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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Tulsa 77, Creighton 64

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton gets out-rebounded 36-34, including a 19-13 deficit in a second half where they gave up 8 offensive rebounds. The Jays commit 13 turnovers, leading directly to 20 Tulsa points. Tulsa goes a remarkably horrible 18-33 from the free throw line (54%) — meaning if they shot their average from the line, this could have been a 25+ point loss. Ouch.

Favorite Moment: There wasn’t really a favorite moment, but I can tell you what my least favorite moment was in a heartbeat. Heck, it might be my least favorite moment of the entire Mac Era.

With 5:29 to play in the game, Tulsa’s Shaquille Harrison missed a dunk, and teammate Rashad Ray grabbed the rebound, getting fouled in the process. He missed the front end of a one-and-one, but teammate Rashad Smith grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Smith, too, missed the front end of a one-and-one, and this time James Woodard grabbed the offensive board. They ran the shot clock down to under five seconds, and then Smith took a three-pointer, which missed. Teammate Brandon Swannegan grabbed the offensive rebound, and was fouled. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — he missed the front end of the one-and-one, and Smith snared his second offensive board of the possession. Again, they ran the shot clock down under five before attempting a shot; this time, Marquel Curtis made a shot at the rim. He was fouled, made the free throw, and an 88-second possession ended with three points the old-fashioned way.

To recap: a minute-and-a-half possession where three different Tulsa players grabbed four offensive rebounds. Whether it was a lack of effort, energy, ability, or some combination of the three, that was an embarrassing sequence.

Quick Recap: Creighton’s post-Thanksgiving swoon, or whatever you want to call it, continued on Wednesday night in Tulsa. It was an uninspiring effort that saw them get manhandled on the boards, get beat repeatedly off the dribble on defense, and give up wide-open three-pointers to their opponent’s best shooter — all while continuing to miss their own shots at an alarming rate.

What’s really irritating is that it didn’t start that way. Austin Chatman scored the team’s first nine points, connecting on a pair of three-pointers and a trio of free throws after being fouled while attempting a three. That gave them a 9-8 lead after four minutes; they gradually built their lead up to six points at 18-12, playing good fundamental defense, holding their own on the glass against an aggressive opponent, and making enough shots to compete. Then the wheels fell off.

From that point until the end of the half, Tulsa went on a 21-7 run, turning an 18-12 deficit into a 33-25 halftime lead. The catalyst? Creighton stopped making shots, had careless turnovers, and failed to match Tulsa’s increased aggressiveness. To be specific, they had a stretch of 10 possessions where they were 1-7 from the field with two free throws and two turnovers. Still, they inexplicably held onto the lead, 25-22, with just over three minutes to play, thanks to Tulsa being unable to make shots themselves and making many of the same mistakes the Jays were. Unfortunately, Tulsa figured things out, the Jays didn’t, and things got ugly in a hurry.

First, James Woodard buried a three-pointer to tie it, then he blocked James Milliken’s shot attempt at the other end. On their next offensive possession, Woodard made another three, and after two free throws from Shaq Harrison, Woodard ended the half with a 35-foot three at the buzzer. It was an 11-0 run to end the half, and the defensive breakdowns over those final three minutes were the difference in the game, at least score-wise.

Creighton opened the second half strong, using an 11-4 run to cut the lead to a single point at 37-36. It was to be their last gasp, however, as Tulsa immediately went on a 17-6 run that gave them a 54-41 lead with 10:59 to play. The run deflated the Jays; the remaining 11 minutes were categorized by a depressing array of barely-contested dribble drives to the rim, lackadaisical effort on the glass, and continued poor shooting on offense. The 88-second possession with four offensive rebounds allowed is the perfect microcosm of that stretch.

Some of that nonsense in the final 11 minutes can be explained by Creighton’s front-line players all being in foul trouble and unable to defend as aggressively as they otherwise would, but they were in foul trouble in the first place because they were unable to defend an aggressively attacking offense without fouling, so I don’t totally buy that. Tulsa’s players were quicker, more athletic, and more aggressive; Creighton’s players looked confused and unconfident about where to be, what to do, and which role to play, and as a result took poor shots, gave up a maddening amount of offensive boards, and allowed entirely too many wide-open looks for their opponent.

True, that’s about where we thought this team would be at this point, but that doesn’t make the games any less excruciating to watch.

Quotables:

“It was a grind-it-out, tough game. They tried to slow it down a lot. We got punked tonight, definitely. That’s what it came down to. We couldn’t get stops when we needed to. They got to the basket at will. They got into the paint whenever they wanted to. We let their best scorer get going early. That was something in the scouting report that we tried to take away — to keep the ball out of his hands — and we didn’t do it.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“What changed the last five or six minutes of the first half was that we got comfortable. We got comfortable. At the beginning he wasn’t trying to do too much, and once he started demanding the ball a little more, he’s a guy that can score in spurts and that’s what he did. We just have to do a better job of taking care of the small details. Our attention to detail needs to be better, and we lost sight of that tonight.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“Basketball is a game of runs. We know that both teams are going to have runs. What you need to do is limit their runs, and that Ole Miss game was a learning experience in that respect. We thought we learned from it, but we obviously didn’t. Tonight, defensively is an area where we have to focus on when we watch the film. We have to do a better job of sitting down and guarding the dribble. We didn’t do that tonight.” -Austin Chatman on 1620AM Postgame

“Isaiah was a little hobbled today, the knee was bothering him a bit. He just couldn’t move the way he normally moves, and that was evident on both ends of the floor. Obviously we need him out there to stretch the defense.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“The game started exactly the way I wanted it to start. I thought we had some opportunities to create some separation, but we made some huge mental mistakes on Woodard. Especially on a couple of help situations where he got a wide-open three-point shot. That one at the end of the half, granted it was deep, but he’s the one guy you don’t want to let shoot it, and we did. We need to be more intelligent when it comes to some of those plays. If we can learn from them, and make sure it won’t happen again, then I can live with this. But we have to get better. We were poor off the dribble guarding the basketball tonight, and on rebounding they brought the physicality to us rather than us taking it to them. Our point guards are our two leading rebounders. Our front line really isn’t giving us much there. That has to change.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“On Woodard, we over-helped in a couple of situations. He had three 3’s right before halftime, one came at the buzzer deep and then the other two were wide-open in help situations where he was the one guy we were providing gap help off of, and the person who was guarding him gave too much help. He doesn’t need long to get his shot off. We’ll certainly learn a lot from this. I hope we do.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Nine of our 11 fouls the first half were from our front line guys, Toby, Zach, Will and Geoff, and that’s inexcusable. Those guys have to be able to play a physical brand of basketball without fouling. Hopefully we can watch the film and learn a lot from what happened tonight.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“I thought Avery did a good job on Woodard to start the game. What you want to do is not allow their best player to get it going early. I thought Avery did a relatively good job of that. Obviously, his wind isn’t where it needs to be yet, his legs aren’t close to where they need to be, and his offense will be the last thing to come. When you miss that much time, handling the basketball and shooting the basketball and doing that when you’re tired — it’s going to take a while to get back to where he was. Hopefully he’ll get there quickly. I wanted to get him out there tonight because I felt like we needed him defensively, and hopefully tonight will help him moving forward.”  -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We knew this week was going to be a heckuva challenge. Tonight was the first time in a true road game away from home that these guys have experienced a little bit of adversity. We didn’t handle it great in the first half. We’re up 20-15 and then we go to the locker room down 33-25. We got outscored 18-5 trying to get the half, and that’s the parts of the games that we have to try to correct. It’s a lot of 4-5 minute segments where things get away from us. It’s just simple, fundamental things that we know better. This is a team where everybody needs to bring their A Game every night because we don’t have a guy that’s going to get us 25 points every night.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:

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