Key Stats:
Creighton outrebounds Wagner by a ridiculous 47-28 margin, including 37-18 on the defensive glass. The Jays outscore the Seahawks 36-16 on points in the paint, they assist on 18 of their 28 made field goals, and their bench outscores Wagner’s bench 30-17. The Jays also had 15 turnovers and missed 11 free throws (23-34), which are two stats they’ll need to clean up post haste with a road game at BYU next. Defensively, the Jays held Wagner to 27% shooting overall, 27.3% from downtown, and forced 11 turnovers, including four on their first five possessions of the game.
Maurice Watson’s eight assists set a Creighton record for an NIT game, Geoffrey Groselle’s perfect 7-for-7 shooting day also set a new school record for an NIT game, their 87 points were a team record for an NIT game, and the margin of victory was Creighton’s largest ever in a postseason game.
The most important number of the day, though? The Jays led for 38 minutes and 40 seconds in advancing to the NIT quarterfinals for the first time in school history.
Standout Performance:
Geoff Groselle had 12 points and 14 rebounds against Alabama in the first round of the NIT, and had another dominant performance on Saturday: 18 points and 9 points on 7-7 shooting, numbers that would have been even larger had he played longer than 20 minutes. He didn’t need to with his team rolling, which was probably a good thing for Wagner and for humanity, as the sight of the 7’0″ Groselle laying in baskets with ease and tipping out rebounds over players four and five inches shorter than him was almost unfair.
It was fun to watch if you were a Bluejay, though!
Geoff Groselle fights two Wagner defenders for a loose ball. (Photo by Adam Streur / WBR)
Recap & Analysis:
Eighth-seeded Wagner jumped out to an early double-digit lead at top seed St. Bonaventure in the first round, and then held on to win despite a furious rally by the Bonnies. Having watched that, Creighton was clearly determined not to allow a sequel, and they succeeded. Their defense forced turnovers on four of Wagner’s first five possessions, and the Jays took a 10-3 lead after four minutes as a result. Keying that early surge? Khyri Thomas, who continues to flourish in the NIT. Four of his team’s first 10 points belonged to Thomas, punctuated by a steal and transition dunk.
With the defense having set a tone, Creighton went to work exploiting their massive height advantage in the paint. They pounded the ball into the post on nearly every single possession, with Geoff Groselle and Zach Hanson taking one-third of the Bluejays shot attempts in the first half and scoring exactly half of their team’s points. Wagner had no player taller than 6’8″, and when Groselle would catch the ball in the post and hold it above his head before shooting, they had no recourse to stop him or the ball and everybody in the building knew it. He was perfect on seven shot attempts as a result. Hanson, on the other hand, used a variety of moves to back down the smaller defenders and shoot over them with jump shots, and had already scored a career-high 14 points at halftime.
Creighton’s defense was suffocating for the second straight game in the NIT. (Photo by Adam Streur / WBR)
Meanwhile, the Bluejay defense continued to stifle Wagner, and not only held them to six made field goals in the first half, but just three offensive rebounds, meaning they went one-and-done nearly every possession. Their 21-point halftime lead was no fluke. The first half was as complete and thorough a domination as we’ve seen from the Bluejays all year long, and that wasn’t even the most impressive thing. A team that has occasionally (okay, frequently) eased up with big leads and allowed opponents back into games showed a killer instinct and put the game away early in the second half. The lead never shrunk to less than 17 points, and they took their largest lead of the day with their final points — two free throws from Toby Hegner that gave them a 33-point lead and an 87-54 win.
Creighton has now had back-to-back stellar defensive games in the NIT, while continuing to score at their usual mid-70s pace, and the result unsurprisingly has been two blowout wins. The Bluejays held Alabama to 54 points and 28.3% shooting in the first round, and held Wagner to 27.9% shooting from the field and 27.3% from behind the arc while giving up an identical 54 points. Those two defensive performances have moved them up to 39th overall in adjusted defense according to KemPom, which is something I’m not sure many would have believed in December.
The win Saturday was made even more impressive by the fact that Cole Huff and Toby Hegner were playing through illnesses that left both of them listless and unable to play long stretches, in addition to both of them having continuing physical ailments that already limit their effectiveness. And with Isaiah Zierden done for the year with his shoulder injury, the Bluejays lost another guard when Malik Albert suffered a lower-leg injury in his only minute of action and had to be helped off the court by trainers. He left the arena on crutches, and if he’s a no-go for BYU on Tuesday night, it leaves the Bluejays with walk-on Tyler Clement as the top option as backup at the point guard spot. And of course, Mo Watson and Zach Hanson are still somewhat limited by lingering injuries, too.
This team is a walking MASH unit, but they continue to charge ahead, and now they’re one win away from the NIT Final Four.
They Said It:
“I’m going to talk to our trainers because they told me we have a couple of 6’8″ guys on our team. But when we went up against those guys that are really 6’8″, we got swallowed up.” -Wagner coach Bashir Mason in postgame press conference
“I give Creighton’s coaching staff and their players a lot of credit. I thought they took us very seriously. Every time I made a play call, their bench jumped up and yelled what we were running. They were really prepared for us. I thought my guys played hard, but every time we made a mistake, they made us pay.” -Wagner coach Bashir Mason in postgame press conference
“What I was concerned about coming into this game was, I knew Wagner had our coaching staff’s respect. Their overall body of work, winning a conference championship, winning eight out of nine down the stretch, and then going into St. Bonaventure and getting an unbelievable win there. I was concerned about whether we could convince the guys of that. To their credit, we were able to do that. We knew their sets, we called them out, and got stops when we needed them. And most importantly with a team like Wagner, often times teams from leagues like theirs have one or two players that are really critical to their success. We were able to take Corey Henson away early, we didn’t let Romone Saunders get going early, and we didn’t let Michael Carey get going early. Those are kind of their guys. We made other guys try to make plays instead and as a result, their shooting percentage was really low the first half.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“It feels good to have back-to-back games of holding our opponent to 54 points and under 30% shooting, because we spent a lot of time working on our defense last spring, and in our workouts over the summer preparing for Italy. We didn’t really show that improvement in November and December. Fortunately we were able to get back to some of the basics once we got into conference season and we’ve defended pretty well since then. Over the last ten games, someone showed me this a game or two ago, we were holding teams to 40% from the field and 31% from three-point range over those games and those are numbers that give you a chance to win even if your offense isn’t totally on.”
“Today, Cole had the flu, Toby’s been sick all week, Maurice still isn’t feeling great and he’s got a bad cold too. And then we lose Malik a minute or two after we put him in today, so our bench was really short. I’m really proud of the way they played. Malik will have an MRI to see the extent of the injury. The Wagner guy dove into his lower leg, so there are some concerns it could be a fracture. There are some signs that are leading us to think that. We’ll wait on the MRI and hopefully get some good news. Either way, I would think Tuesday’s going to be tough for him.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
Geoff Groselle and James Milliken embrace after their final home game in a Creighton uniform. (Photo by Adam Streur / WBR)
“The last two games, Geoff has played like a guy that wasn’t ready for his career to end yet. Being in the interview room with Geoff those two games, you can see the appreciation he has for these two bonus home games, for getting to play two more times in front of our great fans. Geoff’s played with unbelievable energy, and obviously he was very efficient today, almost getting a double-double again. And then Zach came off the bench in the first half and was incredible. Our focus was to get it inside because we thought we had an advantage in there and we thought we could get to the free throw line. Those guys were able to finish and get to the line.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Maurice just has to take what the defense gives him. You can’t go into a game thinking ‘Here’s what I’m going to do today.’ You’ve got to go in the game and read the situation, and then decide ‘OK, if they’re going to do that, then I’m going to get to the rim and score,’ or ‘If they’re going to take my shot away, then I’m going to dish out assists to my teammates.’ I thought he did a good job today. We were a little sloppy to start that second half against their pressure, they came with the double-team, we were back on our heels a little bit and probably not as aggressive as we needed to be. Once we settled in and attacked that, we were in good shape. But I thought Maurice played a really good game.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“BYU was really good last night. Virginia Tech’s very sound defensively and they’ve got some rim protectors that maybe we don’t have, but BYU’s got the two guys that can shoot it from anywhere. I was able to give Rob Anderson a tidbit of information in the media room that Kyle Collinsworth played here. Six years ago, he was a teammate of Jimmer Fredette’s as a freshman, then went on a two-year mission, and now he’s a senior. We will play against him twice, six years apart. That doesn’t happen very much.
(John Bishop: “Does that mean we get Grant Gibbs back?” Nick Bahe: “I’d rather get Doug back for one game!”)
Tell Gibbs I’d rather have him over Doug and see how that goes (laughs). There goes my Christmas present (laughs). But no, I think Rob said Collinsworth had 12 points and 10 rebounds in that game, and he’s just been fantastic. 6’5″, 6’6″, he sees the floor, and I think he’s now broken the NCAA record with 13 career triple-doubles. He’s got seven this year he had six last year. He’s incredible, and he impacts winning so much without necessarily having to score the ball much. The floor is so spread anyway because of the guys they have and their shooters, so it’s going to be an interesting challenge but I know it’s one our guys are looking forward to. We’ll hit the road and see what happens.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
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