Key Stats:
Creighton’s 28.8% shooting percentage was their lowest in five years. The 25-point margin is their biggest since the infamous 83-52 loss to San Diego State in Las Vegas last season; before that you had to go back 18 years to find another game where the Jays were beaten by that much.
Their three-point shooting in particular was atrocious at 9-of-34 (26%) as a team, but Denzel Mahoney (1-of-10), Damien Jefferson (0-of-4) and Mitch Ballock (2-of-6) combined to go just 3-for-20. Those same three struggled all the way around — Mahoney was 1-of-13, Jefferson 1-of-8, and Ballock 3-of-8. Yikes.
“Those are guys that have been pretty efficient most of the season,” Greg McDermott said. “It happens once in a while and obviously (Georgetown’s) ability to protect the paint kind of forces you out to the 3-point line. To loosen that defense up and get those guys out of the paint you have to make some shots and force them to kind of stretch out a little bit and that creates some driving lanes. And we couldn’t get them out of that because we couldn’t make a shot.”
And there’s this: Creighton fell to 0-3 in the Big East tournament championship game, losing to Providence in 2014, Villanova in 2017 and Georgetown in 2021.
Recap & Analysis:
In Saturday’s Big East Championship game, Creighton won the opening tip and started the game with a lob from Marcus Zegarowski to Christian Bishop:
Zegarowski then hit a mid-range jumper to make it 4-0. Consecutive scores in transition put the Bluejays ahead 13-6 and led to Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing calling a timeout. One of those scores? A three from Mitch Ballock, who’d been in a three-point slump to that point of the Big East Tourney. Things were looking good — the Jays seemed locked in defensively, they were getting good looks, and they were hitting them.
But during that timeout, Greg McDermott gambled that he could get a simultaneous rest for both Zegarowski and Ballock. With Shereef Mitchell out after banging his head the night before, that meant Jett Canfield was brought in to play point. The Hoyas responded with a 7-0 run to tie the game — seizing momentum and getting Jahvon Blair in a rhythm. McDermott lost the gamble. You can understand what he was trying to do, but in hindsight it’s pretty clear it blew up in his face.
Georgetown went ahead for the first time at the 7:39 mark on a three by Donald Carey, 18-16. Zegarowski answered to tie the score at 18. And then the Bluejays missed 11 straight shots, went scoreless the final six minutes of the half (5:52 to be exact), while the Hoyas ripped off an 18-0 run. Blair, who found his shot during that short span with Canfield guarding him, was now unstoppable. He scored 10 of their 18 points in the decisive stretch.
The Hoyas made eight of their last 11 shots, yes, but when they did miss CU also grabbed zero defensive rebounds. It’s true: Georgetown secured an offensive rebound on all of them. Meanwhile, Creighton couldn’t make a thing — they missed three layups, had two other layups blocked, and missed two mid-range jump shots, four 3-pointers and both free throws they attempted. Gross.
They then began the second half on a 16-3 run — a 34-3 blitz spanning both halves — turning that 18-18 tie into a 52-21 embarrassment. It ended in a 25-point drubbing, 73-48. There’s really nothing more to say.
“Obviously as competitors we’re mad we lost. It’s just such a big game. It was for the championship of our league,” Zegarowski said afterward. “But, you know, there’s bigger things ahead for us. March Madness is a really good time for us to try and turn the page and learn from it. Coach said in the locker room, a game like this really has only happened to us twice — last year versus San Diego State. And we really bounced back (the next game). And our plan is really to bounce back after this one.”
#5 Seed in West, UC Santa Barbara up First
To Zegarowski’s point, the loss didn’t change CU’s seed or NCAA Tourney outlook very much. They earned a 5 seed — exactly where most bracketologists had them heading into the Big East Tourney. And they’re in the “West” region (in quotes because all four regions will take place in the NCAA’s Indianapolis bubble, regardless of name). It might be better to refer to it as the “Gonzaga” region, as the top-ranked Bulldogs are the 1 seed.
The Jays draw 12 seed UC Santa Barbara first, and it will be a formidable challenge.
“I’m just happy for our guys, just because they had an opportunity taken away from them last year after a great year,” McDermott said. “To back it up and do it again, and put ourselves in position for a top-5 seed once again — in what I think is a wide-open and competitive NCAA tournament — I’m really proud of them.”
In a video shared by GoCreighton.com, Mahoney seemed especially excited to be playing in his first NCAA Tournament.
“(I’m) just blessed to be in the position to be a part of the tournament,” Mahoney said. “It’s my first time and we worked hard for it. Just happy and blessed.”
The Gauchos are the Big West champ and one of the hottest teams in the tourney, winning 18 of their last 19 games with just one loss in 2021. They’re also a veteran squad, with a roster ranked as the 26th most experienced roster in D1 by KenPom. They boast an electric point guard in JaQuori McLaughlin, who at 6’4″, 190 has power conference size. He was a consensus Top 75 recruit out of high school and began his career at Oregon State; he averages 16.2 points, 5.2 assists, and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 48.9% from the floor and 40.4% from three-point range. He’s tremendous.
He’s surrounded by Nevada transfer Devearl Ramsey (7.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2:1 assist to turnover ratio), Oregon transfer Miles Norris (a 6’10” forward averaging 9.6 points and 4.5 rebounds), and DePaul transfer Brandon Cyrus. Temple transfer Josh Pierre-Louis (6.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game) is an athletic guard off the bench. 6’9″, 235-pound forward Amadou Sow (13.7 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) is the only player among their key rotation who’s played his entire career at UCSB.
“After being able to watch four or five of Santa Barbara’s games over the last 18 hours or so, it’s obvious they’re a very talented team,” McDermott said Monday morning. “We’ll have our hands full.”
Notably, the Big West’s Sixth Man of the year, Ajare Sanni, is questionable for this weekend after suffering a severely sprained ankle in the Big West championship game Saturday night. Sanni, also a transfer from Pacific, averages 11.2 points and is their best three-point shooter at 39.8% for the year (41-of-103).
Creighton has their own injury concerns. Shereef Mitchell missed the title game against Georgetown in the concussion protocol; McDermott said on Monday that while he’s improving, he’s still being evaluated and his status for Saturday is undecided.
The game will tip at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, Omaha time, and take place inside the spacious Lucus Oil Field — better known as the domed football stadium home of the Indianapolis Colts.