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Morning After: Nik Graves Scores 17 Points in 2:55, Creighton Handles Marquette to Move to 2-0 in Big East

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[Box Score]

Three days after burying Xavier with a 25-4 run, Creighton did the same to Marquette, though it was slightly bigger (25-2 this time) and significantly faster (in 3:32, rather than 7:55). Nik Graves scored 17 of their 25 points in the run, including an Ethan Wragge-esque spurt where he made three 3’s in 40 seconds, each more ridiculous than the last.

But before all that, Marquette jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first four minutes, as the Jays had more turnovers (4) than shot attempts (3). Ty Davis had three of those four turnovers, struggling mightily against the Golden Eagles’ pressure. The fourth? A shot clock violation on the first possession of the game.

Enter Graves. Checking in at the first media timeout, he calmed the storm merely by getting the ball across half-court in less than eight or nine seconds each time up the floor. Austin Swartz got them on the board with a layup, Josh Dix hit two straight mid-range jumpers, and Isaac Traudt buried a three. Down 15-9, the Jays embarked on the game-changing run.

Graves was the catalyst, finding Dix in transition for a three that made it 15-12.

Then he made two straight floaters in the lane, giving CU their first lead. They’d never trail again.

But the avalanche was just getting started. Owen Freeman tipped in a missed shot. Graves buried a three to make it 21-15 and forced Shaka Smart into a timeout. After Jasen Green blocked a shot, the Jays ran in the open floor and Freeman tipped in another miss.

And then Graves scored 10 points in 40 seconds, turning CU’s 24-17 lead into a 34-17 advantage. The first was a catch-and-shoot three off a slick pass from Fedor Zugic. 15 seconds later, Graves poked the ball away, raced down the floor, and buried a second three after Green found him open in transition. Seconds after that, Chase Ross’ shot at the rim was blocked by Blake Harper, the Jays started a fastbreak again, and Graves took a heat check three. Heavily guarded and not in rhythm, it wasn’t a great shot choice, and he got fouled in process — but he made it anyway. When you’re hot, why not?

“Uh yeah, honestly it was probably not the best shot at all,” Graves admitted afterward. “I’m very, very glad it went in, otherwise I probably would have heard the buzzer at the sub table for me. So yeah…maybe it was a heat check just a little bit.”

Graves said on the postgame radio show that Greg McDermott has been pleading with him to show more emotion on the court. “I’m usually a quiet guy off the court,” he said, “but anytime I can get the crowd involved and have a moment like that, where the crowd can, you know, build some momentum for us and bring energy into the gym, I need to.”

“Oh man, it was special,” Zugic said on the postgame radio show. “He told me he needed this. He’s been struggling a little bit behind the line and it was just awesome seeing him go off. And the emotion he showed, I thought that was pretty awesome. I didn’t see a lot of that this season, yet I hope I see a lot more of that. He was screaming at the bench. I love that. Energy is contagious.”

The sequence was reminiscent of a January 2014 game against Xavier where Ethan Wragge hit three 3’s in the span of 62 seconds, which also flipped an early lead for the visitors into a big lead for the Jays. But somehow Graves did it in 22 fewer seconds, which is absurd to type and was even more absurd to witness.

The Bluejay lead remained 12 or more the rest of the night, including 46-32 at the half, which was even more impressive considering the foul trouble that was mounting for the Jays. Swartz picked up his second foul with 13 minutes left in the half and only checked back in after Graves picked up his second at the 6:48 mark.

Zugic was the stabilizing force, helping break the pressure by giving them an experienced ball handler alongside Davis. He hit two tough shots at the rim in the closing minutes of the half to keep Marquette from cutting into the lead.

“Last year I was that guy who didn’t understand our system, but working with Kalk and Steven I got to know how they were doing it,” Zugic said. “So I’m pretty much doing the same thing with the new guys this year. It’s just talking to them, letting them tell you where they think the problem is and then explaining how we really want to do it. And it’s just something that takes a lot of time. And it’s not a one time talk; you’re gonna have to tell them that a couple times, or maybe a couple hundred times even for them to get it. But I mean you can see on the court that it’s starting to click.”

The win moves the Jays to 2-0 in the Big East for just the third time ever (along with 2013-14 and 2021-22). They’re up to #46 in KenPom, after being #58 on this date a year ago, which is a huge turn from two weeks ago. But the real shocker? Their adjusted defensive efficiency (99.8) ranks 42nd. They finished last season 44th with Ryan Kalkbrenner in the middle.

McDermott said they’ve tinkered with a lot of things to figure out what works best for this group. And because they were playing with such a lack of energy, they tried to be more aggressive with their ball screen coverages.

“That can bring energy to your group,” McDermott explained. “But it also puts you in closeouts and in rotations. We made a living of staying out of rotations when Kalkbrenner was back there because we didn’t have to do any of that. We’ve switched more ball screens the last two games. That’s one way to keep yourself out of rotations if you can survive the mismatches, and we’ve done a decent job of understanding who we need to stretch out on, who we can sit in a gap and help, and we’ve done a better job of being in the gap. and getting out and still getting a late hand on some of those shooters. We’re understanding what we need to do better for this group to be successful, and hopefully we can continue to build on it.”

Zugic added that they talk a lot about gaps defensively, and helping each other to play good team defense in the absence of a generational defensive talent like Kalkbrenner. That they’re rounding into what might be a better all-around defensive team without him is astounding.

“Our transition defense has been way better (the last two games),” Zugic said. “We play defense as one right now rather than individually defending one-on-one, if that makes sense. There were a lot of times where even me and, like, a lot of guys got beat, but somebody behind us was in the gap trying to help out and then we managed to eliminate the threat. I think it’s mostly about being in the gaps and just trusting each other, and knowing that if you get beat playing aggressive defense your teammate is gonna be right there to stop him.”

Inside the Box:

Creighton improved to 159-7 all-time at CHI Health Center Omaha when scoring 80 or more points, but just 4-4 in those games versus Marquette.

Their 21-point win, combined with a 41-point win at Xavier on Wednesday, set a new Big East record for biggest point differential through the first two games of a season. The previous mark was 50, set by the 1988-89 Providence Friars.

Nik Graves is the headline, obviously, after his electric first half. But while his second half was quieter, it was arguably more impressive. Seeing that Marquette had adjusted to take away his shots, he didn’t force it — he used that attention against them. He had five assists in the first six minutes of the second half as the Jays opened up a 31 point lead, with two of them going to Jasen Green for uncontested shots at the rim in the first 70 seconds. And it forced Marquette into burning an early timeout.

Fedor Zugic saw the same thing, and found Green for a carbon copy layup a couple of minutes later. Graves then stole the ball, and helped create space for Zugic to knock down a three which opened up a 62-37 lead before the first media timeout. Zugic had seven points, five rebounds, two assists and no turnovers, and seems to be settling into the important role of steady, predictable veteran energy guy off the bench. Over the first seven games this year, he averaged just 2.9 points in 10.4 minutes; over the last five, he’s averaging 7.0 points in 16.2 minutes.

Speaking of Green, he had eight points and eight rebounds, going 4-of-6 all from inside the arc. Shaka Smart pointed out his admiration for Green’s improvement, saying “Every year, he’s gotten better. Creighton’s a three-point shooting team, and he didn’t shoot one three tonight. He does what he does.”

Isaac Traudt scored 14 points on 3-of-8 shooting from three-point range, and Austin Swartz had nine in his first game where the opponent had clearly placed him near the top of their scouting report. He was just 4-of-11 shooting and 1-of-5 from three.

And then there was Josh Dix. If you only look at his offensive numbers, you might assume it was a rough night — he scored 10 points, made 3-of-12 overall and 1-of-7 from three, and added four rebounds and two steals. That would be a mistake. Despite coming from Fran McCaffery’s Iowa teams where defense was optional as long as you could score, Dix has struggled to hit buckets for Creighton but turned into a lockdown defender. The latest opposing player to get an unpleasant introduction to Dix was Marquette’s Chase Ross, who came into the game averaging 17.4 points per game. He scored nine, just the second time this season he’s failed to score in double figures, and was 2-of-10 inside the arc (and 1-of-3 on threes). But more than that, he also couldn’t find the space to create shots for his teammates — Ross came in averaging 3.5 assists per game and had zero in this one.

Highlights:

Press Conference:

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