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Morning After: Creighton Beats Colorado State in Final Tuneup Before Season Tips Off, 76-64

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[Box Score]

It took the Bluejays awhile to settle in against Colorado State in their second exhibition. Running out four different lineups in the first four-and-a-half minutes will do that to a team. But with the rotation anywhere but set, Greg McDermott wanted to try as many different looks as possible. So while the starting five was Nik Graves, Josh Dix, Jasen Green, Jackson McAndrew and Owen Freeman, that group lasted about 90 seconds. Before the first media timeout, the Jays also trotted out these combos:

  • Harper in (Graves-Dix-Harper-McAndrew-Green)
  • Zugic and Traudt in (Graves-Dix-Zugic-Traudt-Green)
  • Davis and Konan in (Davis-Zugic-Harper-Traudt-Konan)

Six turnovers in the first ten minutes — three from Owen Freeman alone — combined with making just five of their first 15 shots prevented Creighton from sustaining any sort of momentum.

“We had some foolish turnovers. I think their physicality probably surprised us a little,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. He noted that Owen Freeman being back in the lineup — but with obvious rust after nearly nine months between games — contributed somewhat, too. His three turnovers included losing the ball out of bounds, a travel call, and bad pass.

Prior to the game, assistant coach Steve Merfeld joked with Voice Of The Jays John Bishop that if there wasn’t a stoppage in the first 90 seconds, they might have to call timeout to give Freeman a break. As Freeman noted, game shape and practice shape are different things, and it’s impossible to really simulate the speed of the game.

“I think the first spurt was probably the hardest just because of all the adrenaline and the nerves,” Freeman said. “I feel like once I got more comfortable and once I kinda found my groove in the second half, the wind picked up a little bit. Game shape is completely different than practice shape. This was a great opportunity to get a reminder of the game shape I need to be in. I need to step it up a little bit.”

Trailing 19-14 with 8:41 to go, they started to find some offensive rhythm when Jackson McAndrew’s Euro-step through the paint created space for a tough layup.

Then Jasen Green scored five straight points to tie the game — the first two coming on a dunk, the next three on a drive to the rim where he banked in a contested shot and drew a foul.

It was part of a 15-5 run that flipped the game, turning a 21-16 Rams lead into a 31-26 Bluejay lead. That run also included three-pointers from Josh Dix, Ty Davis and Isaac Traudt. And then with the Jays clinging to a one-point lead in the waning seconds, Karem Konan blocked a shot to start a fast break, and Davis banked in a shot at the buzzer from just inside half-court.

Freeman scored the first five of the second half as the Jays began to pull away. The first came on an action McDermott drew up to get him a post touch from Josh Dix; Freeman got position, then bullied his defender for the layup. Seconds later, he got a pick-6 and drew the foul to give Creighton a quick 5 points out of the break.

“It was good to him for him to get back out there. He needed to get the rust off a little bit and this is an important step in that process,” McDermott said. “He still has a long ways to go. It may be a couple months before he’s back where we need him to be, but it’s been a long road for him so it’s good to see him out there tonight.”

“I was hyped. Just being back out here, I was really excited,” Freeman said. He laughed on the postgame radio show that his teammates called him the “dancing bear” after scoring on a left-handed layup in transition instead of throwing down a dunk after his interception.

“I caught a little bit of slack. I thought I was gonna dunk it too, but you know, I’m getting old, man,” Freeman said. “So I was just going in for the layup. That was the whole plan.”

CU stretched its lead to double-figures for the first time with 9:56 left on a Hudson Greer three that made it 61-51. They’d eventually build a lead of as many as 13, with this three from Graves putting Creighton ahead 68-55.

“I think playing Colorado State today was really great for us because some of the things they do offensively are similar to what we do, only their pace is better,” McDermott said. “So I think our guys experiencing this — they don’t push it in transition, they save that energy and that pace for their quarter court offense. So for our guys to see that pace and feel it and have to defend it I think will give me a good teaching point in practice for us to crank it up a little bit in practice in terms of the pace.”

Creighton does have more guys who can break down a defender off the dribble and create offense, or initiate contact to draw a foul when the half-court offense bogs down. A year ago, Jamiya Neal was really the only player who could reliably do that. But as McDermott noted, generally speaking, players have struggled in CU’s system their first year — which concerns him because of all the newcomers they’re reliant on this year. With transfers, there’s usually a huge leap between the first year and second year at CU.

“If we’re gonna be successful this year, we need to have some guys that transferred in to play great in year one or at least be pretty consistent in year one,” McDermott said. “It’s a fine line for me to walk between paying attention to what’s going on and accountability. I have to be patient enough to understand they’re learning and this isn’t second nature to them, but I also have to ramp up the accountability to make sure we’re not making the same mistakes over and over again. That’ll be our challenge, I think, with these new guys because there’s so many of them that are gonna play an important role on our team. We’ve got to fast-track them as quickly as we can and hope that their ability to create off the dribble can offset some of the growing pains of being in the system first year.”

Inside the Box:

Preseason All-Big East picks Owen Freeman and Jackson McAndrew, who missed CU’s exhibition win over Iowa State due to injury, combined for 10 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes of action.

“Owen missed a ton and Jackson missed a week of practice and that kind of throws your rhythm off, especially when it’s a foot injury and you’re a shooter. So, he needs a he needs a good week this week to kinda get his rhythm back,” McDermott said of the return of arguably his top two players. “I’m glad they could both get out there. I think it’s gonna help us as we move closer to the start of the season that that you know, they’re feeling better and ready to go.”

Freeman said he’s still getting back into a practice routine. He credits assistant Geoff Groselle for working with him outside of practice to better understand the role of a big man in Creighton’s system. Sharing the floor with his former Iowa teammate Josh Dix helps too.

“You know, just being out there with him is a lot of fun,” Freeman said. “I’m really glad that we’re both able to share his last year together. I’m excited.”

Asked about social media rumors that he didn’t get along with Dix, Freeman unequivocally denied it in as clear a terms as possible. He also confirmed that “The Dinner” was a real thing. For those who aren’t Extremely Online, the dinner was a social media topic that became a bit of a rallying cry on Creighton Twitter last spring under the hashtag #TheDinner, referring to a supposed dinner meeting between Freeman and Dix.

“So that (rumor) is not true. Me and Josh are great friends,” Freeman said. “The dinner is real though. It was more of a lunch, but it happened. I had already committed and I was giving him my own recruiting pitch — I was selling him on playing one more year together, stuff like that. Then when he committed, he tricked me at first. I’m driving, he calls me, and he said he’d decided to go somewhere else. I was like, like, frick man, my freaking dinner didn’t work. I paid for his lunch, like all that for nothing! Then I was like, oh, whatever, man, I’m still going to cheer you on. And he said, no, I’m just playing with you. Let’s get it done one more year, and I almost swerved off the road. I was so excited! It’s a lot of fun playing with him. No, there’s no bad blood between us, ever.”

Nik Graves made three three-pointers and scored 15 points with two assists in 22 minutes, further cementing his role as starting point guard. He also drew six fouls, and went a perfect 4-of-4 from the line.

Blake Harper stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, six rebounds and a team-leading three assists. He also drew five fouls, shooting 5-of-8 from the line. It’s that latter quality that has McDermott most excited.

“Nik can create, Josh (Dix) can create, Austin (Swartz) can create, and Blake (Harper) creates in a different way. There’s a there’s a lot of guys that can do different things. I think that can help us. I think we can get to the free throw line more because of that. Blake draws a lot of fouls and Nik draws a lot of fouls. I think Owen’s kind of rugged down there the way he plays. So I think he’s gonna get to the free throw line. So, if we can get to the point, you know, I don’t think if we’ll be a team that’s gonna foul as little as we did with Kalkbrenner, but if we can just be okay in that department, I still think we can win the free throw battle a lot which can tip a lot of games in our favor.”

To that point, Graves and Harper combined to draw 11 fouls, and attempted 12 free throws. Creighton committed just 12 fouls as a team, and CSU attempted 14 free throws.

Green made his first six shots to score 14 points, and did it primarily from the ‘3’ spot with both McAndrew and Freeman back in the lineup. McDermott said that because of all the injuries, they haven’t played him there much this summer and fall, but that it’s only made Green more versatile — he knows three positions inside and out, knows where he’s supposed to be and gives them leadership and experience.

For Green’s part, he credits the return of Alan Huss as being instrumental in picking up the role of the ‘5’ in CU’s system.

“He knows a lot of tricks about post-ups, setting ball screens, creating space for step-ups and stuff like that. It’s really good to just hear all the insight that he has. Obviously as you can tell it’s been me a lot better already, and I’m excited for the rest of the season,” Green said. “I’ve got to be ready to play three through five, whichever the night is. A lot of it depends on matchups and who’s feeling good, who’s healthy basically. But I mean, over the past few years, I’ve gotten really good at understanding our offense and how it works. So I’m pretty comfortable in all those positions.”

In order to stay ready to play those three different positions, Green worked with Jeremy Anderson on a special plan. He said they devised a workout regimen that allowed him to gain strength so he can be physical in guarding opposing ‘5’s, while sustaining the quickness to stay in front of opposing wings.

A lot of good things came out of the Jays’ two exhibition wins. Sorting out lineups and rotations was not one of them. If anything, that task is harder now than it was when practice started on September 24, according to McDermott.

“I tried to actually sit down last night and put it on paper. I got to about the eight minute time out and I ripped it up and said, this is impossible,” McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “It’s just really hard to do, and the reality of it is there’s gonna be a few guys that could probably help us win and probably are deserving to play that aren’t going to get to play a lot. The challenge will be, can they handle it the right way and can they stay ready? Because things always happen over the course of a season. We’ve got some tough decisions to make the next 10 days as a coaching staff.”

With that said, he says playing 12 or more guys regularly is not likely.

“We’re going to have to settle on some sort of rotation, because I think it’s hard as a player not knowing — are you going to start and play 12 minutes, or are you going to start and play 20 minutes? You have to be consistent with your approach, understanding that it could change in certain situations depending on matchups.”

He said the staff is comfortable with Graves and Dix at the point guard. And while the center position is a little bit in flux until Freeman is back to full strength, they’re comfortable with Jasen Green and Karem Konan as the primary backups, with Josh Townley-Thomas as a defensive specialist. They’re confident with Jackson McAndrew and Isaac Traudt at the ‘4’.

“But that wing position… man, there’s a lot of guys,” McDermott said. “We’ve got a stack of guys there that we’re gonna have to figure out.”

Highlights:

Press Conferences:

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