ETSU was exactly as advertised on Sunday, as Gregg Marshall protege Steve Forbes’ team hit Creighton with bruising defense and a relentless attack on the glass. They’re the type of team that has given McDermott-Era Bluejay teams fits, and that was certainly the case in this one. Combined with the fact that CU’s rotation remains unsettled, with a roster of players still carving out roles for themselves, and you had what we saw on Sunday: a disjointed mess that put them on upset alert.
Disjointed? You bet. They made 29 substitutions and tried 17 different lineup combinations, trying to find something — anything — that would work. They scored just 11 points in their first 17 possessions, committing six turnovers over that stretch, and found themselves behind 15-11. Four more first-half turnovers played a big role in digging a 26-18 hole.
It could have been worse than it was if not for Damien Jefferson scoring eight points in the final five minutes of the half, including a pair of threes on consecutive possessions, to bring them back into it:
And then in a bit of foreshadowing, Ty-Shon Alexander drove to the rim and connected at the buzzer to tie the score at 31 heading into the half:
For all their struggles to settle in, they’d done mostly OK with their gameplan of keeping ETSU off the glass — the Buccaneers grabbed an offensive rebound on just four of their 16 missed shots, and outrebounded the Jays just 16-14. And though they’d given up some open looks behind the perimeter in order to devote attention inside the arc, playing the percentages against a poor-shooting team from three-point range, they hadn’t been burned. 13 of ETSU’s 28 shot attempts were threes, far above their average ratio, but they made just four. Given Creighton’s personnel and where they’re at, that’s a ratio you can live with.
That all changed after halftime. ETSU grabbed a disgusting 15 offensive boards on 22 missed shots, as the Jays repeatedly left their feet defensively, missed block outs, and put themselves out of rebounding position. In the first nine minutes of the half, ETSU had 14 opportunities for a rebound — and grabbed 11 of them. As the rebounding woes mounted, so did the defensive miscues. And the turnovers continued, too. With 13:30 to play, the Jays were down 44-42, and had 14 turnovers to just seven assists — a 0.50 turnover/assist ratio.
Things got so bad they instituted a 1-3-1 zone, which did little to help on the glass and immediately resulted in back-to-back threes from Patrick Good — and a 63-51 ETSU lead. Audible groans could be heard from the CHIHCO crowd, as those shots had the look of a pair of daggers.
And then a funny thing happened. A strange lineup of three sophomores and two freshmen — Marcus Zegarowski, Samson Froling, Mitch Ballock, Ty-Shon Alexander, and Damien Jefferson — who had just three minutes together through two games, clicked. Freshman point guard Zegarowski began the decisive stretch of the game with a three, and this nifty floater off the dribble for a personal 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 63-56:
After a pair of free throws from Jefferson, Alexander nailed a three to make it 65-61:
Then Ballock used a ball-fake to create space for a three in transition, sticking it to cut ETSU’s lead to one at 65-64:
Coming out of the timeout, Jefferson put the Jays ahead 66-65 on a drive to the rim — thanks to an assist from Froling — and then Alexander answered a quick ETSU bucket with another three.
That three capped an 18-2 Bluejay run, turning a seemingly-insurmountable 63-51 deficit into a 69-65 lead in just over four minutes. Alexander scored again moments later, this time off the dribble from about 12 feet out, to put the Bluejays up four:
And Martin Krampelj sealed the comeback with an exclamation point, throwing down a dunk with 20 seconds to go:
When all was said and done, Creighton scored on 12 of its final 13 possessions, and made its last seven shot attempts. Despite surrendering 19 offensive rebounds and floundering offensively for the first 32 minutes, they found a lineup that ‘clicked’ just in time to eek out a win.
It’s concerning how they were pushed around on the glass, despite that style being ETSU’s M.O. And they can’t continue to have more turnovers than assists. But there’s some real positives too — Zegarowski looks to be improving by the minute, and if his growth curve continues at this pace his season outlook will change from “point guard of the future” to “point guard of the present” sooner rather than later. Jefferson appears to be embracing the role of defensive/rebounding specialist, and his shooting stroke looked more comfortable in Game Two than it did in the debut. Krampelj is clearly not yet 100%, and might not be for a month or so, but Froling looks capable of holding down the fort until he is. Ballock has a knack for hitting shots in key moments, and for setting up teammates to be successful. And Alexander has the look of a player who’s made the coveted sophomore leap, leading the way with 20 points on Sunday — including 10 in the decisive moments. On a team in search of a player to take the big shot, and a player to make something happen when nothing else is working offensively, Alexander has the skill set to be that player. If Sunday is any indication, he’s on his way to being that guy.
This could be a dangerous team by mid-season once rotations and roles sort themselves out. The key to the season could very well be finding a way to pick up wins in November and December so that by the time they become dangerous, they’re in a position to capitalize on it. To that end, the next three weeks are crucial — Thursday against Ohio State, next week in the Caymans, December 1 against Gonzaga, and December 8 at Nebraska.
