Inside the Box:
Creighton’s big three of Mitch Ballock, Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski were absolutely massive on a night where they had to be nothing short of that. They combined for 54 of the team’s 89 points, and were a combined 17-of-30 from the floor and 7-of-16 from three-point range. They grabbed 17 combined rebounds. And Alexander in particular simply put his head down and drove straight to the rim to force the issue. He was 13-of-15 from the line.
“They were really stretched out to our shooters and the lane was open,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “And Ty-Shon attacked. That was good to see. And we need more of that because he doesn’t miss very many free throws when he gets there.”
Bluejay Beat Podcast:
Recap:
Creighton had seven scholarship players healthy and cleared to play on Friday night, as Kelvin Jones’ foot injury kept him out for a second straight game and Davion Mintz’ high ankle sprain swelled up after two practices this week. They’d hoped to get one or both back for this game, but learned before tipoff that both would be a no-go.
Their depleted roster has left them with little margin for error all season long, and on Friday night against UTRGV we saw first-hand what happens when the worst-case scenario occurs. That it happened on Friday the 13th made for gallows humor.
Christian Bishop, their only healthy scholarship player taller than 6’7″, picked up two early fouls. Damien Jefferson, just 6’5″ but with enough length to play inside, went down with a strained calf early in the game on this acrobatic shot and would miss the rest of the game.
Without Jones, that left the Jays scrambling to cover the middle. And when Shereef Mitchell picked up his second foul in the first half, too, sending him to the bench next to Bishop, it was more than just the middle that was a problem. They only had four scholarship players that they felt comfortable rolling with.
So 6’8″ freshman walk-on Nic Zeil saw extended playing time with the game very much in doubt — he’d played 12 minutes all season, and played 13 on Friday. Mitch Ballock played center. Jalen Windham, who has played sparingly as a true freshman and is primarily a perimeter player at this stage of his career, was asked to set ball screens for probably the first time in his life. The lineups were funky and bizarre, with combinations of players who hadn’t practiced together much less played together, and playing in positions and roles they weren’t accustomed to. Greg McDermott saw the deer-in-the-headlights look from Zeil and Windham and took advantage of free throw attempts as free timeout opportunities to draw up plays quickly and offer encouragement.
It was a mess.
“In today’s game, you just have to be a basketball player,” Ballock said. “I don’t really categorize myself as a guard, or a two or a three, and I’ve been playing the four a lot this year and last year. I just consider myself a basketball player. Whatever the team needs, I’m here for.”
That attitude carried the Jays through a strange game, and led to their largest margin of victory all season in a game that could have gone sideways in a hurry.
“Man, there’s been some strange happenings so far this year,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “A lot of credit has to go to Mitch, Ty-Shon, and Marcus — they’ve just been rocks for us.”
The Jays’ big three were humongous in this game, and especially over the final eight minutes of the first half as they took control of both the game and the team in the absence of almost every other regular player. They stepped up defensively to hold UTRGV to 4-of-13 shooting during that span. And they used a 14-4 run to turn a 31-20 lead into a 45-24 blowout at the end of the half.
How did they do it? By going back to basics. UTRGV opted not to match Creighton’s five–guard lineup with a small lineup of their own, so the Jays ran Windham into ballscreens to give Ballock and Ty-Shon Alexander space to operate. And because UTRGV was committed to not leaving CU’s shooters open, that opened up driving lanes for Marcus Zegarowski.
“Jalen’s probably never set a ball screen in his life, and tonight he was setting one every possession,” McDermott said. “When you get in a situation like that you can’t over-complicate things. You make it as simple as possible, try to get space, try to get the ball moving, and we got a few in transition too.”
Some of it looked familiar, like Ballock and Alexander draining long threes:
Some of it was unconventional, like Alexander taking the ball to the rack and drawing foul after foul — he drew five fouls and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the first half alone. His ten made free throws in a half were the most since Kyle Korver made ten against Grambling State in 2001.
And some of it was just letting players make plays, like Zegarowski creating space with a ball-fake and stepping back for a long three at the buzzer.
“The fact that we were able to stretch the lead with that group was so important,” McDermott said. “I was hoping to limp along to halftime and regroup. I considered going back to Christian when they cut the lead to 12, and we decided if they got it to 10 he’d go back in. Then we stretched the lead and were able to protect him.”
“It’s one thing to play a guy with two fouls who normally isn’t foul prone. It’s a different decision when it’s a guy hasn’t proven to you that he can play foul free. You really have to think before throwing him back out there when the game is still in the balance. Christian’s got to get better at understanding, when he has two fouls he has to be really careful not to get the next one. He isn’t there yet. But he’ll get there.”
Bishop’s foul trouble meant 13 minutes for Zeil, who had two rebounds and made 3-of-4 from the line. Mitchell’s foul trouble meant 22 minutes for Windham, who had by far his biggest impact on a game in his short time on the Hilltop with seven points, two rebounds, a steal and an assist. It also meant 24 minutes for Jett Canfield, who scored four points with two assists and two steals. Mostly what it meant was Ballock, Alexander and Zegarowski shouldering the load offensively and encouraging whichever two teammates were on the floor with them at any given moment to be in the right position defensively.
“We’ve got different guys out there playing with them, looking for advice, because they’ve never played that position,” McDermott said. “Look at a guy like Nic Zeil who hasn’t really played, and probably wasn’t planning on playing tonight. He got thrown out there in meaningful minutes, and made a couple of mistakes but our big three were quick to be with him. They talked to him, encouraged him, told him ‘You’re good. Get the next play. You’re fine.’ When you have leadership like that, and you’re a guy like Nic who’s probably half scared to death, when Mitch and Marcus and Ty taps you on the head and says you’re good, you’re gonna give ’em everything you’ve got the next play.”
The lead grew as the second half commenced, and a 12-2 run provided the knockout blow — it made the score 64-33 with 11:49 to go. Their big three were playing with a level of engagement that permeated the entire team. As part of that run, Ballock threw a bounce pass in the lane to Alexander for this ridiculous and-one, then high-stepped a celebration halfway down the court.
Moments later, they forced a traveling violation and Ballock celebrated so vociferously that one of the officials gave him a warning in lieu of a technical foul. And then Alexander punished the rim on a breakaway dunk to put the exclamation point on a big night.