After three quiet games, relatively speaking, Creighton made a concerted effort to get the ball inside to Ryan Kalkbrenner early and often on Saturday. He scored their first six points, and eight of their first 11, as the Jays built a 17-4 lead less than eight minutes in.
“We always try to have an emphasis on getting the ball in the interior early. Some teams just try to take that away so much, and it doesn’t exactly happen,” Kalkbrenner said on the postgame radio show. “But I mean, at the end of the day, I just want a good shot for our team. So if they’re helping on me and we get a great shot, that’s fine. Today they were letting me have a few shots. So we took advantage of that and I think it led to getting some good shots later on when they had to help off their man on me.”
The points came in a variety of ways, showcasing why Creighton’s first three opponents expended so much energy defensively to take him away. The highlight was this one, where he blocked a shot defensively, corralled the rebound, kicked the ball to Baylor Scheierman — and then sprinted down the floor, beating nearly everyone to the other end. He was rewarded with a pass from Scheierman that led him straight to the rim, where he scored and drew a foul.
Seven-footers who can block that shot without fouling and control the block enough to get their own rebound? Uncommon. Seven-footers whose conditioning and athleticism is good enough to beat everyone up the court on the fast break? Rare. In today’s college game, it might be unique. It’s an astonishing play, really.
“It’s awesome playing with guards like Trey and Steven and Baylor. I mean, they’re so talented, so unselfish. Those three being the guards for this team is awesome,” Kalkbrenner said. “I know that if I get out there and run, they’re going to reward me for running out there.”
Scheierman noted on the postgame show that with Kalkbrenner running to the rim, and great shooters spreading the floor, running the fastbreak is like playing quarterback.
“You’re reading the defense. It’s kind of the same concepts as football, where you’re looking up to see who’s up the floor for your team and who’s up the floor for the defensive team,” Scheierman said. “Who’s low to the ball, who’s not low to the ball, and where are their eyes at? You try to gain the mismatch and deliver the ball.”
In building a 20-point halftime lead, Creighton once again rained in threes — including this long one from Trey Alexander, where he drew a foul and made the free throw for a four-point play.
Still holding most of that lead with 9:42 left at 61-44, Creighton scored 20 straight points — while giving up zero on defense — over a six-minute burst to open up an 81-44 lead. Kalkbrenner got it started with a dunk off a lob pass from Steven Ashworth:
“I know Steven’s going to throw the lob if it’s open,” Kalkbrenner said of that dunk, one of the rare lob passes that has been open through four games. “The defense takes me away so much on that play, but I know if I roll and I don’t get the ball, we get a good shot. I’m happy either way. So I mean, that makes it easy to keep running the pick-and-roll even when the flip up is not there necessarily for me. We’re getting a great shot no matter what.”
And then Ashworth delivered another assist, this time finding Scheierman for a short jumper. A block by Kalkbrenner fueled a transition jumper from Scheierman, and then Kalkbrenner scored the next trip down the court on a layup. When Scheierman connected on a three moments later, it was nine straight points for those two Bluejays — and then the rest of the team followed suit. Mason Miller drained a three. Alexander drained one. Scheierman scored in transition. And then Isaac Traudt hit a three, capping a 20-0 run.
With the win, Creighton completed a perfect 4-0 homestand to start the season, and heads to Kansas City for two games over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“This was a lot of fun, starting a new season with a new team to get to play our first four games in front of Bluejay Nation,” Scheierman said. “But we’re really looking forward to going on the road, and obviously it’s Kansas City, so I’m sure we’ll have a lot of Bluejay fans there anyway. We’re just looking forward to continuing to build momentum.”
Inside the Box:
If it’s possible to feel underwhelmed by a 32-point win where the Jays led for nearly 38 minutes, and by double digits for 33, Saturday night would be it. Outside of two big runs — a 13-2 run early in the game, and a 20-0 run in the second half — they seemingly played on cruise control most of the night.
And yet, statistically, they had 21 assists on 29 made baskets, they turned it over just seven times, and they made 35% of their three-point shots. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in 27 minutes. Baylor Scheierman had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Trey Alexander once again flirted with a traditional triple-double, finishing with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. All of that and a 32 point win, and the prevailing feeling of fans leaving CHI Health Center afterward was “meh.” So what gives?
Outside of those two big runs, #8 Creighton and a rebuilding Texas Southern team played basically even. They started the game with a 17-4 spurt, and then for the rest of the first half, CU outscored them by just seven, 30-23.
Over the first 10 minutes of the second half, Texas Southern actually outscored the Jays 17-14, cutting the lead to 17. Over that stretch, Creighton shot a putrid 2-of-11 from three-point range. But the Jays’ 20-0 run immediately followed, turning a 61-44 game into a 81-44 blowout in just over six minutes. All of that resulted in a feeling that the Jays floored the gas pedal twice when pushed by the Tigers — and set the cruise control slightly above the speed limit the rest of the night.
“Yeah, I mean, we’re sharing the basketball, and there’s gonna be nights you miss some shots,” Greg McDermott said. “And we missed some shots tonight. Some pretty good shots, a lot of them that we’ll live with, but I was happy that we continue to share it. Texas Southern is not an easy team to play against. They’re just…they kind of grind you defensively and make the possessions long. So, they’re hard to get away from, and, you know, we finally got that big run on them in the second half to create some separation.”
Kalkbrenner’s double-double was the result of the team making a bigger effort to get him touches in the paint, but it was also the result of Kalkbrenner being more aggressive in hunting rebounds. McDermott noted that he’s watched a lot of film with Kalkbrenner this week, and made a particular emphasis on rebounding.
“He’s so content to just block out, make sure his man doesn’t get the rebound, and then let one of his teammates’ chase it down,” McDermott said. “I thought tonight, he chased the ball a little bit better and that’s something that we’ve wanted to see an improvement on. He’s wanted to improve upon and it, too, and it was good to see it happen tonight.”
Their 40 three-point shot attempts tie a program record for most threes in a single game, and it’s only natural to feel like they settled for too many of them. McDermott doesn’t agree.
“Texas Southern really helps on penetration when it goes inside. They really collapse to the ball. So, we took what they gave us,” he said.
