Key Stats:
Over the last seven games entering Sunday’s battle at Marquette, Creighton’s defense had held opponents to 0.983 points per possession, a marked improvement over the first eight league games when they were giving up 1.15 points per possession. They haven’t allowed an opponent to shoot better than 50% from the floor in over a month — St. John’s was the last to do it on January 30. They’ve been a top-15 team nationally in defensive efficiency over that span according to Bart Torvik’s data:
Would the improvements we’ve witnessed since then hold up against the Big East’s best offensive attack, belonging to the league’s first place team, on the road?
On Sunday in Milwaukee, the answer from the Creighton Bluejays was a definitive, and resounding, YES.
They held Marquette to 60 points in a 70 possession game, for a points per possession mark of — gasp — 0.85. They forced more turnovers (22) than they made field goals (21). They held the league’s best three-point shooting team to just 34% (8-of-23) from behind the arc. They frustrated everyone not named Markus Howard for Marquette, and did a decent job of frustrating him at times, too. Howard was 11-of-21 shooting; the rest of the team combined to go 10-of-25.
“The biggest change we’ve made defensively is that every single one of us looked in the mirror and said if we want to play late in March, we have to get better. And we have to do it quick,” Mitch Ballock said on the postgame radio show. “Working with the coaches, in particular Coach Lusk, we’ve done that. He’s really got us bought into the concept of team defense. And now we’ve seen we can have success doing that, like we had today.”
Everywhere you look on the stat sheet after this one, there’s evidence of Creighton’s aggressiveness, hustle, determination and scrappiness. The 15 steals are a big one, obviously, but more impressive because all five starters had at least one steal — and six of the eight players who saw double-digit minutes had at least one. It was a team-wide effort. They also had 10 offensive rebounds — securing a second chance on nearly one-third of their missed shots.
Recap:
Martin Krampelj started the scoring on Sunday afternoon with this dunk:
And then a series of circus passes led to their second basket:
And after 90 seconds, you might have thought we were in store for a very different game than the one we wound up watching. Instead, the story was Creighton’s defense, which set the tone from the moment the ball was tipped on Sunday, and never relented. They forced a turnover on five of Marquette’s first six possessions, including a pair of steals by Davion Mintz, and built an 8-2 lead.
They jumped into passing lanes, double-teamed and collapsed on drivers that often resulted in poorly thrown passes, and had active hands — oh, did they have active hands. Krampelj continued to make plays on offense, including this poster dunk:
But it felt as though they were missing an opportunity to build a bigger lead — they weren’t turning the turnovers into points, and despite holding Markus Howard scoreless for the first eight minutes of the game (and allowing him to attempt just two shots) you knew it was only a matter of time.
It was. He eventually got hot and scored 21 straight points for his team, the last of them giving the Golden Eagles their first lead at 30-29. A three-point play from Joey Hauser gave MU a 33-29 halftime advantage, and Creighton fans could have been forgiven for feeling like they’d seen this show before. After leading for 18 minutes, their opponent used a run late in the half to take the lead; how the second half started would be critical.
The Jays fell behind 39-34 over the first four minutes, and the crowd at the Fiserv Forum was rocking as #10 Marquette seemed poised to take control of the game. That critical start to the half was going badly for the Bluejays. And then a funny thing happened: Creighton scored six straight points created by their defense to re-take the lead.
Kaleb Joseph grabbed a rebound in traffic after a missed three by Howard, dribbled the length of the floor, and scored at the rim in transition. Then Mitch Ballock turned over Sacar Anim, took the ball to the other end, and also scored at the rim. And after another defensive stop, Krampelj threw down a dunk to give CU a 40-39 lead.
The lead would seesaw back-and-forth from there. Anim hit a three to give Marquette back the lead 42-40. Ballock answered with a three to put CU ahead 43-42. Howard tied the game at 44, and Krampelj un-tied it with a dunk immediately afterward. With the score knotted at 48, Marquette took their final lead when Howard came up with a steal and found Sam Hauser in transition for a three.
Krampelj answered by taking the ball coast to coast for a layup, thanks to a nifty Euro-step:
Howard nailed a three a couple of possessions later to put his team ahead 54-50, shuffling back and forth so quickly he made Zegarowski look like he was on ice skates. The home crowd gasped as Howard rose up with his defender lying on the ground, and exploded when the ball fell threw the hoop.
A few weeks ago, that shot would probably have broken Creighton’s backs. But that version of the Bluejays seems like it’s from a different season, fading into the rearview mirror as a tougher, grittier version of the Bluejays has emerged — one hardened by all those close losses rather than broken by them.
This version calmly mounted a comeback. And it was once again Krampelj who answered, as this time he stole the ball from Joey Hauser on the perimeter, and raced downcourt for a breakaway dunk:
A pair of free throws by Ty-Shon Alexander tied the game at 54, and then Davion Mintz’ active hands tipped away Joey Hauser’s pass intended for Howard — and into the hands of Alexander instead. He took the ball all the way to the other end for a layup, and the lead, with just over three minutes to go:
Two more free throws, this time from Mintz, extended the lead to 58-54. Then Mintz once again poked away the ball, this time to Zegarowski who took the ball to the rim for a layup that capped a 10-0 run:
This version of the Bluejays turned a 54-50 deficit into a 66-60 final score over the last 5:25. They forced six turnovers over the final five minutes. They made six of eight at the free throw line over the final minutes. They would be unrecognizable if you hadn’t seen them play since late January. They’re barely recognizable even if you have — the growth curve has been that quick, and that immense.
“Those plays late, we just played with a lot of grit and got after them on the defensive end,” Ballock said. “I think that was huge.”
That word — grit — came up a lot following the win. Ballock mentioned it. McDermott mentioned it. And why not? Forcing a turnover on 33% of your opponent’s possessions and beating them with defense makes that the perfect word to describe the win.
“I’m not sure that six weeks ago we could have won a game like this,” Greg McDermott said. “We won a game with grit and toughness. We knocked balls loose and then went and chased them down. We got stops. We got rebounds. And when the game was on the line, we turned those turnovers into layups — tough layups — on the other end. I’m so proud of the team. They’ve stuck with it, they’ve stuck with each other, and we’re getting better. That’s the most important thing.”
Getting better? You bet they are. And they’re heading into the season’s final week undoubtably playing their best basketball of the season.
“I’ve been consistent with my message, I think,” McDermott continued. “This team is going to continue to improve, not only this year but into the future. We’re going to have this group together for awhile. And we’re making strides — we’re not perfect yet, but we’re so much better than we were six weeks ago, or even two weeks ago.”
Marquette and Villanova are tied in the loss column heading into the final week atop the Big East standings. Two games separate everyone else. Xavier and Georgetown are 8-8; St. John’s, Creighton and Seton Hall are 6-9; Butler, Providence and DePaul are 6-10. The Bluejays, in other words, are just one game out of third place.
And with a resume that now includes a marquee win on top of the ridiculous strength of schedule? The next 14 days between now and Selection Sunday will be VERY interesting.
