah Zierden, and saw Khyri Thomas set a triple-double pace with eight points, five rebounds and four assists. They led 56-36, ending the half on a 22-11 run to blow open what had been a close game. In the second half, they’d eventually lead by as many as 31 points, allowing Greg McDermott to rest his starters and give heavy minutes to Ronnie Harrell, Malik Albert, Zach Hanson and even Marlon Stewart.

For the game, they had all five starters score in double figures for the first time since 2010 (the infamous loss to Iowa State in Des Moines, if you can believe that) and seven players score in double figures for the first time since 1980. For the season, they’ve now had 11 different players score in double figures, and their offense ranks solidly in the Top 20 in almost every category.

It’s the defense that was maligned after the game, once again, which is understandable, because they gave up 77 points to a terrible team who hit a whole bunch of three pointers. But as Coach Mac talked about on the postgame, some of that was by design — and Coppin State burned them on it. For the season, 33% of their shot attempts came from behind the three-point line, but because Creighton took away their driving and passing lanes to the rim, they took more threes — 42% of their shot attempts Monday night were behind the arc. More of them went in than you’d like, especially against a team shooting just 29.5% from three-point range, but the trade-off from all those long attempts were fewer offensive rebound opportunities, fewer second-chance points, and fewer free throws. They gambled to take away higher-percentage points, and got burned a bit when Coppin State converted statistically lower percentage shots. If there’s a quibble with the defense Monday, it’s with the scouting report more than the execution.

The result of that gameplan? CSU averaged 14.8 offensive rebounds a game coming in, and had six Monday night. They had their second-fewest free throw attempts of the season. And when all was said and done, they scored 77 points — just six more than their season average — and had only 64 points before Creighton’s bench allowed them to score 13 points over the game’s final four minutes.

The defense needs improvement. But it’s not as bad as you might think, and even if the offensive efficiency drops a bit in Big East play, the defense doesn’t need to be THAT much better for the Jays to win games with an offense averaging in the mid-80s.

They Said It:

“Well, I am disappointed with how some of the game went defensively. But, what Coppin State is good at is getting the ball to the rim, getting to the free throw line, and offensive rebounds. What they weren’t good at is three-point shooting. Keith Shivers was 5-29 for the year and 2-3 tonight, and I think Josh Treadwell who was 2-4 tonight was something similar going in. In our scouting report we were closing out short on those guys to try to guard the dribble. So they respond to that by banging in a couple of threes, well, that’s not necessarily on the guys. What we did do was we fought the dribble better tonight, we fought ball screens better. They were averaging 26 free throws a game and they got 21, and some of those came late. They were averaging 15 offensive rebounds a game, and tonight they got six. In some ways, we took away their strengths. Was it good enough? No. But when I look at the film, I think I’ll see some steps in the right direction at times. Now, does it need to be more consistent? Absolutely. But I think we’re moving in the right direction.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’re not blessed with the greatest quickness in the world, or size. So if Isaiah Zierden tries to get up under a guy that’s 6’2″ or 6’3″, strong, and powerful, is he going to be able to guard that first three feet as well as needs to be able to, while staying out of foul trouble? That’s part of the issue. I thought ball pressure tonight, at times, wasn’t as good as we’ve worked on the last three days. And there was times it was pretty good. Tazz got caught with his hands down, flat-footed a little at times, and guys made three-point shots in his face. If they’re challenged, then that’s a shot I can live with. Are we giving up open shots that aren’t challenged, or are teams making some challenged shots on us? If it was a night where, of their 25 made shots, 15 or 16 of them were relatively challenged then we’ve done our job. We’re not a team that’s going to be able to get out and be overly aggressive with pressure just because of the way we’re built. And also, because we’re a little bit thin at the point guard so we have to be careful there and pick our spots. In a perfect world, would I like to have all 6’4″, 6’5″ guys that were long and athletic, that could get up and really put some heat on some guys? Absolutely. This is what we have right now. We have a very skilled offensive team, and we have to improve defensively. We’re moving in the right direction. There were some times tonight where I liked what I saw.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Geoff has really emerged as the guy in the paint. And Zach is playing much better than he played last year. There really hasn’t been a great deal of falloff between the two, and at times Zach has been more active defensively and on the boards than Geoff has. But it’s a fifth-year senior and a third-year player, they’ve both played a lot of minutes in our program, been through a lot of practices, and you would expect them to maybe have the kind of years they’re having. I couldn’t be more pleased. Obviously, the price of poker is going up here on Thursday, because of the teams we’ll be playing and the size and the strength of some of their guys. We’re going to need more consistency. Because at Oklahoma, Geoff and Zach’s field goal percentage wasn’t good. I thought they settled for some jump hooks going away from the basket instead of attacking the rim, which they’ve both shown they’re good at. But they’re both developing as the season goes along, and they’re doing a lot of good things for us.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We had 102 points on 71 possessions tonight. I don’t care who you’re playing, that’s really good basketball. They’re a very unselfish group on the offensive end. They’re willing to make the extra pass, they’re making the reads that they need to make. We’re +40% from three-point range, and +50% from the field, our assist-to-turnover ratio is outstanding, our free throw percentage is finally trending the right direction. Offensively, we’ve come a long ways. I’m very pleased where we are. I think we can get better, and that’s what’s exciting. Right now, we’re a Top 20 offensive team and we’re not even Top 200 defensively. Somehow we’ve got to move that number closer to a Top 100 team defensively. If we can, we’ve got a chance to do something special. Golden State is #1 in the NBA in offense and #2 in defense, and they have one loss. There aren’t many teams like that. It’s kind of a dream team when you have personnel to be elite at both ends, and we understand we’re not going to be a Top 10 team defensively. But we can be much better than we are, and we can continue to grow. Rebounding has been better, but it needs to continue to improve. We spent a lot of time on defense again this week in practice, the fundamentals part of it, and that will continue to be part of what we do every day. We have a goal every game to hold the opponent to 40% shooting, and we had them there for a good portion of the second half until the end.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

You Said It:

 

0
Share
Newsletter
Never Miss a Story

Sign up for WBR's email newsletter, and get the best
Bluejay coverage delivered to your inbox FREE.