Bluejay Beat:
Inside the Box Score:
CU did a lot of excellent things offensively in blowing out the Golden Eagles, but the story of this win begins and ends on the defensive end of the floor.
Coming into Wednesday night’s game, Marquette had 20 total points from the free throw line in their two losses — and had averaged 20.6 points per game from the free throw line in their 10 wins. Marquette attempted just eight free throws in this game, making seven. Needless to say, knowing that stat, CU’s ability to guard without fouling was a big key to the win.
Similarly, Marquette had a 63.0% effective field goal percentage in transition entering Wednesday’s game, but when forced to run offense out of a half court set, it dropped all the way to 49.0%. In counting stats, they had an average of 22.6 fastbreak points in their previous five games. Wednesday night? ZERO in the first half, and just five for the game. Stunning. Time after time, Creighton stopped Marquette’s initial action and forced them to attack in the half court, against a set defense. And when they did, possessions like this happened time after time — watch this 25 seconds of outstanding team defense where Marquette couldn’t get a single decent look at the basket, and try not to salivate.
And on the nation’s leading scorer, Markus Howard, Creighton’s defense — primarily Ty-Shon Alexander — frustrated him totally. He went the first 16 minutes of the game without a point, taking just two shots. He ended with 18 points, nearly nine fewer than his season average, and he scored 10 of those 18 in a burst in the final four minutes of the first half. Outside of that run, Alexander locked him down like few defenders have done in Howard’s historic career. Watch Alexander completely lock him down on this possession before ultimately stealing the ball, multiply it by 40 minutes, and that basically Alexander’s (and Howard’s) night in a nutshell:
“Last year, he scored 50 on us. The first thing in my mind was that I can’t allow him to do that in our building again. It was my job to stop him,” Alexander said of his motivation. “And it was our entire team’s job to make sure he had to work for whatever points he got. My guys did an excellent job of defending everybody on their team. I knew I was going to have to chase him around the floor, but that’s why I work hard to be in shape. That’s why we do conditioning drills. We take care of our bodies so we can do that and not get worn out.”
Alexander noted that he got a lot of help from Davion Mintz in the days leading up to the game, as the senior guard not only shared experience gained from guarding Howard a year ago, but also encouragement. And while Mintz isn’t healthy enough to play, which is why he opted to shut things down and take a medical redshirt, he is healthy enough to play Howard on the scout team.
“He did an excellent job of showing us how Markus Howard would play. How he’s going to shoot the tough shots he takes, and he was making them, too,” Alexander said. “And he told me I couldn’t put my head down. If he makes one, tell yourself he can’t get it next time. Stop him the next play.”
“I had the mindset that he cannot come in here and do what he did last year.”
Recap:
Two years ago in Omaha, Creighton led by as many as 16 before surrendering 49 second-half points to Marquette and losing 90-86. Last year in Omaha, the Jays led for 39 minutes and 18 seconds, by as many as 13 points, were ahead by five with 10 seconds to play — and by three with 0.8 seconds left. But a wild inbounds pass, a crazy three at the buzzer from Sam Houser to tie it, and 14 overtime points from Markus Howard led Marquette, not Creighton, to victory. For varying reasons, CU simply has not been able to put the Golden Eagles away, and so when they once again had a double-digit lead on Wednesday night, you could excuse people from feeling somewhat less than confident. History indicated a meltdown was probably imminent.
But history does not always repeat itself, especially when you learn from the mistakes of the past. And this Creighton team, hardened from Big East battles the last two seasons and playing with the bulldog tenacity of its unquestioned leader, Marcus Zegarowski, is not those Creighton teams. It’s something tougher, grittier, feistier, BETTER.
For 40 minutes, they dismantled a good Marquette team that possessed an All-American shooter, better height and length, more depth, and the confidence that comes from winning past battles. How? By insisting that the game be played the way they wanted it, with such tremendous execution that the visiting Golden Eagles had no choice but to pull their big men and go small themselves in a failed attempt to fight smallball fire with fire. Greg McDermott explained further in his postgame interview on 1620AM.
“Our guys fight hard. There’s a grittiness to this group. They understand who we have to be defensively if we’re going to be successful,” McDermott said. “We have to fight for every 50/50 ball. We have to dive on the floor for loose balls. We got to a point tonight where Marquette took all of their bigs out, and I told the guys that’s quite a compliment to you. They’re got a three-headed monster over there and they decide not to play them.”
The toughness and grittiness wasn’t just evident on the defensive end. The “Let It Fly” Jays drove the ball straight at Marquette, and finished at the rim. From Damien Jefferson:
To Mitch Ballock:
And to Marcus Zegarowski:
They led 22-17 midway through the half when Marquette’s Ed Morrow threw a fit after missing a contested layup in transition, and then put Kelvin Jones in a headlock and threw him into the ground in frustration.
The technical foul played a big part in Creighton pushing the lead into double digits — Alexander hit the two free throws, and then buried a three on the next possession after a steal from Shereef Mitchell.
Ballock’s step-back three moments later grew the lead to 30-20, and except for a few brief moments the Jays’ lead was in double digits the rest of the night.
Morrow wasn’t done with his attempts to single-handedly bring back the bruising 1980s Big East, though. With four minutes to go in the half, Zegarowski drove to the rim and was the recipient of an old-fashioned hard foul that ended with the back of his head breaking his fall to the court. The ‘thump’ was a frightening sound. There were audible gasps from the sold-out crowd, followed by stone-cold silence. It looked really bad. Replays looked worse. But after a few moments talking to trainer Ben McNair and Greg McDermott, the coach began to laugh and Zegarowski ran off the floor. He returned shortly thereafter to shoot (and make) the free throw, no worse for wear. So what was the laughter about?
“After he landed on the floor, Marcus wouldn’t open his eyes,” McDermott said in his postgame radio interview. “Ben (McNair) started running him through the concussion questions. What’s your number? 11. Where are you from? Massachusetts. And then I said, who’s your favorite coach? And he said, ‘Coach Mac’. I said, ‘You’re good. Let’s go!'”
Laughing as he recalled the moment, McDermott continued with more than a touch of sarcasm in his voice. “That’s an important thing to make sure they’re thinking clearly. I thought for sure he was going to say Bill Belichick. I might have benched him for the rest of the game if he had!”
Even as brilliant as Alexander was in guarding Markus Howard, he’s too good to hold down the entire night, and with the Jays up 39-26 the All-American scored 10 straight points. But CU had an answer for every one of them, and led 48-38 at the half thanks to plays like this — a long three from Ballock, the result of a rebound by Denzel Mahoney that created a second-chance opportunity:
And with how good they are, and with their history in this building, you knew there was a second half run coming from Marquette. It happened almost immediately. The Golden Eagles began on a 6-1 run, cutting the lead to 50-44 in less than 90 seconds. The tension in the building was palpable — despite the great first half, here was another Marquette second half run to ruin the party. And then Mitch Ballock led a fastbreak, and found Damien Jefferson for a layup.
And then Ballock grabbed an offensive rebound, kicked it out to Zegarowski, and he nailed a three.
And then Ballock got three points of his own, with this trifecta off a ball screen:
Just like that, it was 58-46 Creighton. They’d go on to make seven of nine shots in a ruthless stretch of basketball after Marquette had cut the lead to six, and when head coach Steve Wojciechowski called for timeout to regroup following two consecutive steals, it was too late — CU led by 20, 70-50.
The rout was on, and Creighton never took their foot off the gas. They built a lead of as many as 26 (!) points, and when they emptied the bench with three minutes left, it was 92-66 Bluejays.
There were a lot of star performances in the Jays’ huge win. Mitch Ballock led all scorers with 24, going 9-of-16 overall and 5-of-9 from three point range. He had four rebounds, three assists, and a block in 35 minutes, and consistently was able to put the ball on the floor to drive to the rim when Marquette’s defense tried to take away space for him to take three-pointers.
“Mitch really worked hard on finishing at the rim in the offseason,” McDermott noted. “We worked a lot on ‘wrong foot, wrong hand’ drills, practicing creative finishes. And he’s really gotten better at it. The fact that he’s such a great three-point shooter, the opportunity to drive is going to present itself. He’s gotten so good at it, and it wasn’t something he was doing when he got here.”
Similarly, Damien Jefferson scored 17 points, with drives to the basket and layups in the paint from a player who appears to be finally fully healthy after an injury-plagued season a year ago. Denzel Mahoney scored 10 by doing damage in the paint, too. He drew two fouls that led to four free throws, and had two offensive rebounds.
Inside, Christian Bishop and Kelvin Jones didn’t have huge numbers in the box score but the little things that they executed are what created opportunities for everyone else.
“What they do gets lost in our offense,” McDermott explained. “Marquette’s a great shot-blocking team because they always have a big around the basket. Our bigs are always on the move. So their bigs have to be consumed with that movement and that ball-screen, and then the ball-screen that comes on the other side, and then they’re not there to protect the rim. While Christian and Kelvin and Denzel’s numbers aren’t gaudy, we get what we get because of what they do.”
Zegarowski had a “quiet” 16 points, with eight rebounds and six assists in 30 minutes. Quiet by his standards, anyway. But if it wasn’t noticeable before, it’s crystal clear now — this is Zegarowski’s team, and the entire roster has taken on his fiery, tenacious, east coast tough mentality.
“I promise I will never take Marcus Zegarowski for granted. And our fans should never take him for granted either,” McDermott said afterward. “He’s a special, special player and a special kid and a great leader. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
And that brings us to Ty-Shon Alexander, who had the finest game of his Bluejay career with a virtuoso performance on both ends of the floor. As the primary defender on Markus Howard, he held him to 18 points, well below his nation-leading average of 26.3 per game. And somehow he had enough energy left to get 21 himself, with eight rebounds and six steals. Alexander’s points came in a variety of ways, from three-pointers to mid-range jumpers to drives into the paint.
“This was the best game Ty-Shon has played on both ends since he’s been here,” McDermott said of him. “And I told him, it’s one thing to have to guard Markus Howard and the effort it takes to do that. It’s another thing to do that and also be as efficient on the offensive end as he was. He made good decisions, he didn’t turn it over the entire game, he was incredible. Ty-Shon was unbelievable.”