Inside the Box Score:
All night long, Creighton was destroyed in the paint. It’s the story of the game, really: BYU outrebounded them 23-13 in the first half and 50-29 overall, and outscored them in the paint 22-8 in the first half and 42-24 overall. The Cougars had an unconscionable 21 second-chance points, including the game winning shot by Dallin Hall who somehow was able to grab his own miss and put it back.
The Jays were just 6-of-22 on layups, which is obviously not a number you can win games with. Offensively, they simply aren’t getting enough inside the arc — Trey Alexander and Ryan Nembhard have to be better.
On a night where Kaluma puts up 27 electrifying points on 8-of-14 shooting and makes four 3-pointers, CU should win 90% of the time. That they weren’t even in the game before a late flurry is damning.
It was another cold shooting night for almost everyone else. Alexander was 3-of-12 overall, though he did make 10-of-12 from the line and dish out four assists. Baylor Scheierman was 3-of-11 overall and 2-of-6 from three-point range. Nembhard was 5-of-11 but just 1-of-4 from outside. None of them took the final shot, instead kicking it out to a player in Shereef Mitchell who is 3-of-16 shooting for the season and has not made a basket in a month.
Defense is the real problem here, though. In their four-game losing streak, here’s the points in the paint numbers:
Arizona 48, Creighton 24
Texas 36, Creighton 36
Nebraska 46, Creighton 16
BYU 42, Creighton 24
That’s an average of 18 points per game. To offset that, they’d need to make seven more 3-pointers per game. And that’s the problem — a team that can’t score in the paint, and struggles to shoot from being the arc can’t also get torched defensively or you can’t win games on a regular basis.
Playing without Kalkbrenner obviously played a role in that. “We were number on in the country in defensive rebounding percentage coming into the game,” Greg McDermott said. “I have a hard time believing that’s all because of Kalkbrenner, but tonight would lead you to believe that. We were just dominated on the glass.”
BYU coach Mark Pope agreed. “Missing their big man inside changed everything for everybody,” he said. “He was the entire, 100%, focus of our gameplan. He’s just such a dominating force offensively and defensively. Two hours before the game, we were rethinking everything we had prepped the last couple days.”
But he played in the other three, with similar results. It’s a convenient excuse, but that’s all it is. The problems began before this game. Fixing them will require more than just getting Kalkbrenner back.
Recap:
If last Sunday’s loss to Nebraska was a trainwreck, Saturday night’s loss to BYU — ranked #213 in the NET rankings — qualifies as a full-on derailment. Without Ryan Kalkbrenner, their defense surrendered 83 points, 16 offensive rebounds and 42 points in the paint. And while a late 12-0 run briefly gave them the lead, that defense couldn’t get a stop when they had to.
Twice in the second half, BYU nearly pulled away but was unable to land the knockout punch. They took a 56-48 lead 90 seconds into the second half, but Arthur Kaluma scored eight straight points to tie it — a pair of threes and a dunk.
Moments later, this dunk by Fredrick King tied it at 62:
But then Kaluma picked up his fourth foul and headed to the bench — and with his 27 points off the floor, the Jays suddenly couldn’t score. From the 11:11 mark until the 4:40 mark, they went scoreless and fell behind 76-65 in the process. The Jays put him back in two minutes into the drought out of desperation, and he promptly fouled out on a ridiculous mental mistake reaching in on BYU’s Jaxson Robinson after losing the ball.
“I couldn‘t tell you what was going through my head,” Kaluma said of that foolish fifth foul. “I just knew when it happened, it was probably the dumbest play I’ve ever made.”
And so with 3:26 to play, they were down double-digits to a team they were favored to win by double-digits — for the second straight game. Partially because of foul trouble and partially because of Kalkbrenner being out (and Fredrick King being ineffective) CU “pulled the goalie” so to speak. Playing a five guard lineup of Ben Shtolzberg, Ryan Nembhard, Shereef Mitchell, Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman they pressed, trapped, and forced six BYU turnovers. In the process they ripped off a 10-0 run to not only erase that 76-65 deficit, but take a 80-79 lead.
BYU’s Dallin Hall drove to the rim and missed, but grabbed his own rebound and scored with 11 seconds left to give the Cougars the lead back.
“It was probably fitting that we lost on an offensive rebound because I think that was the story of the game,” McDermott said.
“Like coach said, it’s kind of poetic how they won off an offensive rebound since they were killing us on the glass all game,” Kaluma added. “You can’t just attribute a loss to one play. We shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with if we did the right things.”
Then with one timeout in his pocket Greg McDermott opted to let his guys play out the string. He’s long explained this is his preferred strategy — believing it’s better to run a play against a scrambling defense than to let them get set. But it backfired on Saturday, with both Nembhard and Alexander passing up game-winners in favor of the struggling Shereef Mitchell. He had a good look, but it missed, and the Jays’ desperate comeback failed.
Two weeks ago the Jays were in the championship of the Maui Invitational and ranked #7. Now losers of four straight including two brutal losses, come Monday morning, they won’t be ranked at all. We know what their ceiling is based on those games in Maui, and it’s everything Jays fans hoped for. Unfortunately, we also know what their floor is now, and it’s significantly lower than anyone thought. With Arizona State and Marquette coming up next, there’s a good chance they’ll be riding a six-game losing streak into their Big East home opener.
It’s the first four-game losing streak the Jays have endured in five years — the 2018-19 team was the last to do it. Believe it or not, they actually had two separate four-game losing streaks en route to a 4-9 start in Big East play. That team wound up in the NIT. This team isn’t headed there yet, but McDermott is going to earn his paycheck trying to figure out this mess. A team with unprecedented expectations has quickly found itself against the ropes.
Press Conference:
Highlights: