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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 91, Sioux Falls 72

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton makes 11-20 three pointers in the first half, and 14-31 overall. CU has 21 assists on 28 made baskets.

Quick Recap: One of, if not the, biggest question marks coming into the season was whether or not Creighton could score at anywhere close to the record-setting clip they scored at a year ago. While this was merely an exhibition game against an average DII opponent, the Jays scored 91 points, made 14 three-pointers (including 11 in the first half alone), had 21 assists on 28 made baskets, and had five different players make at least two 3-balls, numbers that look pretty similar to what they put up a year ago.

8 of those three-pointers came in an early flurry where the Jays buried the Cougars beneath an avalanche of three-pointers, as they made eight of their first eleven shots from downtown. By the time the eighth three rained down, it was 37-16 Creighton with just over seven minutes to play, and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over. In other words, the cast changed, but the results were largely the same.

Individually, there were a lot of highlights. The starting guards, Devin Brooks and Austin Chatman, scored 18 points a piece, had four assists a piece, and combined for just two turnovers while playing 28 and 30 minutes, respectively. Brooks added eight rebounds, including two offensive boards, and Chatman had five. Both guards are seniors, and they played like it. On a team full of newcomers and players new to the roles they’re being asked to play, having two senior guards to lead the way can win you a lot of games.

The two primary backup guards, Isaiah Zierden and James Milliken, showed flashes worthy of optimism too. Jays fans are aware of what Zierden brings to the floor — solid passing, good ball-handling skills, fundamental defense, uncanny instincts — as he carved out a role on a veteran team last year and was missed more that people expected after his season-ending knee injury. There appear to be no ill effects from that injury, and Zierden might even be a touch quicker than he was before. Milliken struggled defensively, particularly in trying to guard Charles Ward (who scored 30 points on 6-8 shooting from downtown for the Cougars) but displayed some nice offensive moves of his own. His shot looks unconventional, but as we saw in summer league, it works. He was 3-4 from long range, and scored 11 points in 19 minutes.

The players tabbed to start at forward, Rick Kreklow and Toby Hegner, have an opportunity to carve out additional playing time with the absence of senior Avery Dingman, who is out potentially for most of November with a high-ankle sprain. In the first half, Kreklow was in early foul trouble and appeared out of sync defensively; once the butterflies dissipated, the fifth-year senior transfer played a much better second half, scoring five points with two assists, four rebounds and a steal. At 6’10”, Hegner is going to be tough for teams to guard if he continues to play at the “4”, particularly with his range. He made three 3-pointers in the first half, and impressed with his passing ability as well. Defensively, his footspeed isn’t great yet, and he merely did an OK job of keeping his man in front of him. Those skills will develop in time.

Will Artino got the start at center, and had a typical Will Artino game — he’s not a big, physical player and never will be, but he has a nice jump shot, gets his share of rebounds, and plays passable defense. Zach Hanson remains a work in progress, though he continues to develop the raw skills he showed in limited action a year ago. He’s in many ways the opposite of Artino — he is big, and physical, and doesn’t shy away from contact — but he’s not an offensive threat outside of five feet. They compliment each other well. Geoffrey Groselle, the seven-footer who’s finally healthy after two years of foot maladies, played 12 minutes and for the first time as a Bluejay looked like he wasn’t lumbering up and down the court in pain. He’s not afraid to bang in the post, either, and sank five of six free throws. None of the three separated from the pack, though, and who starts next Friday’s season opener is a mystery (though if Artino’s facial injury suffered late in the game, speculated to be a broken nose, requires surgery that could make the decision for them at least short-term).

I think everyone understands (or at least I hope they do) that doing this against DII Sioux Falls is one thing, and doing it against Big East foes night in and night out is another thing entirely. The level of opponent will get exponentially better from here — starting 11 days from now when a ranked Oklahoma squad comes to town — and that will be the real test of whether the Jays are still an offensive juggernaut. But for one night, at least, the Jays’ mantra of #LetItFly was alive and well.

Quotables:

“We came out and were feeding on the adrenaline and the crowd early on. It was good to beat on somebody other than ourselves. Coming in, I don’t think I really had any concerns. We’re a team that trusts in each other, and we know that even though there are some people out there that don’t believe in us, we believe that we can be the same type of team, make a good run in the Big East, and just be a solid basketball team.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“Devin has done a good job, and the coaches have done a good job of talking to him about being calmer this year. He can’t get out of control because we don’t have Doug anymore, where you can turn it over five times but then the next time you can get just get it into the post and he’ll score.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“I played a lot of point guard this summer and fall because of the injury to Austin’s thumb (this summer), and then the injury to his knee. I feel comfortable at both guard positions, I don’t have a problem doing it, and Coach Mac told us if it’s us three on the floor (Brooks, Chatman, Zierden) whoever gets the ball can just go, and then the other two have to fill the wings.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“I thought we could have done a better job of talking defensively, and knowing where each other were at. To begin the game, the first half was pretty good. But in the second half, I don’t know if it was fatigue or if we just didn’t think we needed to, it wasn’t as good. But we’ll work on it, and we’ll be better.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“It felt…normal to be out there. I’ve been waiting for this day, it’s been like 370 days since my last game, but who’s counting. It felt so good in the first half, we played really well, and we’re just happy to get the win.” -Toby Hegner on 1620AM Postgame

“Coach always says, ‘If you’re open, let it fly.’ We’re ‘Shooter U.’ He tells us all the time, if you’re open, you’ve got to shoot it. If you don’t, he’ll ask why you didn’t take the shot, and tell you to take the next one.” -Toby Hegner on 1620AM Postgame

“Outside of whatever that was in the final couple of minutes, I thought Devin’s game was good (laughs). You know, Devin’s playing much more under control this year, picking his spots, and he’s improved as a shooter, though he needs to continue to work on that. Defensively, he’s made strides.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Obviously tonight we didn’t have an answer for Charles Ward, and that’s where we really miss Avery. When you get into a game where a guy gets going, Avery could help combat that with his size and strength.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Austin has to be more aggressive this year. He took the most shots on the team tonight, and that probably has to be the case most nights. He’s got to attack, he’s got to take a few more chances than he did last year because of the makeup of our team. I thought he did a nice job with four assists to just two turnovers, and he’s running the team, getting players where they need to be, taking charge in the huddle, being very vocal at halftime. He’s doing all the things we have to have from him.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Toby’s getting better. But we have to have him impact the game on the backboards more than he is. I need to watch the film, and I’ll do that with each of our players next week to determine why it is that he isn’t getting rebounds. Is he doing a good job and the ball’s just bouncing the other way? That happens. Or is he out of position? But we need him to be more impactful on the boards. That said, he’s stretching the floor, he understands how to play, he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I really liked the way we played the first half. I was worried about how we would start, and how we would play as we brought guys like Milliken off the bench and worked Geoff Groselle back into the flow of things, and Isaiah hadn’t played since the injury. There’s a lot of things that were concerning to me. I was curious as to what was going to happen. We handled those things pretty well, we just weren’t able to throw that knock-out punch in the second half.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I think the guy that hit Will, he got pushed into him and his head ran into Will’s nose. I’m guessing it’s broken. I’m not a doctor, but it looks pretty crooked to me. I don’t know how severe it is, if it’s going to require surgery or not, but we need him back.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Frankly, we need someone in that front line to step forward, whether it’s Geoff or Zach or Will. Somebody’s got to say ‘This is my starting job, this is the way it’s going to be, you guys fight over the backup spot.’ It’s difficult to play three guys, but it might be what we have to do. We might just have to keep running guys out there until we find the guy that’s hot that night. We need production there. We have to have to ability to throw the ball down into the box and have somebody score or get fouled. They all did good things tonight, but it has to be consistent and it wasn’t tonight and it hasn’t been in practice. We’re 27 practices in, we’ve had two games against outside competition, and I can’t make a decision. In some ways it’s good, that they’re that close, but in some ways it’s troubling because one of them hasn’t taken the lead and stepped forward. They’ve all had positive moments, though, and that’s the positive thing. It isn’t like I’m waiting for somebody to do something right, they’ve all had their time to shine and done it well, so now it’s just a matter of doing it consistently. We’ll really have to evaluate that this week.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Tonight was a learning experience. Frankly, it probably did us more good from a film standpoint that they came back and got it to 15 and did some things that exposed us than had the lead jumped to 40 and we’d played the walk-ons the last eight minutes. This probably did us more good, because now we can look at the film, stop it and look at it.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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