Ed. Note: Nine inches of snow on top of what we already had, 50 MPH wind gusts and a power outage are to blame for the late publishing of this edition of WBR’s Morning After. Our apologies!
Key Stats:
The Jays hit 14 3-pointers, shot 51.8 percent and recorded 20 assists on 29 makes. They grabbed a rebound on 26 of Georgetown’s 34 missed shots (and on one of their three missed free throws), mostly denying the Hoyas second-chance opportunities.
Standout Performance:
Martin Krampelj was dominant, logging a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. And he was a big reason why the Hoyas’ Jessie Govan had a frustrating afternoon en route to nine points and three rebounds — just the third time all season he’s failed to score in double figures. The Jays double teamed him when he caught the ball on the block, and they rotated help-side defenders to make his jumpers more difficult. But the lions’ share of the credit for Govan’s lack of impact offensively goes to Krampelj.
The Jays’ big man also deserves credit for something he’s been consistently good at all year, but that was especially noticeable on Sunday — his hedging on ball screens away from the basket prevented the Hoyas’ guards from driving into the paint, forcing them to settle for jumpers or into passing it to others for lower-percentage shots.
“What we ask Martin to do defensively is so difficult,” Greg McDermott said in his postgame radio interview. “To be in the ball screen defense that he is, then sprint back to the rim, and then do it again, and then also run the floor offensively is a lot to ask — and he played terrific. Govan is one of the best frontline players in our league, and he gets nine and three and Martin gets 22 and 10.”
Kaleb Joseph scored a career-high 16 points — including eight in a 10-0 first half run that erased a one-point Georgetown lead for good. For the second straight game, one of Creighton’s senior transfers was the difference.
“Besides the baskets that Kaleb made, I thought he made a lot of really good plays”, McDermott said. “There were a few times where he penetrated and made the right read, and then they flew at that guy and he made a different pass for an open shot. While it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, that doesn’t happen without Kaleb making it happen.”
Joseph said the biggest key to his success is doing everything he can to be a good teammate, because “when you do that, it takes your ego out of the equation.” He didn’t take a single shot at DePaul on Wednesday, choosing not to force the issue when his teammates had better opportunities to score. That takes a selflessness that rubs off on everyone around them.
“When you’re a senior who hasn’t been on the team for four seasons at Creighton, like Connor and I, the biggest leadership impact you can make is off the floor,” Joseph said on the postgame radio show. “The young guys in particular pay attention to how you go about your business. They pay attention to how you handle adversity. If you do it the right way, those young guys gravitate toward you. They want to listen, they want to ask questions, and then it’s up to us to be that leader to them.”
“He and Connor are in a tough spot,” McDermott commented. “They’re seniors, they transferred in here and had expectations for what would happen and it maybe hasn’t gone that way. But to their credit they’ve never hung their heads, they’ve never pointed fingers, they’ve been a very positive locker room presence for this young group. And they’ve set a shining example of why you keep yourself ready, why you don’t hang your head, why you don’t complain, and why you don’t point fingers — because when your number is called, you have to be ready. We don’t win against DePaul without Connor. We don’t win today without Kaleb. What a great example for our young players.”
Recap:
In front of a smaller-than-usual crowd thanks to an intense winter blizzard that smacked into the Omaha metro at the same time the game was being played, Creighton scored on three of their first four possessions to grab an 8-0 lead. A three by Davion Mintz started the scoring, followed by a three from Mitch Ballock, and then Mintz threw down the HAMMER to force Patrick Ewing into an early timeout:
Three more treys — this time from Marcus Zegarowski, Ty-Shon Alexander and another from Mintz — kept Georgetown at bay.
Despite that flurry of long balls, Georgetown took their only lead of the day, 22-21, after an 8-2 run with 7:36 to play. It coincided with Krampelj taking a quick breather; perhaps not coincidentally, Georgetown’s big men were mostly responsible for the points in the quick burst as Trey Mourning stuck a jumper and Jessie Govan broke open for a three pointer. When Greg Malinowski capped it with a three to give Georgetown the lead, Greg McDermott called for timeout to regroup.
They answered with a 10-0 run to reclaim the lead for good, with senior Kaleb Joseph scoring eight of the 10 points. First, he hit a short jumper to put the Jays back ahead 23-22. Then he nailed a three to make it 26-22. And following a layup from Alexander, he took advantage of a breakdown defensively to make a wide-open three that gave CU a 31-22 lead.
It forced Ewing into another timeout — he used all but one of his team’s timeouts for the game before the first half had ended — but it made little difference. Creighton’s ball movement and spacing, and their ability to dictate tempo, bothered the Hoyas tremendously.
“We were getting them spaced out, we were attacking gaps, we were getting into the paint, and we got easy looks,” Joseph said in the press conference.
Ewing agreed with that assessment, adding, “They’re a unique team. They spread you out and they space the floor. They get backdoor cuts, they hit 3s. You have to help and then they skip the ball to the weakside for 3s.”
And after Georgetown ended the first half with six straight points to cut what had been a 12-point deficit in half, Creighton put them away in the opening minutes of the second. A 13-1 blitz out of the locker room gave Creighton a 53-35 lead after five minutes, and though the Hoyas tried to mount a comeback, CU led by double digits the rest of the way except for a brief 20-second stretch midway through the half.
The decisive run included a three from Mitch Ballock:
A three by Kramplej:
And a three by Zegarowski that touched every part of the rim:
Georgetown’s last gasp came midway through the half, after they had cut CU’s 18-point lead down to nine. Govan caught the ball on the block and was backing down Krampelj near the rim. His shot attempt was blocked by Ballock, who flew in from behind to swat it away and start a fast break that ended with Joseph scoring on a layup. Georgetown was never as close again.
After a team-wide shooting slump, Creighton busted out in a big way to win at DePaul on Wednesday, and continued to shoot well to win their second straight. They now get eight days off to think about 0.8 seconds — the difference between a win over Marquette and a loss — before the rematch in Milwaukee next Sunday afternoon. A historically weak bubble means that Creighton is *still* hanging around the periphery of serious at-large contention, with computer metrics that look better with each passing day.
The Jays jumped from 62 to 53 in the NET rating, picked up a Quadrant 2 victory for winning at DePaul and a Quadrant 1 win over Georgetown, and its road wins over Providence and Georgetown moved to Quadrant 1 wins thanks to the Friars win vs. St. John’s and the Hoyas win vs. Villanova.
It remains a long shot but after the way January ended and February began, the fact that they have a shot at all is crazy. With a win at Marquette to avenge “0.8”, suddenly an NCAA Tourney berth might be more than just a crazy possibility. Unfortunately their road at the Big East Tournament probably got a lot tougher on Sunday, as Xavier’s win over Villanova makes it harder for Creighton to avoid the Wednesday play-in round.
If nothing else, the close to their season is a lot more interesting than it appeared it would be one week ago, and with every additional win they pick up, the possibilities for what comes next become more and more interesting.