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Morning After: Creighton 65, #18 Oklahoma 63

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Oklahoma outrebounds Creighton 24-17 in the first half, but the teams were even 20-20 in the second half. CU shoots 6-25 overall and 2-14 from three-point range in the first half, and 15-31 overall and 6-12 from long range in the second half. It truly was a tale of two halves.

Favorite Moment Number Three (Because let’s be honest, in a game like this, how do you pick ONE favorite moment?): In the first half, freshman Toby Hegner sailed out of bounds in an attempt to save the ball. He got more than he bargained for — when he crashed into the sideline table, he got a beer dumped on his head. After the game, Hegner joked that he was open so much in the second half because “They (OU) didn’t like the smell of it the rest of the game.”

Favorite Moment Number Two: One of those open looks was the shot that started the second-biggest comeback in CLink history. Down 42-24, Hegner drilled a three-pointer that sparked what would become a 24-4 run. Remember that this is a freshman playing in his third collegiate game, he just suffered what will likely be the most embarrassing moment of his career…and he brushes it off to come up with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and one very big block in 33 minutes against one of the best front lines he’ll face all year, while playing solid defense on Ryan Spangler and TaShawn Thomas. He’s going to be a great player for the Jays, and when we look back in four years at his career, that shot is going to be the starting point.

Favorite Moment Number One: With 49 seconds left and the game tied, Devin Brooks put up a jumper from about 8 feet out; it missed wildly, flying high over the basket, but Zach Hanson was on the other side of the rim, and grabbed the rebound off the glass. His putback gave the Jays the lead for good at 63-61. There was speculation that the “shot” was really a pass, what with Brooks’ history of using such magic tricks, including that successful assist off the side of the backboard during last year’s Big East Tournament.

After the game, Brooks said that it was indeed a pass. A high-arching pass disguised as a shot, with the confidence that his teammate could corral the ball like a rebound and put up a shot. In the final minute of a tie game. Who does that? Devin Brooks, Basketball Magician, that’s who.

Quick Recap: The first 21+ minutes of Wednesday’s game looked suspiciously like the last time Creighton tangled with a Big XII opponent — absolutely nothing they put up would go in. Ten minutes in, they’d made just two field goals, and were in the game only because they were having success at driving to the rim and drawing fouls. Going 10-13 from the line was the only offense they had, as they were a ghastly 6-25 overall and 2-14 from three-point range. The nightmare that was Baylor, memories of which I’d successfully blocked out, suddenly came crashing back.

And when the Bears…er, Sooners…scored the first seven points of the second half in 90 seconds to push the lead to 42-24, the arena fell deathly silent. The Jays were one or two bad possessions away from being run out of their own building, something that hasn’t happened very often in the CLink Era. Coach Greg McDermott called timeout, but instead of going over X’s and O’s, he used the break as a motivational opportunity. As he looked around the huddle, “We had a defeated look on our face,” McDermott said in the media room later. “The timeout wasn’t about X’s and O’s. It was about who we want to be.”

They came out of that timeout as a different team. Hegner knocked down a three to make it 42-27, and the crowd zapped back to life. TaShawn Thomas answered with a jumper to push the lead back to 44-27, but instead of going away, the crowd stayed alive, and over the next five minutes, the sold-out crowd of nearly 18,000 fans and the Bluejay players fed off one another. Each successful shot, each defensive stop, the lead shrank, and the noise level ratcheted up. First it was Zierden with a three to make it 44-30. Then Spangler missed a three for the Sooners, and Chatman hit one for the Jays, and it was 44-33. After another stop, Zach Hanson converted an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 44-36. Two more stops, alternated with jumpers from Devin Brooks and Austin Chatman, made it 44-40. It was a 16-2 run, and it wasn’t over yet.

Buddy Hield converted a jumper to end the run temporarily and push the lead back to 46-40, but less than 20 seconds later Hegner drilled a three to make it 46-43. A defensive stop and a Hanson jumper made it 46-45. And then another defensive stop, and a three from Zierden, made the comeback complete — it was 48-46 Creighton. It was a 24-4 run. It was…unbelievable.

There were a lot of questions coming into this game, as I covered in the Primer. This group of Bluejays had yet to be challenged. They were yet to face adversity. If they fall behind early, who would lead the comeback? If they need a big shot late in the game, who takes it? If they need free throws in the final minute when 18,000 people are eerily silent, can they convert? If they need a defensive stop, who guards the ball? We know the answers to those questions now.

When they’re challenged, backed against the wall, and face adversity, to a man they’re tough, mean, and have guts. If they fall behind early, senior point guard Austin Chatman is the guy who will lead the comeback. Likewise, if they need a big shot, put the ball in his hands and let him create either for himself or a teammate. When he wasn’t making the tough shots himself, Toby Hegner and Isaiah Zierden rewarded his trust by knocking them down, and were neither intimidated by the moment or by a defender. If they need a tough stop on defense? Zach Hanson, who spent most of the second half in beast mode on defense, is capable of cutting off guards trying to drive to the rim and when he plays like this, is practically an immovable force in the paint for opposing big men. He also displayed a nice jump shot and a fearlessness in putting up what became the game-winning shot. And if they need free throws in the final minute…well, not everything was answered positively, but Brooks has made those shots before, and he’ll make those shots next time.

Yes, they don’t have Doug McDermott, Grant Gibbs, Ethan Wragge or Jahenns Manigat. What they do have is gritty, determined veterans and fearless underclassmen who refuse to back down from a challenge — and trailing by 18 points to the #18 team in the country is about as big of a challenge as you can possibly face. They’ll struggle at times, they’ll be inconsistent, and they’ll lose some games they shouldn’t, but mark my words: this team will not finish anywhere close to ninth in the Big East.

Quotables:

(On what Coach Mac told the team in the huddle during the first timeout of the second half) “Well, I won’t use all of the language that he used (laughs), but basically he told us that we’re not that team. We really aren’t. They came out and hit us again in the mouth right away — it’s the second game in a row where our opponent has done that to us at the beginning of the second half — but then we just did a really good job of calming down, being ourselves, and getting ourselves back in the game.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“Defensively, I don’t know if there’s been a better team effort while I’ve been here. We’ve had some great teams and great players, but tonight we really stepped up defensively. We really did what we had to do. That second half run was just us getting back to what we do. In the first half, if they made a bucket, we were walking it up. They slowed us down. In that run, we’d get a bucket, and a stop, and we were running. They didn’t know what to do.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

(On guarding Buddy Hield) “Coach Mac kind of told me to not get flaired. They were just randomly setting a player in the corner. I didn’t know who was coming. So I decided, if he can’t get the ball, he can’t get it going. So I tried my best to do that, and again, a great team effort.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“People who write these articles before the game really don’t think much of it, but I spent a lot of time, last night especially, going through it and showing it to the team. I even had kids in class coming up to me and saying that we didn’t have a chance. All of that is just extra motivation, and it makes this win that much more special.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“I was pretty hungry after Sunday. Monday was probably our best day of practice, and we followed that up with a great day of prep on Tuesday. Guys really thought we were going to win. We were ready.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“We found out tonight that we can get big stops in a game when we need to. Our defense has teeth.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“On the last play, we took Will off the ball and just had him follow the ball all the way up the court, so that forced them to take a tough shot over a 6’11” guy. And it worked. He airballed it, or close to airballed it, and he’s a great shooter that doesn’t miss like that.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“Zach turned into a man tonight. That’s as simple as I can say it. He turned into a man. He demanded the ball in the post, he grabbed rebounds, he was just BIG. He had a presence inside.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“I tell you what, this place is awesome, this building is incredible. Our fans probably think that they helped us a bunch in the second half, and they did, but they kept us alive in the first half. We were so fortunate to only be down 11, as poorly as we played offensively, and our guys were searching. We didn’t put them in good enough positions against some of those ball screens, and we made some adjustments at halftime, but our fans kept us upright. At the start of the second half, we took that timeout, and we were defeated. The look on our faces was defeat. We talked nothing X’s and O’s, and at the end I was almost slapping guys’ faces to wipe that defeatist look off. Then we got a few stops, we got out in transition, we played the way we play, and we got the building into the game, and the rest was history.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“It was a great game to be part of. You’ve got one team who showed up here tonight and knew who they were, they punched us right in the mouth, and we didn’t respond very well. Then they punched us in the mouth again to start the second half. And you had another team that was looking for itself, and we found something that we probably didn’t even know that we had. I think there’s some belief in our guys’ ability to do things now that they didn’t know existed. To have guys step up and make shots, and make plays defensively, and for Zach to do the things he did in terms of demanding the ball in the post, will do a lot of good for us going forward. We beat a heckuva basketball team.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I didn’t know if we had this in us defensively. I wanted to find out the answer to it — there were so many questions in my mind before a game like this. Isaiah’s never been there, Devin’s never been there, Will’s never been there, Zach’s never been there, so many guys that haven’t had to play in this environment with this much at stake. In the past, if they did play and it didn’t go well, I could take them out and put somebody else in. Now, don’t look over here pal, you’re out there! (laughs) So, I learned a lot about my team, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’re going to watch the film, and between the first half and the second half we’re not even going to recognize the similarities. Except for the jersey numbers, it’s different people out there defending. It’s encouraging to see. With every team, you wonder, how will you react when adversity strikes? We found out in a big way tonight. This team has a little fight in them. Whether we won or lost tonight, there was going to be some real positives to draw on, but the way we got back into the game, and the way we defended down the stretch, wow.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Austin and I talked about the importance of his role on this team. Outside of X’s and O’s, outside of what happens while you’re playing the game, offense and defense — these guys who you’re playing with have never been in these situations before. When stuff goes bad, or when they don’t know what to do, they’re looking at you. You can’t be having a pity party with yourself about something bad that just happened with you. You have to take ahold of the team. And to his credit, he came back to practice on Monday hungry and ready to do that. I’m not sure in my 26 years as a coach that I’ve ever seen a player flip it like he did mid-game, because he didn’t play great in the first half. He was the best player on the floor in the second half. That’s going to do a lot for his confidence, as well.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“On the last play, you have a lot going through your mind because you’re shooting two. You could be up by two, three, or four, and you have to make a snap decision. Fortunately we had two timeouts left, so when he missed the last free throw and they took the immediate timeout, we wanted to see their lineup. It appeared they were going to throw it deep to a guard, so we got Toby out of there and got another guard in. And basically we put Will on the top of the key just to protect the long pass. And then we told Will, if your man is taking it out of bounds, you’re going to shadow the dribbler. Get those hands up. And if he’s going to throw it up, we told everybody, don’t go for the ball. Stick with your man. And Will made a heckuva play. That’s something we practice, but until you’re in a game and you’re in that situation, and you’re trying not to foul, it was good to see that we were able to execute.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We’re off tomorrow. That’s our scheduled off day. So I told the guys, take the day off. Enjoy this tonight. Enjoy it tomorrow. Get all the pats on the back and everything, but then when you put your heads on your pillows tomorrow night, it’s over, we turn our attention to a very good North Carolina Central team, an NCAA Tournament team from last year. But they need to enjoy this. This group has worked hard, they’ve waited for their turn, they’ve waited for their moment to play in a game like this, and to find a way to win it in the fashion that we did, is pretty special. They need to walk around campus with their chins up for 24 hours or so. That’s fine by me.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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