Long scoring droughts are killers on the road, especially against Final Four caliber teams. Creighton suffered through two of them in the first half alone Saturday night in Tuscaloosa against #7 Alabama. The first, a 3:11 scoreless span that saw Alabama go on a 9-0 run, turned CU’s only lead of the night into a 13-5 Crimson Tide advantage. Then a 4:11 scoreless span just a couple minutes later saw Alabama use an 11-0 run to take a 27-10 lead with 8:47 to go.
The Bluejays were 3-of-15 (20.0%) from the floor at that point, with five turnovers. Over the same period, Alabama was 12-of-19 (63.1%) with only two turnovers.
Creighton outscored Alabama 65-56 the final 29 minutes of the game. They shot 24-of-45 (53.3%) with just eight more turnovers, and their defense tightened — Alabama was 18-of-51 (35.2%) the rest of the way, committing nine turnovers.
But the hole they dug themselves over the first 11 was too big against an opponent this good, and the result was an 83-75 loss. Take from that reality what you will — frustration over playing so poorly the first 11 minutes, encouragement over their resiliency and toughness to respond the way they did, disappointment over a missed opportunity to steal a marquee win.
Their head coach was unequivocal about the tack he’s taking.
“As I told the team, I’m very proud of the way that we responded,” Greg McDermott said. “We really got punched in the face early, missed some open shots and missed a couple free throws, and all of a sudden you look up and you’re down 17 in a building that was pretty electric against one heck of a basketball team. We stayed true to who we are. We slowly chipped away at it, and defensively the last seven or eight minutes of that first half I thought we played exceptional on the defensive end and controlled the backboards.”
Having spotted Alabama a 17-point cushion, the rest of the game for the Jays began with Steven Ashworth drawing a foul on a three-point attempt, then making three free throws. Jackson McAndrew followed with a three-pointer. Ryan Kalkbrenner scored on a lob for a dunk. Jamiya Neal converted an old-fashioned three-point play. Fred King scored at the rim. And when Jasen Green tipped in a missed shot for a layup, CU had trimmed nine points off the lead in six minutes — a 15-6 run that cut the deficit to 33-25. They’d further trim the lead to 37-31 by halftime.
Unfortunately, the break gave Alabama an opportunity to regroup and they scored the first five points of the second half — in just 46 seconds. A three-pointer from Mark Sears, a Bluejay turnover, and a short jumper from Grant Nelson pushed the lead back to 11. From there, they kept the Jays at arms’ length the rest of the night — never pulling away, but never letting it get closer than a two-possession game either.
McAndrew made things interesting, though, hitting back-to-back threes a minute apart. On the second, he drew a foul and made a free-throw to complete a four-point play with 24 seconds left; it drew Creighton as close as they’d been since early in the first half, 79-75. But that was as close as they’d get.
“Jackson hit big shot after big shot after big shot,” Steven Ashworth said of McAndrew, who matched his career-high with 16 points and had five the Jays’ eight made 3s. “That’s the type of personality that kid has. He’s fearless.”
The loss leaves Creighton with a 7-4 record heading into Big East play. After starting with a KenPom ranking of #10, they now sit at #40. Their NET is a lot worse at #69. They’re fifth in the Big East in both metrics.
“It’s been a tough week for us,” McDermott said on the postgame radio show. “We had a couple guys (Larry Johnson and Sterling Knox) decide to leave the team, Pop (Isaacs) had surgery on Wednesday, and then on top of that you have finals week. So I’m really proud of their preparation and how together they were. You don’t come back from 17 down unless your team believes in each other, and they certainly showed that tonight and gave us gave us a chance in the end.”
“We’ve just got to keep building,” McDermott continued. “I think we’re a better team now than we were on November 14th, and our challenge is to make sure we’re a better team on January 14th.”
Inside the Box:
Alabama had 17 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots, and turned those into 14 second-chance points. Combined with turning 13 Bluejay turnovers into 16 points, that’s 30 “extra possession” points — by comparison, Creighton got 17 points on extra possessions. A 13 point differential in a game you lose by eight is huge, especially against a team as good as Alabama.
“We just, ugh…we got killed on the boards. Mason and Jackson didn’t get any rebounds, and we’re going to need them to rebound,” McDermott said. ”Isaac got three (rebounds) in 15 minutes, but that position’s just got to be better on the backboards. Especially against a front line like Alabama’s. There’s a reason they’re fifth or sixth in the country — and not many people have front lines like Alabama — but our guys are growing. They’re learning. They’re getting better. But we’re beating ourselves with some of the mistakes we’re making, or blown coverages on the defensive end, or something that we practice that we don’t execute.”
“They put pressure on you because they challenge every time the ball goes up,” Ashworth said. “It’s a numbers game and they’re really, really good at the numbers when it comes to analytics and understanding their three-point percentage. They also understand that long shots mean long rebounds. And when you’ve got a team as athletic and determined as they are to go get offensive rebounds, you’ve really got to be on point. I think that when we watch the film we’ll be able to recognize some possessions where we came up short.”
Ashworth played nearly the entire game (38:56) and had 20 points and nine assists. He struggled from the perimeter, making 2-of-8 from three, but it’s hard to find much fault with his performance after contributing to 41 of Creighton’s 75 points (either through points or assists).
Kalkbrenner had 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks. And McAndrew continued to show his ability to knock down tough shots, scoring 16 with five 3-pointers. Grabbing zero rebounds in 19 minutes of action is something that needs to improve, though.
Jamiya Neal had no problem on the glass, grabbing eight boards, but his handles were sloppy with five turnovers. He also needed 14 shots to score 13 points.
As flawed a statistic as plus/minus is, it’s nonetheless interesting that the only player who was positive in that stat was Jasen Green. In 25 minutes, he had six points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.
Press Conference:
Highlights: