Bluejay Beat Wrap-Up Show:
Key Stats:
Creighton was only credited with 18 fast break points, but they
averaged 12.9 seconds per offensive possession, the fastest pace of any team in the country on opening night according to KenPom. They played the pace they wanted to, and shot the ball well (50% overall and 54.8% from three).
It’s not really a stat, but with just seven healthy scholarship players at the moment, getting through the game with no further injuries counts as a key stat is my book.
Recap:
Tuesday night’s season opener began with Ty-Shon Alexander burying a pair of three-pointers in the first 76 seconds. When it was followed by a three from Marcus Zegarowski for a 9-0 lead that forced Kennesaw State into a timeout, it looked like we were in for a very different game than the one we wound up seeing.
Alexander and Zegarowski each hit another three ahead of the first media timeout to make it 15-4 Bluejays. But instead of delivering an early knockout, CU scored just 24 points the rest of the half. One culprit was shooting; after starting 5-5 from behind the arc, they regressed to the mean and made 2-of-7 the rest of the half. Another was turnovers and overall sloppiness; Creighton wound up committing eight turnovers in the first half with at least three other wayward passes (by my count) that *could* have been turnovers against a more aggressive defense. Still another was the drop-off in defensive communication with lineups other than the starting five, resulting in open looks and enough fouls to send KSU to the line nine times. The result was Kennesaw State winning the final 15 minutes of the first half, 26-24. That’s right: over a 15-minute stretch, Creighton was outplayed and outscored by a team that won six games a year ago.
What a difference a half makes. Leading 39-31 at the break, Creighton took control of the game over the first four minutes of the second. They scored 11 points on their first five possessions, and in roughly two minutes’ time, built a commanding 50-33 lead.
Christian Bishop got it started with a steal on Kennesaw’s very first possession of the half, and took it coast to coast for a layup. Moments later, he finished a lob dunk from Marcus Zegarowski. On the very next defensive possession, he blocked a shot to start a fastbreak, sprinted down the floor, and was rewarded with a layup.
To say Bishop was everywhere in the first four minutes would not be an understatement. He was absolutely the catalyst in a 20-2 run that turned that 39-31 halftime edge into a 59-33 rout. His energy was contagious, sparking the rest of the team on both ends of the floor. If there was a downside, it was that his high-energy play caused him to pick up a pair of fouls stemming from being overly-aggressive, sending him to the bench for a break. No matter, because the damage was done.
“I like the way the guys responded after halftime,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame interview on 1620AM. “A lot of their offense in the first half was the result of our mistakes. We took a quick shot or a shot that wasn’t a great shot. We turned it over. But we took them out of what they wanted to do in the second half. Our pressure on the ball was better. We were a little bit more aggressive on ball screens.”
Bishop got it started, but he wasn’t alone. Shereef Mitchell had the kind of second half that looked like a light bulb turning on. The freshman from Omaha Burke had two points and two turnovers in the first half. He had six points, two assists and three steals in the second. But it was his defense that was the eye-opener.
“Our grit was better tonight, and Shereef set the tone with his defense on the ball in the second half,” McDermott gushed afterward. Matched up against leading scorer Tyler Hooker, Mitchell played a large part in holding him to just 10 points — and only two made field goals.
“I didn’t think Tyler Hooker wanted anything to do with Shereef,” McDermott said. “While Shereef didn’t force him into a lot of turnovers, he wore into him as the game went on. I think he was more comfortable giving the ball up than trying to get a shot up.”
As if playing in front of his hometown fans in a regular season game for the first time wasn’t enough, he also got the start, cranking the emotions and the nerves up another notch. In starting the season opener as a freshman, Mitchell joined some elite company — in the last 20 years, the only others to do so are Doug McDermott and Khyri Thomas. Understandably, he didn’t play very well in the first half, making the common freshman mistake of playing too fast. Sometimes it takes a handful of games for the game to slow down. For Mitchell, it took 20 minutes.
“In the second he let the game come to him. He got into the paint. He made simple plays and created for his teammates,” McDermott said. “He’s so good and so fast and he can change the game on both ends of the floor.”
Speaking of newcomers, grad transfer Kelvin Jones also made a big impression on opening night. In 16 minutes off the bench, he had seven points, six rebounds (two offensive), one assist and one block. He made some miscues on defense, especially on ball screen coverages away from the basket, but also showed a willingness to fight and scrap for rebounds that can be in short supply elsewhere on CU’s roster — and the physical attributes to clear enough space to grab the boards. McDermott talked a little about Jones’ journey to Creighton in the postgame.
“This is Kelvin’s fourth school. He went from UTEP to junior college to Idaho State to here. Imagine this being the third time you have to learn something new, and imagine being a guy who was asked to play block-to-block at his previous stops. We’d obviously like him to play further away from the basket to help our ball screen coverage. And he couldn’t get here until July, so he missed our June workouts. He got hurt and couldn’t play with us in Australia, and he couldn’t practice in the run-up to the trip. So he’s not where I’d like him to be, but you can never question his heart or how hard he plays. He’s going after the glass every single time. And he’ll make a few crazy plays once in a while but it comes from the right place.”
For better or worse, the 7 scholarship players who got the bulk of the minutes Tuesday night are Creighton’s team for now. Reinforcements will join the active roster gradually over the next six weeks, as Davion Mintz and Damien Jefferson return from injuries and Denzel Mahoney becomes eligible. In the meantime, the three walk-ons (Jett Canfield, Jordan Scurry, and Nic Zeil) who combined to play 30 minutes Tuesday will have to play out of necessity. And freshman Jalen Windham, who would probably redshirt in a perfect world to give him a year to add muscle, will be thrust into the lineup immediately. He played 19 minutes in the opener, and showed off the elite shooting ability that landed him on CU’s radar.
“He’s been one of our best shooters in practice,” McDermott said. “He did not shoot it well against Missouri, he did not make a three against McKendree. It was good to see him hit a three especially after he missed his first one. That’s a confidence builder for him. He can help us space the floor offensively, and he’s gradually making strides defensively.”
Next up is a trip to Ann Arbor for a true road game at Michigan. They’re a big, physical team and Creighton is, well, not, so we’ll find out in a hurry whether the undersized Bluejays can succeed in a hostile environment against a team with more size across the board.