Key Stats: In the 17 minutes Grant Gibbs was on the floor, Creighton outscored Drake 49-12. Jays outrebound Drake 40-22, and have 12 players collect at least one board. Creighton goes 9-13 from three-point range in the first half and 16-27 overall. The Jays shot 64.2% for the game, including 59.3% from three-point range and 58.3% from the line. Most impressive of all: Creighton had 28 assists on its 34 made-baskets.
Favorite Moment: With the score 42-15 and five minutes to play in the first half, redshirt freshman Nevin Johnson checked into the game, and for the first time as a Bluejay, he looked comfortable on the court. On his first defensive possession, he blocked Ben Simons’ jumper, and moments later he buried a three-pointer on the other end. It was fun to see Johnson make nice plays on both ends of the court after struggling to break into the rotation so far this year — the crowd reaction to his block and three-ball was among the loudest of the evening. The loudest? Johnson’s explosive dunk along the baseline with two minutes to play in the game, leaving two Drake defenders completely embarrassed. It was, by a country mile, the most electric dunk a Creighton player has thrown down all season, and maybe in several years. The only shame was about 3/4 of the arena had already made their way to the exit by the time he threw it down.
500(ish) Word Recap: Before the game, Greg McDermott was worried about Drake breaking out of their shooting slump against the Jays. Instead, the Bulldogs grabbed a shovel — wait, make that a bulldozer — and sunk to a new low, even by their paltry offensive standards. They’d made 18 of 73 shots from three-point range in MVC play, and on Tuesday, even that percentage seemed like an impossible star to reach. Actually, the rim seemed like an impossible star to reach on a lot of their shots. I lost track of how many airballs they shot when I ran out of fingers to count them on.
Six minutes into the game, it was 20-2 Creighton. Eight minutes into the game it was 30-10. Fourteen minutes into the game, it was 42-12. A late “flurry” cut the lead to 49-25 at the half, and what an impressive half it was. Doug McDermott was a perfect 6-6 from the floor, including 2-2 from three-point range, for 14 points in 14 minutes. Grant Gibbs was a perfect 3-3 from the floor, scoring seven points with four rebounds and four assists. As a team, they were 19-28 from the field, a product both of Creighton’s proficiency and of Drake looking as bad defensively as any team I can remember watching in ten years at the CLink. This was Houston Baptist circa 2007 level defense (that’s the team that surrendered 110 points to the Jays).
In the second half, Creighton extended their lead to as many as 35, and were able to get extended minutes for Nevin Johnson, Andre Yates and Geoffrey Groselle, three freshmen who’ve struggled to get playing time. Johnson scored nine points in 12 minutes, going 3-5 from the floor and 1-3 from three-point range, and had the aforementioned dunk. Yates didn’t score but had two rebounds in six minutes of play. And Groselle had two points while making his only shot attempt, and wrestled with Drake’s Kori Babineaux for a rebound in the final minute that resulted in the big 7-footer tossing Babineaux to the ground as collateral damage in the midst of the rebound attempt. It was a foul, and rightfully so, but the fans who remained in the final minute appreciated his tenacity, a trait that bodes well for the next three years when he presumably will be one of the Jays’ primary post players.
Quotables: “Every game is going to be different for me, because Doug and Greg are both extremely good big men. I’ve been learning a lot from both of them these last three years, which has been huge for my development. I just do whatever the coaches ask me to do, whether it’s playing ten minutes tonight or a minute against Indiana State. Whatever they ask me to do, I’ll do.” -Will Artino on AM590 postgame show
“Me and Coach have had a lot of meetings about being prepared, and I always try to stay prepared while on the bench during the game, so that once I get onto the court I can do the best that I can to help the team win.” -Nevin Johnson on AM590 postgame show
(On what he’s been working on) “The biggest thing is knocking down those three point shots, and being able to handle the ball and get into the lane without turning the ball over. That’s something I’ve been working on a lot during practice, to learn to make the right plays.” -Nevin Johnson on AM590 postgame show
“I’m enjoying myself. It’s tough sitting on the bench and not getting playing time, but I can’t complain because we’re winning big games. I’m always happy for my teammates, so it’s not that big of a deal, you know. But I’m always in the gym working on my game so when I do get my number called, I’ll be ready.” -Nevin Johnson on AM590 postgame show
“We did to Drake what Boise did to us: every shot we threw up went in. It’s hard to win a game when that happens to you, and we’ve been on the other side of that before so fortunately it was us making the shots tonight.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame show
“Our message, especially to Jahenns, was ‘Don’t let Ben Simons get started.’ Don’t make a mistake that gives him an easy basket where he gets into the flow. That was critical. Our communication on defense was good, our intensity was good, and then we cleaned up the backboards at the end of it which was good to see.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame show
“Nevin has done a good job, especially the last couple of weeks, about asking more questions. ‘OK, what are we doing on this ball screen, what are we doing on this out of bounds play?’ Nevin’s been practicing better. Now, his challenge is to take the next step and do more outside of practice time to develop his game so that every time he’s on the floor he’s more consistent, which develops more trust, and trust develops more playing time. It’s pretty easy how it works.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame show
“Will’s not playing much because of Will. Will’s not playing much because of Greg, Doug and Ethan. Those guys are playing so good that it’s really difficult to get them off the floor to get Will the minutes that he earned last year. Will’s a better player than he was a year ago, he’s developed his body, but Ethan Wragge’s playing fabulous right now.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame show
And now, here’s what you had to say on Twitter during and after the game:
10 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast for @doublegfor3, but the best stat was only 17 min played. The banged up senior got some much-needed rest #MVCHoops
— Jacob Padilla (@OmahaSun) January 9, 2013
Great shooting by the Jays yes. But @_robanderson told us to focus on rebounding. #Creighton crushed Drake 40-22 on the glass.
— Rob Simms (@IamRobSimms) January 9, 2013
My faith in Nevin Johnson never waivered. I still think he can contribute. He looked really good tonight, minus 1 or 2 defensive possessions
— Bluejay Buff (@BluejayBuff) January 9, 2013
A nice little coming out party for Nevin, taking advantage of the opportunity. #gojays
— Tyler Anderson (@millionthfan) January 9, 2013
Creighton leads 77-46, 7:55 left. Attendance is 18,073, fourth-largest all-time here. #Drake has drawn 21,197 in its seven home games
— MarkEmmert (@MarkEmmert) January 9, 2013
Canadian Red Bull, my man, got to hit those bunnies.#GoJays!
— Martin Swanson (@bigredtank72) January 9, 2013
One of these days… i’ll learn the art of the fastbreak layup. #Jeez! Great win tonight fellas, Let’s keep it rolling! #RollJays
— Jahenns Manigat (@JManigat12) January 9, 2013
Holy cow.Drake had probably put up about 6 or 7 airballs so far.39-10 at 7 minute mark.Creighton shooting lights out.#mvchoops
— Patrick Marshall (@wildjays) January 9, 2013