Key Stats:
The Jays had four players in double figures, shot 55% from the field, 38% from three, 86% from the line, and dominated (+17) on the glass. While it came against ninth place DePaul, who seems to get less respect than they’re due from a segment of CU’s fanbase eager to discount this win, make no mistake: this was a complete and thorough rout. Creighton out-rebounded DePaul 43-25, including 11-5 on the offensive glass; the 25 rebounds for DePaul are the second-fewest for any Bluejay opponent this season, trailing only Coppin State who had 20 in a late December loss.
CU had 21 assists on 30 made baskets, led by nine dimes from Maurice Watson. CU’s bench outscored DePaul’s bench 51-28, and until late in the game had outscored the entire DePaul team. Meanwhile DePaul’s Billy Garrett, Jr. has only been held scoreless twice in 86 career games, both against Creighton, including on Saturday where he only attempted two (!!) shots.
If you’re looking to nit-pick, they did have 16 turnovers, although several of those were a result of being over-aggressive, which — after the last two games in particular — is something the Jays can probably live with.
Standout Performance:
We’ve seen glimpses of this version of Cole Huff before — in late November he looked to be rounding into the leading-scorer-type-player he was capable of being, most notably with 26 points against Rutgers out in Las Vegas with four threes, and three more threes the next night against UMass. Then came the collapse against Arizona State, the shoulder injury later that week at Loyola, and the knee issues over Christmas break. Except for brief moments here and there, late November Cole Huff hasn’t been back.
It’s been a tough season for Huff, who is only able to practice the day before games, and even then only for about half the time. That’s the only way Creighton’s coaches and trainers believe they can get him through the season. He’s not even really able to get shots up on the days he doesn’t practice. It’s a wonder he’s able to play as well as he has, much less do what he did on Saturday.
For the day, he was 9-11 from the floor. He was also 7-7 in the first half, including 10 straight points and a pair of three-pointers in the final 90 seconds of the half to bury the Blue Demons. His 18 first half points were the most in the first half by a Bluejay at home since Doug McDermott had 22 points in the first half of his final home game in 2014. Here’s the thing about those 18 points that’s most astonishing to me: all of them came in the final 5:14 of the half.
For those five minutes, he *literally* couldn’t miss. Not the “figuratively” couldn’t miss cliche that people say when a player is feeling it. He actually didn’t miss. It was the first time since McDermott graduated that a Bluejay had one of those zones where every time he put up a shot, 17,000 people began cheering before it went in because it was a foregone conclusion that it would. His teammates felt the same way:
Maurice just yelled “Hit It” WHILE passing the ball to Cole Huff for that 3-pointer. Extreme confidence in his teammate.
— Rob Anderson (@_robanderson) February 6, 2016
At the end of the day, he became the first Creighton player with 28 or more points in 22 minutes or less since Larry House on March 3, 2003 vs. Wichita State, which was the final regular season game played at the Civic Auditorium. It wasn’t just offense where Huff stood out, though. He also had four rebounds and three steals, while using his long arms to disrupt passing lanes and force bad shots. For the first time since the shoulder injury at Loyola, he looked able and willing to go into traffic and fight for the ball. It was his best defensive game as a Bluejay, too. What a day.
Cole Huff rises up for three of his Creighton-career-high 28 points. (Photo by Mike Spomer / WBR)
Recap & Analysis:
Creighton led wire-to-wire on Saturday, with Isaiah Zierden getting the scoring started on the first possession with a three-pointer. From the outset, they were back to playing the up-tempo, energetic, aggressive basketball they seemed to have lost over the last two games. Diving on the floor for loose balls. Defending tough. Making a concerted effort to get post touches on every single possession. Strong, crisp, decisive passes. It was a statement that whatever happened last week was over, and they’d turned the page. Still, missed shots kept the game close; despite getting open looks on the perimeter, the Jays’ shooters couldn’t knock much down. Toby Hegner was 0-4 and Ronnie Harrell was 0-2 from three-point range, Geoff Groselle missed two shots in the paint, Watson and Zierden both missed close shot attempts at the rim, and with 5:58 to go in the half, Creighton led 23-17. On the first possession out of the media timeout, Cole Huff was knocked to the floor shooting a three-pointer. It went in, he converted the free throw, and the old-fashioned four point play was the catalyst for a stunning end to the half. On the next trip down, Huff stuck a mid-range jumper to make it 29-17. After a DePaul turnover, Huff nailed another mid-range jumper to make it 31-17. Then moments later, Huff ripped the ball away from Eli Cain and raced down the court for a fastbreak dunk to give the Jays a 33-17 lead. His personal 10-0 run had blown the game wide open, but he wasn’t done.
REPLAY | Cole Huff with the steal and slam! #GoJays #RiseTogether #BIGEASTmbb https://t.co/Lb4YSPlz1I — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 6, 2016
After the Jays and Blue Demons traded baskets the next four possessions, including another jumper from Huff and a drive to the rim from Maurice Watson, it was 37-21. With 1:27 to go, Huff swished home a three-pointer to make it 40-23. As the clock ticked down, he swished a second three-pointer, and the Jays took a 43-27 lead into the break. Huff had scored 18 points in five minutes and 14 seconds, going a perfect 7-7 from the floor and 3-3 from three-point land.
DePaul has had hot starts to halves — the Blue Demons raced to 11-2 leads in their last two games prior to this one, scored the game’s first 11 points in the first meeting with the Jays, and surged to a 15-2 lead in winning last year in Omaha. The Jays’ starting five had choked off any such hot start in the first half, and so despite Cole Huff’s shooting display, they went back to the original starting five in the second half, meaning Huff watched from the bench. That group quickly pushed the lead out to 20, 47-27, before a series of defensive lapses saw DePaul go on a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to halve the lead.
Re-enter Cole Huff, who wasn’t allowed the opportunity by DePaul’s defense to get as many shots off, but found other ways to impact the game. Up 51-39, he ripped down a defensive rebound amidst three DePaul offensive players and threw a baseball pass three-quarters of the length of the court to a streaking Ronnie Harrell for a layup.
Cole Huff celebrating #SB50 early with this touchdown pass to Ronnie Harrell Jr. #GoJays #RiseTogether #BIGEASTmbb pic.twitter.com/ARBvCvbci6
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 6, 2016
On the next possession, he stepped back for a mid-range jumper, and moments later nailed a three-pointer to push the lead back out to 16, 60-44. That proved to be the dagger, as DePaul never mounted another run.
The Jays did precisely what they needed to against the ninth-place Blue Demons — notch a no-doubt win to get them back on track. They stopped their three-game skid, got back above .500 in conference play, and got some momentum before playing host to sixth-ranked Xavier with a chance to get a signature win. In short: it was everything the Bluejays needed.
Khyri Thomas dives on the floor for a loose ball. (Photo by Mike Spomer / WBR)
They Said It:
“I don’t think I’ve had a stretch where I scored that many in that short amount of time since maybe high school. It felt good today to see so many shots go in. My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball. Some of the shots were tough, but those are easier to shoot where a defender has a hand in your face or they’re closely guarding you because it makes you focus more. It makes you put a little more arc on the ball, and makes you concentrate on the rim and your follow through.” -Cole Huff on 1620AM Postgame
“My knee isn’t feeling great, but this is pretty much how it feels all the time. Now that this game is over, I have two-and-a-half days to rest and get ready for Xavier. I’ve been just as disappointed in my play as everyone else. But I’ve been trying not to get too down on myself to where I can’t bounce back and have a game like today. I think my teammates and coaches were more excited to see me score today than I was. That’s such a credit to them, to how much they appreciate my hard work and for sticking with me through this.” -Cole Huff on 1620AM Postgame
“Outside of the turnovers, because we had too many of those, everyone was really locked in today. There were a few times where myself or other guys got beat off the dribble, but then the next guy was there to help. That’s what we’ve been trying to get to all season. We finally did a solid job of that today. Obviously the last two games we’ve been killed on the glass, and we did a heckuva job of that today with Geoff leading the way. We really fed off of Khyri’s energy. The first couple minutes of the game, he was everywhere, diving on the floor for loose balls, and that got us going.” -Cole Huff on 1620AM Postgame
“The players-only meeting we had Thursday wasn’t terrible intense, it was more laid back, and mostly just a chance for guys to get things off their chest that they’d been holding in. It was interesting to hear what everybody had to say. Geoff and Isaiah led that, they called the team meeting, they recognized that we needed to do something a little bit differently, and we talked it out.” -Cole Huff on 1620AM Postgame
“The starting group did a great job. DePaul has played well in their last four games, they got a win at Marquette, and they got a win against Providence and we know how good Providence is. They scored on two of their first 11 possessions. I thought that set the tone for the game defensively. I thought our guys were in the right spot, they fought through screens, they battled on the boards. You know, we’ve had a couple of bad rebounding games in a row where they dominated us, and this is a DePaul team that just outrebounded Providence 48-24. So they’ve kind of lived off the glass and we were able to take that away from them. I’m really proud of our guys, they’ve had a couple of spirited days in practice and for them to come out and perform like this was great to see.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I thought our pursuit was much better. Watching the film, there were some in the last couple games — we missed some, we had some bad matchups a couple of times, we had some cases where if the ball bounces one of four directions you’ve got three of them covered and it went the one where you’re in trouble. But today, I really thought we blocked out AND we went and got the ball. And our guards did it; Maurice went and got three defensive rebounds, Z gets five, so getting rebounds from our guard corps was huge. And I thought Geoff was really good on the defensive glass. Cole played a great game offensively but I liked what he did on the glass, I thought he went and got some tough rebounds. It’s one thing to block out, but you also have to go pursue the basketball. I think we were in a little bit of a stage where guys said, ‘OK, if I go block out, I’ve done my job and Coach is off of my case.’ But you have to block out AND go get the basketball. There’s exceptions to that obviously. If Maurice gets on a power forward and his job is to take him out of the play, don’t worry about getting the ball in that case, somebody else will get it, just make sure that forward doesn’t get back into the play. So there’s exceptions to that. But today I thought our ball pursuit was really, really good.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“The last couple of days, you’ll be happy to know, Brody, because it’s one of my favorite drills too — we did the three around. Three guards on the perimeter being defended aggressively one-on-one, and one in the post, and you have to throw that baby in there. We spent a lot of time on that. The guards have to understand angles, and how hard it is to get that angle. If you deliver the ball at the right time, it’s a layup. If you deliver it too late, now it becomes a post move, and your success rate is not nearly as high. We spent some time on that the last couple of days because we really thought against Villanova we missed opportunities to get it in there. And especially early in the Seton Hall game, Geoff had three or four opportunities that were going to be layups if the ball would have gotten delivered to him. And that changes your psyche as a post player. If you work and you get rewarded for that work by getting a basket, now you play a little better on the defensive end, you rebound it a little better, you’re a little bit more hungry to set screens. And it can be frustrating if you do all the work and put forth all that effort and the ball isn’t delivered to you. That really has been an emphasis the last two days, along with some toughness things, and energy things, so it was good to see it pay off today.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I don’t know where that Cole Huff came from, but I’m glad he was here today. I give Cole a lot of credit. What he has to deal with maybe sounds like a great deal, because he doesn’t practice and just plays in games, but it’s not how Cole prefers to operate. He’s a routine guy, he loves to get shots up every single day, and right now he can’t do it. He’s practicing the day before the game only, and probably only goes half the time those days. That’s the only time he’s on the practice floor. He gets some shots up, and maybe some free throws on occasion, but it’s the only way we can manage his injury to get him through the season. We’ve got a choice to make: either we grind him through and play him when we can play him, or we manage it and get him through the season. The Big East Conference tournament is going to be a challenge. I hope we play three straight days in that tournament, and if we do, is he going to be able to play all three? I don’t know. That remains to be seen.
The way we’re managing it is working right now, and Cole’s doing a good job of staying focused in practice so he understands the scouting report, and his responsibilities. He’s also working hard in the underwater treadmill and getting his conditioning there and on the bike because he can’t get it on the floor. He has to go about it a little different. But it’s the hand we’ve been dealt. It would be easy for him to hang his head, but to his credit he’s not, he’s stayed engaged with his teammates. Even when he’s not out there he’s listening, he’s asking questions. I think everybody, to a man, in that locker room is really happy for him today. You go back to the Loyola game, he hurts his shoulder and really is out of sync for a couple of weeks. Then on Christmas break, his knee swells up on him so he really hasn’t been healthy since the first week of December. Prior to that he was shooting 40% from three-point range. He was doing what we thought he would do. So he’s had to endure a lot this year, but I know his coaching staff and his teammates are really thrilled for him today.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“It’s odd to be this late in the season and have two teams we haven’t seen yet, with four teams that we’re done with. That’s strange. But obviously Xavier is one of the most talented teams in our league, and they and Villanova have separated themselves. I saw a little bit of the first half of the Marquette vs Xavier game today, and they have so many playmakers, so many shot-makers, and they can be so disruptive defensively. We’ve got a short prep to try and get ready for them, but I’m confident that this place will be hopping on Tuesday night. We’ve got some opportunities for signature wins left, with great teams on our schedule, to keep ourselves towards the top of this league somehow. We’ve put ourselves in a good position despite a tough week and now hopefully we can keep the train moving the right direction.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/696047800920899585
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/696049419150454784
https://twitter.com/dannyobyrne/status/696055533879492608