The Creighton Bluejays continue to capture the imagination of a fan base frustrated with the lack of NCAA Tournament appearances in recent seasons. After handing the Northwestern Wildcats just their second loss of the season, Greg McDermott’s team can enter Missouri Valley Conference play with a realistic chance at an at-large bid to the Big Dance. His son, Doug, is the country’s leading scorer and an All-American candidate. His team’s ranked in both polls. His squad sits within the top 25 in most RPI rankings. Thursday night was the best Christmas present the coach could receive this year.
But with 12:18 to play in the first half, the evening looked like it may end up one big lump of coal for the 17,000-plus crammed into the CenturyLink Center. That’s when Doug McDermott picked up his second foul in less than 30 seconds, sending arguably the nation’s most efficient scorer to the bench for the remainder of the first half. Without McDermott, who had scored 9 points in the game’s first 13 minutes, the Bluejays promptly watched a 1-point lead dissolve into an 8-point deficit against the game Wildcats.
Looking for a spark without McDermott on the floor, senior guard Antoine Young scored 5 points in the half’s final 5 minutes. Ethan Wragge came off the bench and hit one three-pointer to tie the score and then seconds later hit another to give CU a 3-point lead. John Shurna erased that margin with a three-pointer of his own, but Northwestern fouled Gregory Echenique with less than 5 seconds in the half. His subsequent free throw gave Creighton a 1-point lead heading into the locker room. But more importantly, without their best player, the Bluejays refused to give in to a well-coached Wildcats team fueled by an outstanding effort from Drew Crawford (19 first-half points).
Crawford couldn’t stop knocking down shots. He gave Northwestern the lead out of halftime with a three-pointer, and he’d score 15 second-half points en route to 34 points — tying an arena record for a Creighton opponent. The Wildcats maintained that lead until the under-16 media timeout. That’s when McDermott asserted himself offensively, scoring 6 points on three straight possessions and giving the Bluejays back the lead.
Ethan Wragge celebrates connecting on a three-pointer and drawing the foul (Adam Streur/WBR)
The Wildcats stuck around, though, tying the game with just under 8 minutes to play. With Northwestern’s 1-3-1 zone giving Creighton problems in the middle of the offense, Jahenns Manigat and Wragge stretched the wings to the far corners of the front court and waited. Grant Gibbs found Manigat for a three-pointer that gave the Bluejays back the lead, and then after a steal by Wragge Gibbs found the sophomore sharpshooter from Minnesota for a back-breaking three-pointer. Wragge was fouled on the play, calmly hit the free throw, and capped a quick 7-0 spurt that gave the Jays a 7-point lead with under 7 minutes to play.
Shurna would bring the Wildcats to within 4 with under 6 minutes to go, but a jumper by Young, a pick-and-pop three-pointer by McDermott, and two treys by Josh Jones pushed the CU lead back out to double figures after the under-4 timeout.
Aided by Crawford’s fifth foul and subsequent disqualification, Creighton withstood a possible Wildcats comeback and claimed their tenth win of the season. A large and loud crowd stuck around to the end, sending the Jays off the court with a great ovation — almost a collective “Thank You” for helping the program recapture a status most fans feel Bluejays basketball should maintain year in and year out.
On a night when McDermott upped his scoring average (25.4 ppg) and continued a gaudy streak of 20-point games, the most impressive development to this Creighton fan was his teammates’ ability to absorb his heading to the bench with foul trouble. Gibbs, Young, and Manigat mostly kept their composure, Wragge stepped up to add some defense-stretching scoring punch from the perimeter, and the Jays stemmed the tide until their star resumed his increasingly ridiculous rise to greatness.
The Jays end the bulk of their non-conference schedule (there’s still a BracketBuster game to host) 10-1 overall, 3-0 versus Big Ten teams, and riding a wave of momentum into Valley play the likes of which a CU team hasn’t experienced since 2002-2003. Here are a few other thoughts about how they got there.
Grant Gibbs pulls a rabbit out of the hat.
I’ve got to admit, through about 30 minutes of basketball Thursday night, I felt like Gibbs wasn’t having one of his better games as a Bluejay. A few uncharacteristic turnovers here. Some missed layups there. It wasn’t until after the game that I realized how wrong I was, and how much magic Gibbs had in fact worked against the Wildcats.
While adjusting to being the lead guard against the 1-3-1 zone after Young would break the midcourt line, Gibbs altered his game and streamlined his options. He didn’t look to shoot. He didn’t try to make difficult, nifty passes. He simply fed the beast, whether that was McDermott on the block or Manigat or Wragge beyond the arc.
Gibbs ended with 12 assists, one of the best single-game performances in Creighton history and the first time a Bluejay had a dozen dimes since Tyler McKinney did it during the ’02-’03 season. Throw in his 8 rebounds, and it was actually just another stellar performance by this team’s dynamic combo guard.
Through 11 games, Gibbs is in the top 25 nationally in assists per game (6.45; 17th), total assists (71; 20th), and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2; 25th). His ability to find McDermott anywhere on the court, as well as Creighton’s accurate perimeter shooters, aids those stats. But ultimately it comes down to something we hear all the time as fans: “Basketball I.Q.”. It is the trait that allows Gibbs with two fouls to lock in defensively on Shurna, Northwestern’s leading scorer, and limit his effectiveness. It is the same trait that helps Gibbs command his teammates on the court while keeping things positive in the huddle. This I.Q. doesn’t always show up in the stats, but is evident when you watch someone move almost effortlessly through the game. Gibbs has it, in droves.
Northwestern picked their poison, and the Bluejays’ perimeter players dealt the death blow.
On the AM590 postgame radio show, Greg McDermott made an amazing statement. “They simply could not guard us man to man. They played more 1-3-1 zone tonight than I think we saw them play all season,” he told T. Scott Marr and Jimmy Motz. Ask Tulsa how guarding Doug McDermott man to man went. So to try and limit passing lanes to the post, where McDermott and Gregory Echenique (11 points, 8 rebounds) had a field day early in the game, Northwestern shifted to zone looks.
Enter Creighton’s deft three-point shooters. The Jays hit 8 of their 12 long-range makes in the second half. For the game Manigat, McDermott, and Wragge each hit 3 threes. Jones came off the bench and hit 2 clutch threes late in the second half. One of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams (44.7%; 3rd), the Jays made the Wildcats pay.
Speaking of postgame, Greg McDermott’s interview is quickly becoming can’t-miss radio.
Perhaps I listened to Dana Altman’s canned and coy postgame radio appearances one too many times. Maybe I don’t put much stock in “coach speak.” But when Greg McDermott started at CU I wasn’t exactly slowing the car to a crawl so I could listen to the entirety of his postgame comments on the AM590 radio broadcast of Bluejays games.
But then a funny thing happened last season. Players started coming out to the court to talk with T. Scott after games. McDermott actually talked — a lot — after games, about anything and everything fans headed home wanted to know. Armed with a great sense of humor and a knack for explaining the nuances of the game and of his decisions in a way casual fans can understand, McDermott continues to impress during these postgame chats.