“Creighton might be playing some of its best defense not of the season but in years.” That’s a Sunday evening tweet from Omaha World-Herald reporter Steve Pivovar. He’d know; no one outside of the program has seen more Creighton men’s basketball games and practices than Piv since he started covering the CU beat. So, during the second half of Creighton’s 68-54 win over California, it was settling that Piv reconfirmed the collective assessment of Creighton’s defensive effort coming from Section 123.
Despite a cold start of their own, the Bluejays held the Bears to just 19 first-half points. Cal’s long, athletic wing players settled for jump shots, failing to draw many fouls and shooting just 33% from the floor. Additionally, Creighton limited Cal’s second- and third-chance scoring opportunities. The Jays outrebounded the Bears 22-15 in the first half, and outpaced Cal 8-3 in offensive rebounds during the first 20 minutes.
Mike Montgomery’s team nearly doubled its offensive output in the second half (35 points versus 19), but they still shot poorly (38.7% from the field). For the game, the Bears show just 36.4%, becoming the seventh of Creighton’s 11 opponents to shoot worse than 40% from the field against CU.
The Jays, meanwhile, strung together meaningful possession after meaningful possession in the second half, connecting on more than half of their attempts from the field and keeping Cal at arm’s length.
Speaking of which, Cal’s collective length gave Doug McDermott trouble, but he reached deep into his bag of tricks to lead the Jays yet again. Creighton’s All American missed six of his first seven shots and struggled to get on track offensively. He didn’t connect on a three-point attempt all night, just the second game all season in which he failed to score from behind the arc. But McDermott didn’t let his early inefficiency get the better of his all-around game, and eventually he did what Dougie does — get buckets.
It started innocently enough; an offensive rebound led to a foul, which led to a trip to the free throw line for two shots with about 4 minutes to play in the first half. McDermott toed the line, knocked in both shots to double his output from 2 points to 4. The final few minutes of the half would find McDermott connect on a point-blank attempt thanks to a nice pass from Austin Chatman; hit a jump shot off a feed from Devin Brooks; and tip-in a missed three-point attempt by Jahenns Manigat as the buzzer sounded. Just like that, Doug went into the tunnel with 10 points, leading all scorers on both teams.
He’d replicate his scoring output in the second half, displaying an array of step-back baseline fade-away jumpers and other finesse finishes en route to a game-high 20 points. Sure, McDermott forced a few things, but they came in the flow of the offense. Cal’s frontline combination of Richard Solomon, David Kravish, and Kameron Rooks made things difficult for McDermott at times. But having him on the floor alongside Ethan Wragge for extended minutes made defensive decisions an issue for Montgomery’s team.
To be sure, the Bluejays were far from their best offensively. One of the better perimeter shooting teams in the country, Creighton suffered a third consecutive sub-40% shooting performance from behind the arc. In fact, take away the 14 three-point makes on 28 tries at Long Beach State, and Greg McDermott’s team is 35-106 (33%) in its last five games.
The Bluejays are proving they can win in other ways. CU outrebounded Cal 39-31, the fourth straight instance of winning the battle on the boards. The aforementioned opponent shooting percentages are just one piece of evidence that Creighton’s defensive turnaround is continuing. After the Cal game, CU is 60th in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency. Last season, the Jays finished 80th in that stat. The year before? 190th.
The Bluejays will find their stride offensively. They remain a top 10 team according to Pomeroy’s adjusted offensive efficiency statistic (4th nationally after the win against the Bears), a lofty and consistent spot they’ve occupied since Doug McDermott’s sophomore season. As long as Dougie McBuckets is, in fact, getting said buckets, the Jays will manage to put points on the board with the best of them. But about a week from now, when their Big East Conference residency begins in earnest, Creighton will see longer, more athletic teams night in and night out. CU will need more defensive efforts like the one displayed against Cal if the Jays plan on proving doubters of their championship pedigree wrong.