Subscribe to our Newsletter

Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 80, Bradley 62

By
0
Share

[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton destroys Bradley on the glass, outrebounding them 41-20. Creighton commits 12 turnovers in the first half, and just 3 in the second half.

Favorite Moment: With about 12 minutes to play in the game, Jahenns Manigat pulled down a rebound, and threw an outlet pass to Grant Gibbs at half court. Gibbs took one dribble across the timeline, passed it to Doug McDermott at the top of the key, who without dribbling threw a laser to Will Artino for the bucket. Four Bluejays touched the ball in a span of seven seconds. It was the perfect microcosm of a night when their offense attacked Bradley with surgical precision.

500-ish Word Recap: Doug McDermott has had big games before, but the one he came up with on Wednesday — when his team desperately needed it — might have been one of his best. He scored 32 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, went 12-17 from the floor and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. From the outset, he had a look of fire and determination in his eyes that seemed to tell his teammates he was not going to allow them to lose this game; and the very first play he made showed he meant it — after missing a three-pointer, he followed his shot, grabbed the rebound, and made a layup. He’d score Creighton’s first eight points of the game, and 16 of their 32 in the first half.

Their offensive flow and rhythm was positively December-esque, attacking the defense, making the extra pass, running the offense inside-out…it was the closest thing to the team who started 17-1 that we’d seen since mid-January. You’d be excused if you didn’t notice that in the first half, though. Despite outrebounding Bradley 21-10 and making more free throws than Bradley attempted, they trailed for most of the half and led by just four at the break. The reason? A ghastly 12 turnovers, eight of them on steals by Bradley’s defense. They did a ton of things right, but played right into the Braves’ hands by making silly plays, and the dozen turnovers kept Bradley in the game.

Predictably, given the high level at which they were playing otherwise, once they cleaned up the turnovers, they began to build a lead. Bradley tied it at 35 just two minutes into the half, and then Creighton — like the Jays of November and December — took offense to the Braves foolish belief that they might actually be able to win. Over the next eight minutes, the Jays outscored Bradley 26-7, forcing the Braves into bad shots while setting up great shots for themselves. The decisive stretch, which saw the 35-35 tie at the 17:58 mark grow to a 61-42 lead with 9:59 to play, turned what many expected to be a close game into a blowout.

Quotables:

“To me, I thought getting stops was the key. That let us run, and when we do that, eventually our pace is going to wear you down. We got to the point where our offense finally started clicking again, and I thought getting stops propelled us into playing better offensively.” -Grant Gibbs on AM590 postgame

“We’ve had problems keeping teams off the offensive glass. Everything we do plays off of us running and moving the ball, and that starts with rebounding and defense.” -Grant Gibbs on AM590 postgame

“We’ve put a big emphasis on running the last couple of weeks in practice. It just didn’t carry over to the games. These last two practices, the coaches put 12 seconds on the shot clock, and we had to get a rebound and score in 12 seconds. We worked on that for about 15 minutes each day. It got us moving, it got guys like Jahenns and Avery hitting shots, and that carried over into tonight’s game.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“We wanted to run. At our place, I felt like their post players got tired really early, so I knew that if I could get them tired early in transition, I could get some easy baskets, and that would get our team going.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“The thing is, our bench guys may have been in a little slump, but they haven’t stopped working. They’ve stuck with it, even staying after practice, and I’m proud of those guys because this performance by them shows all the hard work paying off. We have to continue to get that from them, and continue to have them be confident.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

(On the chance to win the MVC regular season title) “That’s about as good as it gets. I can’t wait. We can’t think about them losing to Evansville. We have to approach it the same way as if they’d won tonight. We just have to get back to work, and try to win a championship.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“I was pleased to be up four at halftime as much as we turned it over. In the pregame show, I was worried about our ability to take care of the basketball. We’ve stressed so much over the last two days to get back to our transition game, and in the first half we pushed it, we got into the attack area, and we still rushed it. That was probably half of our turnovers. Once we settled down, in the second half we still got to those spots but we made better decisions. That let us run in transition, wear some of their defenders down to where they’re not as quick to defend our cuts.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“My message to Doug was simple: you’ve got to find a way to get some points on your own. We can create some, but teams are so locked into stopping you that we can’t get you 20 or 22 points in our offense. You’re going to have to go crash the offensive glass, you’re going to have to run in transition and find some ways to score there.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“It’s interesting, one of the pilots who flew us to California also is with us on this trip. He mentioned to me last night that Doug told him after the Saint Mary’s game that ‘I’ve got to play better. I’ve got to play harder and do more.’ That’s the approach you want your best player to take. Really proud of Doug for that. And tonight, you could see it in his teammates eyes. When he got it going, they found a way to get him the basketball.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“This is a darn good road win for us. They lost by seven or eight at home to Michigan, they lost a one possession game to Wichita, they lost a one possession game to Northern Iowa, and those were their only three losses here. I wouldn’t have guessed that this was possible, but it’s good to see the old Bluejays back. We were clicking, and doing the things we’re supposed to do, holding them to one shot on their end of the floor, and for the most part keeping them off the free throw line.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“It’s really hard to keep Dyricus Simms-Edwards and Walt Lemon out of the paint, so I thought Jahenns did a great job, even though he didn’t have gaudy offensive numbers. Our message to him was ‘Don’t let Dyricus get started.’ Once he gets started it’s hard to stop him. Jahenns made a lot of his looks tough, and in 29 minutes he only got 8 shots.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“Confidence is such a fragile thing. At this point of the year, it’s 30 percent or more mental. Everybody’s beat up, everybody’s tired, so you’ve got to find a way to get yourself through it from a mental standpoint. I’m not sure that we panicked in our locker room as much as everybody outside of our locker room panicked, like the sky was falling. We didn’t play great basketball, and we recognized that, but we cannot fall into the trap of listening to people tell us how good we are when things are going great, nor can we fall into the trap of listening to what’s wrong with this team because everybody’s got a theory. That’s what great fans are for, they tell you how great you are when things are going well and they tell you that you don’t know what you’re doing when things aren’t going well. But that can’t get into your locker room, and to our guys credit they stuck together. There’s a lot of rumors floating around that are absolute garbage, but that’s what happens when you have so many people that care about your basketball team.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“We get to play a home game to win a conference championship. It’s not going to be easy. They kicked our tails  last year at our place. We owe ’em one. We need our fans on their feet for 40 minutes on Saturday. That’s gotta be as intimidating an environment as the Shockers have ever seen. I hope we get that. Our seniors deserve it.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.