Inside the Box Score:
CU’s top two scorers, Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski, combined to shoot 6-for-27 from the floor and commit seven turnovers. Zegarowski was 3-of-16 (and 1-of-10 from three point range). Alexander scored zero points in the first half despite playing 19 minutes. Offensively, that’s the story.
“There are no other scoring options. They’re sitting over by me on the bench,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame radio interview on 1620AM. “Between Ty-Shon and Marcus and Mitch — when two of the three of those don’t have a good night, it’s not going to be pretty for us. Especially against a physical front line.”
Mitch Ballock played a good (and potentially really good) game, officially logging 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting with four rebounds and two assists. Unofficially, he had at least six instances by my notes where he made a pass to create a shot for someone else…and they missed the shot. If those shots, which guys like Alexander and Zegarowski normally make at a high rate, go in we’re perhaps talking about a different result, too.
Creighton’s 31 point loss was their biggest since a 95-61 loss in December 2001 at Western Kentucky in a game that they played without star Kyle Korver. Before that, you have to go back to the depths of the Rick Johnson Era to find something worse. Johnson’s 1993-94 team made a habit out of losses like this, losing by 25 to UMKC, 33 at Southern Illinois, 33 at Missouri State, and 44 at Iowa State.
That’s where we’re at on this Black Friday morning in Vegas, folks: bringing up the end of the Rick Johnson Era to find comparable data.
Recap:
Embarrassing. Pathetic. Uncompetitive.
Those were some of the adjectives flying around Bluejay Nation after the Jays’ most lopsided defeat in a generation, a 83-52 demolition that somehow was even less competitive for large stretches than that score sounds. In front of a giant traveling party wearing blue that was looking to once again turn a holiday tournament venue into a home game, CU was so thoroughly and completely beaten in every facet of the game that most of that traveling party had left before the final horn sounded.
It was the first time this year where Creighton’s lack of size did more than hurt them, but made them look silly. While Michigan’s seven-footer Jon Teske was a one-man wrecking crew inside, CU was able to get — and knock down — decent looks from the perimeter against the Wolverines. San Diego State’s pair of 6’10” starting forwards, Yanni Wetzell and Nathan Mensah, wrecked the Jays’ big men (and anyone able to dribble penetrate into the paint) in a similar fashion to what Teske did.
The difference?
San Diego State’s guards were long, physical, and committed to defending all 94 feet of the floor. Without a Creighton big man able to at least keep them honest by scoring a few at the rim, SDSU was able to get more aggressive, and more physical, in pressing their defense out to the perimeter. And by taking away the passing lanes on the perimeter that CU uses so effectively against most opponents to create open shots for each other, San Diego State forced the Jays to go one-on-one.
For all the talent Creighton has offensively, breaking down a defense consistently in one-on-one ISO situations to create their own shots is not their strong suit. And that leads to what we saw Thursday: nearly half of the Jays’ shots (23 of 52) were three pointers, and they made only four of them.
“There were some shots that were rushed, but there were many others that were open and we just missed,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame radio interview on 1620AM. “And in those stretches where we couldn’t score, we allowed our inability to make shots to affect how locked in we were on the defensive end. They got away from us, and obviously if you give a team like that a lead like that, it’s really difficult to come back.”
The frustrating part is that despite losing by 31, Creighton had opportunities to change the outcome. They had a lead with eight minutes to play in the first half, and looked to be settling in offensively — Mitch Ballock hit a three, then scored on a layup, and then created a shot inside for Christian Bishop with a nifty pass through the lane. Though Bishop’s shot missed, he redeemed himself by making two free throws on the next trip down the floor. And when Zegarowski scored on a short jumper moments later, CU went ahead 22-20.
They were outscored 63-30 the rest of the way.
It began with a 18-0 run that saw Creighton miss eight straight shots, miss all three free throws they attempted, and commit four turnovers. That was decisive stretch #1 of the game. By the time they scored again, it was too late.
“We matched their tenacity for the first 20 possessions or so,” McDermott said. “I liked where we were because we hadn’t shot it well, and we were right there — we were winning 22-20 actually. And then we go 12 possessions in a row without scoring. They were really, really good and we weren’t very good at all.”
Trailing 40-25 at the break, Creighton came out with a good plan defensively and executed it. They got five straight stops. They forced two turnovers. Mitch Ballock was the catalyst, (unofficially) blocking a shot on the first possession, forcing a jump ball by diving on the floor two possessions later, and making passes to set up his teammates for open shots twice in the first four minutes.
But Alexander missed a wide-open 15-footer. Zegarowski missed a wide-open shot from the corner. Damien Jefferson missed two free throws; Alexander missed one.
“If that goes differently, maybe we could have got the lead under 10 and got them back on their heels a little bit,” McDermott said.
You do have to wonder: if CU converts those offensive opportunities, does this game wind up with a different result? Instead, by the 14:21 mark San Diego State had pushed to lead out to 21 points, 52-31, and the game was all but over. Decisive stretch #2, and once again CU couldn’t execute.
Defensively, the Jays’ lack of size hurt them just as much and maybe moreso. Faced with a pair of 6’10” players to defend and only one player taller than 6’7″ on their own roster, the Jays had little choice but to bring a double-team just about every time San Diego State got the ball inside. And then SDSU’s big men exploited them with laser-beam passes out to shooters on the perimeter left open because of the double team. The Aztecs made 11-of-18 from three-point range for the game.
In the second half, especially, they were almost unstoppable. After that opening stretch of defensive stops, San Diego State made 15 of their next 19 shots. They made their next seven 3-point attempts. If they seemed unstoppable, that’s because for a long portion of the second half — the portion where the game ballooned from a 12-point deficit to something much, much worse — the Aztecs literally were unstoppable, at least against the Bluejay defense.
Alas.
Next up is a team who plays a very similar style to San Diego State, and rode it all the way to the Final Four a year ago (albeit with a mostly different cast of characters). Texas Tech comes in ranked #12 and were beaten by Iowa to send them to the Third Place game against CU. It will be a monumental challenge 24 hours after a loss this thorough.
“We’re going to play a very good basketball team Friday night,” McDermott said. “They’re going to be hungry. Their locker room is right next to ours so I heard their postgame speech, and I think we’re going to get their best effort Friday.”
“We have to look in the mirror and figure out what we can change before tomorrow night at this time.”