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Morning After: Creighton Wins a Physical Battle Over Butler, 89-85, Wins Fourth Straight

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[Box Score]

Creighton’s 89-85 win over Butler on Tuesday night showed that their improved play during a three-game winning streak was not a mirage. Yes, they were pushed around in the paint, perhaps even more than feared, their point guards struggled against Butler’s pressure, and at times they had trouble getting into their offense. But they won the game. And three weeks ago, Creighton probably loses this game and probably by double digits.

Actually, they did lose this kind of game, and more than once.

Baylor grabbed an offensive rebound on 52.4% of their missed shots in a 81-74 win. Iowa State grabbed an offensive board on 36.1% of their misses; Kansas State was at 38.5%. All three out-muscled the Jays at the point of attack on both ends, and CU folded. All three ended in losses.

Tuesday night, Butler grabbed an offensive board on 45.7% of their misses and turned the game into an old-fashioned Big East brawl, but instead of folding, the Jays led for 39 minutes and had an emphatic response to every Butler run. They saw Austin Swartz and Jasen Green continue to take over the leadership mantle, Josh Dix continue to quietly excel as a lockdown perimeter defender, and Isaac Traudt make threes at the rate expected of Jackson McAndrew before his injury.

The difference in this one? Their second-chance defense. In the losses to Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State, Creighton allowed 1.22 points per second-chance opportunity. Baylor scored 27 second chance points, Iowa State scored 19 and Kansas State scored 16.

Butler converted their 21 offensive rebounds into just 18 points — just 0.86 per possession. And Creighton neutralized it by turning their 10 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points of their own.

“Consider where we were after the Kansas State game. I’m really proud of these guys,” Greg McDermott said. “You teach habits, you preach consistency, and the importance of being an everyday person, but that message doesn’t resonate as well when you’re not winning. It’s like, I’m doing all the stuff and we’re not being rewarded with any success. To their credit they’ve stuck with it and I think they’re starting to see why we do some of the things that we do and why we think it works. And guys have bought in.”

“I feel like we’re an entirely different team,” Green agreed. “I feel like that game against K-State really showed us who we were, not only in the first half but also in the second half. Like, who we were and what we could become and I feel like everybody on the team has bought into that second part because the second half of K-State was who we want to be. After that, the past couple games have just been a reflection of that. I don’t want to say we flipped the switch, but I mean everybody I feel like bought in at that moment.”

Creighton took a 12-2 lead early, with Ty Davis, Green and Swartz all making a bucket and Dix hitting two. After Butler burned a timeout at the 16:12 mark, they settled in but that early 10-point cushion gave CU a lot of breathing room. And their fifth starter, Traudt, helped them keep it.

Traudt buried four 3’s in the first half, stretching Butler’s defense out by dragging his defender out to the perimeter. But he wasn’t alone, as Swartz buried two also. And with Dix scoring quickly in transition, they were able to push the tempo in their favor.

“Especially the first half, our movement was good. Our pace was good,” McDermott said. “I thought they got tired the first half, and I thought our transition really bothered them.”

Creighton led by nine at the half, but Butler scrapped and clawed their way to within three twice midway through the second half. Both times, Nik Graves hit huge shots to push them away. With 11:51 to go, Butler cut it to 59-56 and he buried a three.

With 8:53 left, it was 65-62 and he buried another three, this time converting a four-point play after drawing a foul on the shot.

With Michael Ajayi on the bench with four fouls after picking up his third and fourth 7 seconds apart, Creighton pulled away. The third came on a mental lapse where he closed out too aggressively late in the shot clock and bailed the Jays out. The fourth came seconds later out of frustration. He’d spend the next six minutes on the bench as CU gradually built an 82-71 lead.

Upon checking back in, he resumed dominating the glass, grabbing two boards and scoring on a putback within one minute of returning.
The rebound that led to that putback might have been whistled for a foul by another officiating crew; they doubled down on their lapse in judgment with an equally bad call on the other end seconds later that fouled Ajayi out. It evened out, but the result was the same — Butler was without their engine for the final minutes. And as Nick Bahe correctly noted on FS1’s broadcast, it’s not the fifth foul that should be upsetting, it was the cheap third (and fourth) fouls that put him in that situation to begin with.

The Bulldogs had one last run in them, even without Ajayi. Evan Haywood, who’d missed his first six shots in the game, hit three 3’s in the final 21 seconds to make Creighton sweat — and make them hit their free throws. The Jays were 7-of-8 from the free throw line while Haywood was lighting the net on fire, and Graves was a perfect 4-of-4.

In the midst of all those free throws, Butler — who was out of timeouts — took advantage of the stoppages to get a quick huddle and discuss strategy. The first time they did it, the officiating crew made them break it up after Graves appeared to be trying to listen in. The second time, Ty Davis eavesdropped on the conversation and drew an angry response from one of Butler’s assistant coaches.

Which is hilarious, because if you’re standing on the actual court (not the sidelines) drawing up plays while the Jays are shooting free throws, then other Jays players have every right to stand nearby and listen. Is it breaking an unwritten rule? Sure. But so is stealing a free timeout.

“We were drawing an action, and the Creighton player put his head in the huddle,” Butler coach Thad Matta said. “Nothing major.”

“Our guys shouldn’t be down there,” McDermott added. “I talked to them (Ty Davis and Nik Graves) both. Obviously, we have a right to stand where we want to, but that’s not our style, and I told Coach Matta that. That can’t happen.”

Behind closed doors, McDermott’s reaction was likely a bit different. He coached a first ballot Hall of Fame Troll in Grant Gibbs after all, and that’s exactly the type of thing Gibbs would have done in that situation.

“Butler’s going to win a lot of games. That’s the best Butler team in six or seven years,” McDermott said. “They’re hard to play against, they’re hard to prepare for, and I thought they were good on film. I thought they were even better in person.”

Inside the Box:

Butler’s Michael Ajayi came in averaging 16.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks per game and was admirably called a “monster” by Greg McDermott ahead of the game. His own guy might have earned that term of endearment after this one, because Jasen Green won the head-to-head battle, no doubt.

“This is probably one of the most physical games I’ve played in my entire life,” Green said. “They’re really good at what they do, especially offensive rebounding. They have a lot of little things that they can do just to get you off balance and give them a better chance to get the ball. The entire game was just kind of a dogfight down there every single time, there was a lot of grabbing, a lot of pulling jerseys, a lot of stuff like that both ways. It was a super physical game and I’m just happy we came up with the victory.”

Ajayi had 16 points, 13 rebounds and two assists, but he was 4-of-12 inside the arc and had three turnovers. He had no steals and no blocks. And he fouled out with five minutes left.

Meanwhile, Green led all scorers with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting (and 1-of-2 from three point range) and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. He also had a career-high five assists versus just one turnover, grabbed six rebounds, plus a steal and a block in 37 minutes.

He made plays like this, yes:

But he also hit two clutch free throws with 12 seconds to go, in between Haywood’s second and third 3-pointers.

“I have this stupid shoulder brace, so I had to practice a lot more free throws with that on,” Green said, attributing his improvement at the line to extra practice. “Maybe I’m in my own head about the shoulder thing, but obviously I hit one 3 tonight, so that’s giving me a little boost of confidence to be able to shoot it with the pad on.” He noted the shoulder injury is a day-to-day issue and in the meantime, they’re working to strengthen it.

“He started at the three last year and then he started at four when Jackson got hurt, and now he’s starting at the five,” McDermott said. “He’s becoming more comfortable and the game is slowed down for him. When that happens and you get a little more confident, you’re not afraid to try to make a play. He made some great plays tonight. The pass to Nik on the and-one-three was incredible. He’d hit the three earlier so they rushed out at him. One dribble to get that defender leaning and he popped it to Nik. That’s a huge four-point play in that situation. I’m really proud of Jasen. He’s grown a lot during his time here, and he’s absolutely a joy to coach.”

Austin Swartz added 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting (including 5-of-10 from 3). He added five rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block with no turnovers in 32 minutes, continuing his ascension to being CU’s go-to scorer.

Isaac Traudt added 16 points on 6-of-12 from the field, including 4-of-10 from three-point range, in a career-high 35 minutes. Over the last five games, Traudt is averaging 13.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game while shooting 46% from the field and 38.5% from 3. He’s leading the team in three-pointers made and is second in three-point shooting percentage. He’s also shown an ability to score at the rim that was not present in his game the past two seasons.

“He’s done it some in practice too,” McDermott said of Traudt’s scoring ability inside the arc. “He’s been a little bit more aggressive off the dribble. In high school, Isaac handled the ball a lot when he was playing at Grand Island High and made good decisions with the basketball. He had a very nice play where he drove and dished tonight. He’s strong, he’s athletic, and they’re going to run him off the line with vengeance, so he’s got to be able to turn that into something, get some dominoes going for our team. Isaac’s playing great basketball, and his defensive improvement from the day he arrived on campus is absolutely incredible.”

And finally, while Josh Dix scored just nine points, he held Butler’s second leading scorer and primary perimeter threat, Finley Bizjack, to 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Ajayi and Bizjack, guarded primarily by Green and Dix, scored 26 points on 25 shots.

According to a tweet from Jacob Padilla, Creighton has now hit double-digit 3s and connected at a 37+% clip in five straight games. The Jays are up to 35.2% on the season (including their early season slump). They’re 24th in 3-point rate and 20th in percentage of points that come from beyond the arc.

Don’t look now, but Creighton’s rotation was essentially six players on Tuesday. Josh Dix played 37 minutes, Jasen Green played 36, Isaac Traudt played 35, Austin Swartz played 32 and Ty Davis played 11 with Nik Graves playing 29 backing him up. No one else played more than eight minutes. It’s hard to argue with the results, but McDermott is back to having a short bench.

And they’re 3-0 in the Big East for the first time since Doug McDermott’s senior season. Not only that, but per research from Rob Anderson, they’re now 85-35 in their last 120 Big East games.

During Creighton MBB’s time in the MVC from 1977-2013, its best record in any 120-game stretch in league play was 79-41 (done 4 different times from Jan. 2007 – Feb/March, 2013).

Highlights:

Press Conference:

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