Key Stats: Creighton gets outrebounded 39-27. Jays trail wire-to-wire for first time in the Greg McDermott Era. Jays shoot 3-13 from three-point range in the first half, and 2-5 in the second half, while outscoring Saint Mary’s 32-26 in the paint for the game. In the first half, all of Creighton’s points were scored by three players — Doug McDermott had 13, Gregory Echenique had 8, and Ethan Wragge had 3.
Favorite Moment: Over the first four minutes of the second half, Gregory Echenique dominated offensively in a way he rarely has in his Bluejay career. At the 18:48 mark, he made a layup. At the 18:06 mark, he was fouled by Saint Mary’s Brad Waldow, made the first free throw but missed the second, then grabbed his own rebound, and was fouled again. He then proceeded to make another layup. On the next possession, he grabbed a missed jumper by Doug McDermott off the rim with one hand and slammed it home while still in the air — I wasn’t even aware Gregory was capable of such an athletic move, much less seen him do it. The ferocious slam dunk capped a personal 7-0 run for the Jays’ big man.
500-ish Word Recap: A showcase game on ESPN in front of one of the largest television audiences they’ll have all season, three weeks from Selection Sunday, can cut both ways. A terrific performance would emphatically declare that their slump was over, and leave a lingering impression that this is a solid team worthy of a spot in the field of 68. A plodding, lethargic performance where they trailed by double-digits most of the afternoon and were barely competitive leaves the opposite impression — that this is a team who peaked too soon, and might not be deserving of a bid.
It doesn’t help that ESPN commentator Jimmy Dykes, a former scout and brilliant basketball mind, dissected the Bluejays’ struggles like a surgeon for the nation to see (and hear). Among the things he pinpointed:
- Can’t defend dribble penetration
- Need ball reversal for the offense to work, but guards are unable to execute it
- Need to feed Echenique every single possession before settling for jump shots
- Inability to get to the rim allows defenses to guard tightly because there’s little risk of getting beat, and that forces the Jays to start their offense 20-25 feet out
- Don’t get to the rim off the bounce to secure defensive rebounds, which, combined with their inability to steal the ball, means they don’t get many extra possessions
That’s pretty much the Jays at this point, isn’t it? Hearing it laid bare like that by a respected analyst is painful to hear, though. Despite all of those shortcomings, the Jays were able to stay competitive until the five minute mark of the first half; it was 26-20 Saint Mary’s after a Doug McDermott three. They’d get outscored 12-4 to end the half, including a bruising 8-0 run over the final four minutes, and went limping into the break down 38-24.
They would not get as close as six points again the rest of the game.
Quotables:
“It hurts that it didn’t come out our way. We came out ready, we had a plan, I felt like I was producing today, I was trying to help the team, and obviously I would feel a lot better if we’d have won but we have to stick together. We have two big games this week, so we can still make something good happen. If we win those two, we can still win the conference and be part of a special team.” -Gregory Echenique on AM590 postgame
(On the keys to his big second half) “We’ve been working a lot in practice on me sealing better, and they have some big guys which is good for me — I like playing against big guys — I’m actually able to body them and when there’s a lot of big guys on the court the refs let you play a little more. That all played to my advantage so I’m glad my teammates found me.” -Gregory Echenique on AM590 postgame
“We did a good job early of getting the ball inside; that’s what our plan was. We screwed up on a couple of situations on ball screens that we wish we could have back, but they were just hitting shots.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame
“Our plan was to get our hands up a little more on the ball screens and hedge those a little more to make it harder, but Dellavedova is so good at either coming off of those or making a quick read that you have to give him a lot of credit. He got them going tonight, and it’s tough to stop a guy like that when he’s in the zone.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame
(On getting ready for Bradley) “We have to have two good days of prep. They’re going to be fired up to play on their home court for the last time, but we had a good gameplan for them when we beat them in Omaha so just need to get ready, and hopefully get two wins so we have some confidence heading into St. Louis.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame
“As I told the team in the locker room, I don’t think I put them in a very good position to start the game. I’m disappointed in my decision defensively on how to go about defending Dellavedova. Because of that, he probably got some guys some easy baskets, and got their motors running faster than they would have had we chosen a different route defensively. Part of it is certainly on me, and part of it on lack of execution on things that we practiced.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame
“It kind of got away from us at the end of the first half. Without question, Grant’s foul trouble in the first half cost us because we weren’t as good a team without him on the floor. That last two and a half minutes without him was a big stretch…he made a bad decision on his third foul. I don’t think he saw the guy, but he was trying to make a play, but you just have to be sure on that one. We need Grant, and it was obvious today.” – Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame
“I’ve watched a lot of Saint Mary’s games, and Mitchell Young hasn’t made many threes or even taken many 17-footers, and we put out the fire and covered everything we wanted to cover but in the first two possessions he scores five points on a 17-footer and a three in the corner. It didn’t look good coming out of his hand, but they went in. We did what we wanted to do, but to their credit, they knocked down shots.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame
“We didn’t turn it over, so we did a good job of valuing the basketball. I thought that was critical, and that’s what kept us in the game, so to speak. But we had some opportunities to knock down some rhythm shots, especially in the first half, and we didn’t make them. We didn’t have much of a presence on the offensive glass, though we were a little bit better in the second half than we were in the first, which was good to see. The reality of it is, though, is some of those guys have to start stepping up and making those shots when they’re given the opportunity.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame
“I told our guys, our two best days of practice of the year have to be Monday and Tuesday. We have an opportunity to go try and win a game on the road, which won’t be easy, and then play for a conference championship on Saturday afternoon. We’ve got to prepare ourselves, and we’ve got to have a couple of great days of work.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame