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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 113, Upper Iowa 77

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[Box Score]

Key Stats:

Creighton shoots 13-25 from three-point range (52%) and 40-68 from the floor (58%), which was good. They shot 20-29 from the free throw line (69%), which was not so good. They had 40 points in the paint and 34 points off turnovers, which was also good. They were outrebounded the entire game despite flipping the stat at the end of the game into a 34-33 advantage. Needless to say, that was bad.

Standout Performance:

Maurice Watson filled the stat sheet like few Bluejay point guards in recent memory. Despite by his own admission playing a bit sped up in his first action at the CenturyLink Center, he had 19 points, six assists, and three steals, while shooting 7-12 from the floor and 5-6 at the line in 24 minutes. And in the deciding run of the game — a 20-6 run that turned a 28-25 Creighton lead into a 48-31 advantage — he was in some way responsible for 15 of the 20 points, scoring six of his own and assisting on a trio of three pointers from Isaiah Zierden.

He was the best player on the floor, and it wasn’t particularly close.

Recap & Analysis:

It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from the results of an exhibition game — there’s far too much experimenting with lineups, rotations, and play-calling to get any real sense of what might might happen in a game that counts. So instead of diving too deeply into the game itself, we’ll just look at some the individual performances that stood out. We covered Watson up above, so here’s some thoughts about the other players that caught my attention:

Khyri Thomas, the freshman from Omaha Benson by way of Fort Union Military Academy, was very impressive. Statistically, he scored 10 points on 4-5 shooting, including a three pointer, and had two rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and two steals with no turnovers in 17 minutes. But it was the non-statistical things he showed that were most impressive. He moved the ball around and often made the pass that resulted in the assist for a teammate, took shots within the offense, and showed that his immense wingspan and quick hands will make him a force defensively. Someone on the Underground described him as a “menace” defensively, and that’s such a perfect word for it.

Cole Huff looked nervous in his first game in nearly 18 months, and his line — two points, 0-5 from the field, 0-2 from three-point range, two turnovers in 17 minutes — bears that out. But he had some nice moments defensively, he did manage to corral five rebounds, and he’s been a consistent scorer in practice (and during his two years at Nevada) so you can almost certainly chalk this one up to first game jitters. One moment that caught my eye was after his second turnover, which came on a pass to the post he failed to catch cleanly that went out of bounds. He was extremely upset with himself. While the ref was resetting the ball for the inbounds, Coach Mac motioned for him to come over, and he offered up some encouragement and a pat on the head. Small moment, sure, but one that’s indicative of how McDermott gets the most out of his players — instead of letting Huff stew about it and perhaps carry the mistake over to the defensive end, he calmed him down with some positive reinforcement.

Malik Albert, primarily playing as the backup to Mo Watson, had 12 points on a perfect 5-5 from the floor, with four assists, one turnover, and one steal in 14 minutes. This after he had four assists and no turnovers in the scrimmage at Missouri. And that one turnover? A charge where, in the midst of committing it, he threw a gorgeous pass to a wide-open teammate in the corner for a sure-fire three. For a guy whose role, at least initially, will be to spell Watson when he comes out of the game, running the offense, continuing to push tempo, and taking care of the ball are the primary requirements for productive minutes, and anything scoring-wise is a bonus. Once he settled down — the first half was a bit rough as he got the butterflies out of his system — he showed that he could potentially fill that role nicely.

Zach Hanson, after a sophomore slump that saw his minutes almost disappear down the stretch, had a nice second half. He wound up with nine points on a perfect 4-4 from the floor — a line that included two mid-range jumpers that he’s made consistently in practice but has never seemed to hit in games, and two dunks off lob passes from teammates. He did struggle at the line, going just 1-4, and picked up four fouls, but overall it was good to see him display some confidence on the floor after the way last season ended for him.

Isaiah Zierden had 11 points, and went 3-8 from three-point range, although the five he missed were good shots that looked like they were going in while they were in the air. Despite the two knee injuries, his shot is no worse for the wear and it appears he’ll be back to hitting 35-40% of his shots from behind the arc once the season starts, and that’s a very good thing.

Toby Hegner provided a spark off the bench, and did a whole bunch of little fundamental things extremely well. The obvious things — 13 points, 5-7 shooting, 3-4 from three-point range, three rebounds — were exactly what you’d hope a guy coming off the bench would provide. Nothing flashy, nothing eye-catching, but at the end of the game he’s the second-leading scorer who played good enough defense to not give back what he provides offensively.

Ronnie Harrell, despite not filling up the box score, had a good night too. He had seven points in 15 minutes despite taking only one shot, thanks to drawing two fouls and going a perfect 4-4 at the line. Though he had just two rebounds, he crashed the boards well and had numerous instances where he tipped a board to a teammate, or kept a ball alive, or boxed out an opponent to allow a teammate to get the rebound.

And then there’s Justin Patton, the highly-rated recruit out of Omaha North who has been the subject of will-he-or-won’t-he redshirt rumors all fall. His talent is obvious — there simply aren’t many guys anywhere who are 6’11” and can run like Patton can, as that open-court dunk late in the game showcased — but when you struggle to hold onto the ball in traffic against Upper Iowa, you probably need a year in the weightroom before you go to battle with Georgetown and Villanova. No one knows for sure which way he’s leaning, but if I was a betting man, I’d say playing just six minutes mostly in mop-up duty at the end of both halves is a good indication that this was the last time we’ll see him on the court until next November.

Overall, the talent upgrades across the board are blatantly clear, and in the third year after the move to the Big East, the Jays finally *look* like a Big East team. They have quick, athletic players with long wingspans at every position, and they have multiple guys that put the ball on the floor and drive to the rim. Whether that translates to success or not remains to be seen, but this is a Bluejay team that looks much different from any other in recent memory.

They Said It:

“I think (Mo Watson) has a calming effect. Everybody has confidence when the ball is in his hands that he’s going to make a good decision. He got sped up a couple of times tonight, and actually turned it over a little more than he usually does, but he makes good decisions, he makes the right reads, and defensively he does a solid job. He’s really important to our team, and if we’re going to take a step forward defensively — which we need to do — it’s got to start with him at the top.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’ve got a lot of guys trying to learn, and as I said in the media room, we’re trying to develop a defensive identity. We want to have physicality, we want to have an aggressive demeanor to our we play. But on the other side, everybody’s telling them ‘Don’t foul, don’t foul, don’t foul, don’t foul!’ because of these new rules. I think the guys are a little perplexed. I think they need to play a few games to figure out ‘Here’s what I can do, and here’s what I can’t do.’ We gave up some shots at the rim tonight that we just didn’t challenge. And you have to challenge those. I think we’ll get better. And obviously we did some good things. This is a talented team offensively, but a team that also has room for a lot of growth on the defensive end of the floor.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I thought our zone was good early. We got up 16-4, we forced some turnovers, we made them run some shot clock, and then I thought they got some easy baskets. Our rotations weren’t quite where they needed to be. We messed up some of the ball screens in the zone, and we over-helped a few times and gave up something easy. Upper Iowa is not a team I’d normally zone because that’s kind of what they do — they spread you out and drive it and kick it — but I wanted to see it on film. I wanted to have some teaching material for the guys for next week. I thought the zone was good at times, and it was better with certain lineups than it was with others. Certainly Tazz and Ronnie have some length up top that can cause some problems. I didn’t think we rebounded very well out of the zone, so I’ve got to watch it on the film. Sometimes with rebounding, you do your job and it bounces the wrong way, while sometimes you just didn’t do your job. I’ve got to watch the film to see how many times each of those happened.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I liked the fact that Malik Albert and Tyler Clement had seven assists and one turnover between them in 21 minutes. I thought Malik was very tentative the first half, and I thought in the second half he attacked which is what we want him to do. Obviously, he’s a very talented offensive player and he made some great reads, he got to the rim, he came off of a ball screen and slipped through for a 17-footer that he knocked down. So that’s going to be situational, still, depending on who we’re playing, what point of the game we’re in, what the score is, on which one of those guys we go to as Mo’s backup. We still could use Isaiah Zierden there some too, as a way to get him a few more minutes as he gets healthier. I liked the way those two guys in particular played tonight. It’s a step in the right direction and I think they’re both feeling pretty good about the way they played. Malik, I think, had four assists and no turnovers against Missouri, and then today he had four assists and one turnover. That’s pretty good basketball for someone who was a scorer his entire life and now we’re asking him to play a little bit differently.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Cole (Huff) was nervous and jittery, all those new guys were. I tried to get (Mo) to settle down, he was so fired up, and Khyri was so nervous before the starting lineups that he was almost pale (laughs). You have to get all of that out of the way. Cole’s been really consistent for us in practice, and my message to him was to be engaged defensively, have the mental preparation on that end be so locked in that it will help your offense. He’s a guy that’s always scored, so he kind of thinks about the game the other way but Cole’s going to be fine. He’s the least of my worries.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Cole and Mo have played Division 1 basketball, but never in an arena like this and never in front of this many people. It’s different. And there’s a level of expectation that’s been placed on them now that maybe hasn’t been on their shoulders before, too. They’re learning to play with new guys, it’s a different system, and now the defensive rules have changed so they’re adjusting to that as well.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We have to avoid having it be a ‘Walk back and forth to the free throw line’ type of game. It got that way a little bit in the second half. I’d rather give up a few easy baskets on occasion and keep them out of the bonus, and let us get to the foul line than the other way around. I think we have firepower offensively to make things happen. But my message was to the guys afterward was, we’re a really good team in transition. I think we can be back to where we were a couple of years ago. We put so much pressure on the defense with those shooters we put out there, and when you’ve got Maurice with the ball in his hands, the defense has to commit a second guy to him or else he’s going to get past you into the paint. But you gotta get stops in order to get to that situation. So we have to get better defensively. We’re continuing to work at it. But for the most part I liked our pace. It was an 80-possession game tonight, and I’d like to be in that neighborhood as often as we can be.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“As far the returning guys, I thought Geoff was solid, I thought James didn’t try to do too much and played within himself, so I thought he was fine. Zach had a really good second half. I thought Toby was patient and took the right kind of shots. Z’s been making everything in practice so the five that he missed tonight were a real surprise (laughs), because he just hasn’t missed much in practice. I don’t think his conditioning is quite back to where it needs to be yet, but it will be. I was pleased with all of those guys. They’re doing a good job. My challenge to them is, they were here last year. They understand what one possession can mean. I still don’t think this team is approaching the game that way, so that’s what we’re trying to get across to them. You don’t know which possession is going to be the one that could flip the game, so you have to be ready every time. It’s hard to play as fast as we’re playing and stay locked in all the time, because you’re going to get fatigued. You run into times where there’s no whistles and the ball goes up and down and up and down. My point to the guys is, we’ve got five more guys we can throw in. There’s not a ton of dropoff. Not many other teams can do that. We have to take advantage of that.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’re off Saturday, so we’ll get a little rest. We’ll watch some team stuff, film-wise, on Sunday before practice. And then Monday I’ll bring the guys in individually and really break down the game possession-by-possession, just to help them grow. That’s what they need right now. They need some individual time with me, watching film, making sure that my expectation of them and what they think they’re supposed to be doing are the same thing. At times tonight we just had guys running around out there defensively. Martin went and trapped the ball in the post one time, and we didn’t have a post trap on! (laughs) I told Martin, you can play hard and still do what we’re asking you to do, you don’t have to get out of the framework of what we’re doing. But again, he’s trying, he’s playing hard, he’s trying to make plays, he’s trying to make something happen for his team. So the film watching is going to be as important as anything else we do, and as I said we’re going to take a hard look at the rebounding and see why it happened. We’ll really work to clean that up before we play next Saturday.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:

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