In three games versus Villanova this season, the Wildcats were successful in taking Creighton out of their game all three times. The Jays’ have not been a great three-point shooting team, yet against Villanova they attempted 76 of them. In the game they won in Omaha, they made a respectable number (9-of-23, 39.1%). In the loss in Philadelphia and in the Big East Tournament championship game, not so much.
In Philly, they were 3-of-24. Saturday night, they were 3-of-29 (10.3%), tied for their second-fewest makes of the season with the earlier loss to Villanova (and behind the grisly 1-of-19 performance against Kennesaw State on November 11, and the 2-of-22 line at Butler). Jay Wright’s defense goaded them into taking shots they didn’t want to take by taking away the ones they wanted in the paint — half of their shots were threes.
Fortunately for the Bluejays, their defense kept them in the game, as it has all season long in games where their offense struggled. Villanova was an uncharacteristically poor 8-of-32 from three-point range themselves (25.0%). The halftime score of 19-18 told the story of a game full of ugly shots; while FOX’s Gus Johnson blamed it on Steph Curry and analytics in a bizarre rant, this was a combination of tired legs for two teams playing their third game in three days, and good disciplined defense from two teams who know each other extremely well.
Wright was cagey when asked about the Jays’ defensive plan.
“I don’t want to tell you what they did, because we’ve still got to play some games,” he told the media after the game. “But I’ll tell you, and Connecticut did some things that they — I think that this league has the best coaches in the country because they don’t just get one-and-done guys and rely on talent. They get great players but they know they’ve got to coach, too. And they have great schemes.
Connecticut picked up on how St. John’s defended us, and did some things. Then Creighton looked at some of the things Connecticut did and did it too. And I don’t want to talk about it, but you could see it. It worked. But we found a way and we’ve got to go back and we have work to do to prepare for those situations.”
With 10:02 to play, the Wildcats led 36-29 and looked to be pulling away. The Jays dug deep and unleashed a 14-3 run over the next five minutes to take a 43-39 lead with 5:28 left. It began, as their big runs did all weekend in NYC, with Arthur Kaluma — he made back-to-back shots at the rim to cut the deficit to 36-33, and then assisted on a three-pointer by Trey Alexander by kicking it out after an offensive rebound.
Alexander found Alex O’Connell in the corner on the break a minute later, and after draining a three-pointer CU had the lead 41-39.
A steal by O’Connell and a dunk from Ryan Kalkbrenner pushed that lead to 43-39 and forced a timeout by Jay Wright. But in the game’s final four minutes, Villanova had Collin Gillespie and Creighton did not.
He hit a pair of free throws to cut the Jays’ lead to 43-41. He assisted on a three by Caleb Daniels to erase that lead and make it 44-43 Wildcats. And then in a span of 44 seconds, he buried a pair of three-point daggers to put them ahead 50-45.
After going scoreless in the first half with Alexander harassing him, he scored 17 in the second half thanks to halftime adjustments that got him switched onto other defenders — and in the final minutes, saw him guarded by Kalkbrenner of all people.
It was a disappointing end to their run in NYC, but it isn’t the end of their season. Greg McDermott spoke of his team’s journey afterward.
“I’m so proud of this group for how much they’ve grown. First game of the season, November 9th, November 10th, we were down eight to ten points to Arkansas-Pine Bluff at halftime. And from November 10th to March 10th, we’re sitting here and it’s a tied game with Villanova in the Big East championship team with a two and a half minutes to go.
My message all season has been about process. We had a bunch of young guys, and new guys who didn’t know each other. We’ve got to lose ourselves in the process and hopefully we’ll grow in that process that the results will come. And they have.
And I know they’re disappointed. You can see the disappointment all over the big fella’s face. But this isn’t the end. This is just the beginning. We have good stuff awaiting us next week. On November 10th at halftime in that locker room when we’re talking about finding a way to get back into the game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff we probably weren’t thinking that was possible.”
Sunday night, they learned where they’re headed in next week’s NCAA Tournament — as a 9 seed in Dallas/Fort Worth, taking on San Diego State. The Aztecs are a defense-first team, much like the ones they battled in the Big East, but taken to the extreme. They have the #2 adjusted defensive efficiency in the country according to KenPom, and will present a terrific challenge.