There had been nine lead changes and six ties over the first 39 minutes of Saturday’s second round battle between Creighton and Oregon. But when Ducks big man N’Faly Dante scored on consecutive possessions to put his team up by four, it felt like the epitaph on an era of Creighton hoops was being written in real time. The second bucket, a ferocious putback dunk with 1:15 to play, was a demoralizing play — and according to KenPom’s win probability index, the Ducks had 90% odds of victory at that moment.
Baylor Scheierman had other ideas. He’d had a rough night shooting the basketball, and after rebounding a missed shot by Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard, he decided to manufacture offense — he started the comeback by putting his head down and barreling into the lane, drawing contact and a foul. His two free throws cut the deficit to 62-60.
“We were able to make him take a tough shot and I got the rebound quick and I knew we had some numbers,” Scheierman said. “We were down four and we weren’t going to be able to get it all back at once. So I just decided to try to get downhill, get a foul and go to the free throw line.”
Then Oregon, for some reason, inbounded the ball to the worst free throw shooter on the floor — Dante, who averages just 60% from the line. He promptly missed the front end of the one-and-one, leaving the door open a crack. Opting not to call timeout, the Jays got the ball to Scheierman who took care of the rest, hitting nothing but net on a game-tying step-back jumper from eight feet out. It was a play designed to free him up for a three-point game-winner. But when the Ducks sniffed it out, he calmly pivoted and dribbled as close as could — and buried the biggest shot of his career (so far).
“We ran a play for a three, and they kind of took away the first option,” Scheierman explained. “Kalk came and set a great ball screen and then rolled and sealed his guy. That’s a shot that I work on a lot. The guys had the confidence in me to give me the ball there at the end. And so did the coaches and I’m just happy I could deliver for them.”
“Baylor made a hell of a play in transition. He just went to the rim and made the referee make a decision,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “And he works on that little floater, step-away jumper all the time. You know, what a big shot.”
When a last-ditch shot at the buzzer fell short, the teams headed to overtime. Riding that momentum into the first extra period, Creighton seemingly seized control — after Couisnard started the scoring with a jumper to put Oregon ahead 64-62, Steven Ashworth buried a three-pointer to put the Jays ahead.
And after a pair of free throws by Dante gave Oregon back the lead, Scheierman once again delivered — this time splitting a double-team, driving inside the arc and dropping a lob pass over the top of Oregon’s defense to Kalkbrenner for an easy layup.
But after Steven Ashworth’s free throws gave CU a 71-68 lead with 27 seconds left, it was Oregon’s turn to rally and make a game-tying shot. Couisnard hit a game-tying three pointer, a contested shot with Scheierman in his face.
The Jays had an opportunity to run one more play to win, but Trey Alexander’s would-be game-winner from eight feet away bounced off the rim. It’s a shot he probably makes 19 out of 20 times, as McDermott said in his press conference after the time, but this was the one that misses. And with that, an already epic game wasn’t over yet.
As the teams huddled up before the second OT, McDermott pointed at Altman across the court and smiled.
“We caught each other’s eye at that point. It was just an incredible game,” McDermott said of that moment. “Baylor making the big plays at the end of regulation and Jermaine making the play at the end of the first overtime. I think we were both in disbelief about what was transpiring in front of our eyes.”
It might have been tempting to be discouraged about heading to a second overtime, but Oregon was clearly gassed — and Creighton’s one of, if not, the best conditioned teams in America. Much like the 3OT Seton Hall game in January, everything after the 45th minute of this one belonged to the Bluejays.
“We knew that we were ready for the second OT. We do this all the time in situations in practice. So we were ready,” Alexander said. “We knew we probably had (more left) than them. Like, they were walking the ball up the court and things like that. We were just still trying to play our game.”
Beyond simply having more left in the tank, Creighton made a key tactical adjustment that arguably won them the game. Couisnard had scored 32 points heading into the second overtime; he missed all six of his shots in the second extra period.
“We switched our ball screen coverage, we were a little bit more aggressive. Tried to make Couisnard give it up,” McDermott explained. “We don’t do it a lot but we practice it a fair amount, and our guys executed it when we needed to. He was on a roll and he was killing us, and I think that adjustment and their execution was able to knock them out of the rhythm they were in offensively.”
Ashworth’s fifth made three-pointer of the game put the Jays ahead for good with 3:44 to go in the second OT. It was the start of one of the biggest, most important runs in Creighton program history — a 15-0 blitz lasting exactly three minutes, turning a 71-71 tie into an 86-71 blowout.
When Kalkbrenner of all people followed with a three, it felt like the wheels were officially coming off for the Ducks. He’s made just 16 threes all season, and before hitting one in the first round win over Akron he hadn’t made a three in a month — not since the win at Butler on February 17. This one made it 77-71 Bluejays.
“Mac told me to make 100 after practice and 100 before practice, the two practices we had before we came here. So that helped prepare me,” Kalkbrenner said of that three. “But, no, Mac’s always giving me the green light. I work on that shot a lot, even though I don’t shoot it a ton during the game, I got confidence in myself to take that shot. I saw I had a little bit of space and let it fly.”
Then, letting his guard down a little bit, Kalkbrenner joked, “And I know that’s probably the number one shot Mac wanted on that possession.”
The exclamation point came 45 seconds later. Alexander missed a fadeaway jumper, and Jasen Green exploded through the lane to grab the rebound and throw down a vicious dunk in one smooth motion. While Scheierman’s game-tying shot in regulation is the lasting memory of this game, Green’s putback dunk in the second overtime is not far behind. Wow.
“I’ll tell you what, our guys persevered, and, you know, what a story Jason Green’s been,” McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “He could have easily given up on himself earlier in the season, but he kept working, he kept getting better. Interestingly enough, I ran into his parents yesterday in the street and told them, ‘You know what? Your son has been playing great the last six weeks. I’m really proud of what he’s done.’ And I told them when he came off the floor, ‘He deserved tonight. He’s worked really hard.'”
“I mean, I don’t even know what to say,” a humble Green told John Bishop and Nick Bahe on the postgame show. “Like, that’s my job on this team is to get boards, do the hustle things, and I mean, I feel like I did a great job today.”
The 86-73 win advances Creighton to their third Sweet 16 in four years, an absurd statement to write for anyone who remembers the program’s long, frustrating struggle to break through into the second weekend. To get one seemed like a Herculean task in the mid-2000s; that it’s now not just a regular occurrence but an expectation tells you everything you need to know about how Greg McDermott has grown Bluejay Basketball.
Talking with John Bishop and Nick Bahe on the postgame radio show, former athletic director Bruce Rasmussen said in his opinion this win ranks high on his list.
“When you think of all the big wins that Creighton’s had in the tournament, that’s maybe the one of the biggest ones and the best ones,” Rasmussen said. “To have a two overtime game to go to the Sweet 16, I’m not sure there’s been a bigger win since I’ve been at Creighton.”
For most of the night it looked like this one was going to end very differently, either in frustration or heartbreak or both. Creighton and Oregon began the game a combined 11-of-36 from the floor and 2-of-15 on three-pointers. The Jays were getting not just open looks but great looks against Oregon’s matchup zone — yet missed 16 of their first 20 shots from three-point range. They led 36-34 at the half after a buzzer-beating three from Ashworth, on the same play they ran at the end of the first half against Butler at home. That one ended badly when Ashworth shot too early, missed, and Finley Bizjack made a halfcourt three at the buzzer.
This time, Ashworth waited a second or two longer before shooting — and made it.
Talking to TBS’ Evan Washburn on his way to the locker room, McDermott joked that he’d asked Ashworth if he was ever going hit a shot in this game (he was 0-for-5 from three-point range prior to that shot). “Well, he did!” McDermott said.
Kalkbrenner had carried them in the first half, scoring 12 of their 36 points. But through the first 18 possessions of the second half, he didn’t attempt a single shot — Altman had adjusted their defensive scheme to front Kalkbrenner and deny him the ball. And without scoring at the rim as an option, the Jays had two separate long droughts, including one that lasted six minutes — after taking a 52-49 lead with 11:07 to play, they didn’t score again until a three-pointer from Ashworth with 5:07 left. In the meantime, Oregon scored nine unanswered to take their largest lead of the game at six points.
And after Ashworth’s three, they went another five minutes without a field goal. Their only points in that span? Two free throws from Kalkbrenner and one from Mason Miller, followed by Scheierman’s personal 4-0 run to tie the game in the final seconds. They made two shots in the final 11:07 of regulation and somehow won the game.
“We got a couple lucky bounces there,” McDermott said. “I lost my mom this year. I’m pretty sure she helped with a couple bounces tonight.”
From the other side, Altman had nothing but praise for his former program.
“Creighton’s got a really good team. Those guys have been together. They’re really well coached, and Greg does a tremendous job,” Altman said. “I thought it was a heck of a game, and we made some critical mistakes, and it cost us. I wish Creighton all the best. I hope they get to the Final Four. It would be great for that program. I’d love to see it. They’ll swing away. They got a lot of shooters, and they hit some big threes tonight. And we just lost them a couple times, and it cost us.”
Inside the Box:
Creighton has had two coaches over the last 30 years. Dana Altman won 327 games in 16 seasons, bringing the program back from the dead and building the foundation of Bluejay hoops as we know it. Greg McDermott has now won 325 games at a CU program he’s taken to new heights in the Big East and beyond.
“Well, you guys, it sounds like a eulogy and I know I’m old, and I know I almost died during the game, but I will tell you that you see the brilliance of both coaches,” retired athletic director Bruce Rasmussen said on the postgame radio show. “I’m so proud of Creighton. I’m so proud of Mac, but, but I’m telling you that the job that Dana Altman did with that team with really two great players and not much around them, it was just fun for me to watch because no matter who won — I certainly wanted the Jays to win — but I’ve always been a process guy and you watch the character and quality of coaching of both teams and it was just a proud night.”
Greg McDermott is now 11-8 as Creighton’s head coach in the NCAA Tournament, and 19-12 in the postseason. All other CU coaches are a combined 8-17 in the NCAA Tournament and 17-29 in the postseason.
Creighton’s 25 wins (so far) are its most in one season since 2016-17, and just the seventh time in program history they’ve had 25 or more victories.
The following Creighton career NCAA Tournament records were broken on Saturday: Ryan Kalkbrenner (140) broke Doug McDermott’s (129) record for points, and Baylor Scheierman (17) set the mark for made three-pointers, passing the mark of 16 held by Ethan Wragge and Kyle Korver. And Kalkbrenner played in his eighth career NCAA Tournament win, extending his own program record.
While they began the game 1-of-11 from three point range including nine straight misses, from that point forward they were 14-of-28 from long range. In the two overtimes, they were 4-of-8. They didn’t panic, they keep firing, and eventually the open looks they missed in the first half found the bottom of the net.
Individually, everyone had moments. Steven Ashworth finished with 21 points and four assists, and though his shooting line (6-of-18 overall and 5-of-15 from three) is rough, timing is everything: in the two overtime periods, he scored 10 of the Jays’ 24 points, with two 3-pointers and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
Kalkbrenner added 19 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, and though N’Faly Dante’s line was monstrous — 28 points and 20 rebounds is otherworldly — it’s worth noting how much of that happened without Kalkbrenner guarding him. Dante had seven offensive rebounds, all of them coming when Kalkbrenner stepped out of the team’s drop coverage to contest a shot from someone else. That left Dante open on the backside for an offensive board and putback. He scored on four of his seven offensive boards, and two others led to points for someone else.
Alexander turned in 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Scheierman 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists as both men played all 50 minutes. And then there’s Jasen Green: in 18 minutes, he had nine rebounds — SIX of them offensive — and four points. His energy on the glass changed the game, giving them a jolt off the bench. And his emphatic rebound-and-dunk in the second overtime might just wind up as part of “One Shining Moment” in a couple of weeks. Not bad for a player who couldn’t break into the rotation two months ago.
For Oregon, Jermaine Couisnard scored 32 points but needed 33 shots to get there. As we wrote in the Primer, he’s a great scorer but a volume shooter — and once he ran out of gas, he shot them out of the game, going 2-of-9 in the overtimes (and 0-of-5 in the second). N’Faly Dante had 28 points and 20 rebounds, but he too needed 20 shots to get there. Those two combined to take 53 of their 77 shots and score 60 of their 73 points; in the second half and overtimes they scored all 37 of the Ducks’ 39 points.
Finally, we’d be remiss without mentioning Jeremy Anderson, the Jays’ head of athletic performance.
“I talked to the guys before the overtimes, and said we’re built for this. You know, we play fast. We’re on the attack, and we’re ready for that,” McDermott said. “Our strength coach, Jeremy Anderson, our athletic training, Ben McNair, do a great job of managing their minutes and their bodies and how much we do during a week of practice in preparation for the game to make sure that they’re ready.”
That’s somehow underselling it. On multiple occasions this year, Creighton’s been in an overtime game and had such superior conditioning that they’ve rolled past an opponent despite a short rotation. Both Seton Hall and Oregon were 100% exhausted by the end of their double-overtime battles with the Jays, while CU’s stars looked like they’d barely broken a sweat. You might beat them, but like Rocky Balboa you will not outlast them. Long after you’re clutching your shorts and gasping for air, they’ll still be running full speed and playing their game.
