My annual Night of Egregious Overreaction came a bit earlier than normal this season. Friday night’s Creighton men’s basketball exhibition marked the earliest game, real or not, for CU hoops since 2007. Every year, I relish in the opportunity to draw comical conclusions about a slew of new and returning players based on a meaningless 40 minutes of basketball against a usually overmatched opponent. Plenty of my Internet Friends on The Bluejay Underground do the same, so it always makes for some interesting message board comparisons.
Let’s get the known commodities out of the way first.
Doug McDermott is back. He made a wise choice to return to Creighton, if only because the new emphasis on hand checking by defenders means McDermott will take approximately 7,000 free throw attempts this season. The new rules will favor teams like Creighton that want to get up and go (and college basketball fans patient enough to wade through the stoppages of play). Hand checks will allow those types of teams to rack up tons of trips to the charity stripe. Case in point: McDermott played 24 minutes against Northern State and attempted more free throws (14) than field goals (13). He scored 26 points (yawn, right?) while no one could really take much of his game away. The only knock I can make is that he hit only one of his five three-point attempts. But that’s just picking a nit. Everyone in Bluejay Nation knows he’ll get more than his fair share of points from behind the arc in what promises to be a historic senior season for McDermott.
Grant Gibbs is back, too. The beneficiary of an almost completely unexpected sixth year of eligibility doled out by the NCAA, Gibbs begins the final season of his college career (again). He and McDermott will combine to keep opponents’ heads spinning during post-repost possessions, something they showed a bit against Northern State. Gibbs made both of his field goals, including a nifty up-and-under layup, and in typical fashion sprinkled a bit of everything through the box score (6 assists, 2 steals, and a rebound) in 20 minutes.
Gibbs’ fellow backcourt returnees Austin Chatman and Jahenns Manigat didn’t really do much in the exhibition, but there wasn’t really much time to. Manigat attempted a shot while Chatman attempted two. They both failed to score from the field; Chatman made one free throw (of four attempts!).
Will Artino posterizes a Northern State player (WBR/Mike Spomer) CLICK PHOTO TO BUY
Will Artino joined the aforementioned group in the starting lineup, taking over the (figurative) space formerly occupied by Gregory Echenique. Artino stuffed the stat sheet in just 17 minutes, scoring 8 points and grabbing 8 rebounds while blocking a shot and nabbing a steal. He also assisted on a basket by McDermott, showing a glimpse of what the high-post passing might look like from a 6-11 center that has a deft touch. His frontcourt counterpart, redshirt sophomore Geoffrey Groselle, saw only 4 minutes and looked ineffective during his limited time on the floor.
Ethan Wragge will continue to come off the bench. The fifth-year senior entered the game and immediately started ripping three-point attempts. He went 3 of 5 from behind the arc and showed his knack for providing instant offense. He checked in from the bench twice in the first half and made his first shot attempt both times.
Guys like Avery Dingman, Isaiah Zierden, Devin Brooks, and James Milliken threw their hats into the crowded Creighton backcourt situation. Dingman, a junior, is the most experienced of the group. He played 11 minutes Friday, hitting his only jumper (a three) and hitting the glass for a handful of rebounds.
Zierden was around last year but redshirted. He played 15 minutes against Northern State and hit two of his three shot attempts (all threes). He scrapped for a few boards, too, and hit two free throws after missing his first attempt. He looked stronger than a year ago, when he missed all of five shot attempts (four of which were behind the arc) in his only public showing before sitting out his true freshman year.
Milliken didn’t play much. He checked near the 9:00 mark of both halves. He missed a three and he made a nice, slashing two-handed layup from the left side of the court. But the Bluejay with the most noticeable hairstyle didn’t stand out.
He left that to fellow junior college transfer guard Brooks. The sparkplug from Harlem, New York, checked in nearly midway through the first half and immediately grabbed a defensive rebound. Did he turn the ball over? Sure. Did fans remember it after his next five minutes? Nope.
During that stretch in the middle of the half, Brooks flashed a little bit of every part of his game that Creighton fans are expecting to translate to success in the Big East. He started with a nice dime to Dingman, who connected on his three-point make. Brooks later finished in the paint by himself thanks to a killer crossover move just inside the free throw line. His next two dimes went to McDermott; one was for a finish in the key and the other was a 30-foot, behind-the-back assist to a McDermott three-pointer. It was ridiculous.
All told, Brooks finished with 6 points and 7 assists in 15 minutes. He turned it over three times, but whatever. It was Brooks’ first court time in a D-I “game,” but he more than looked the part.
Freshmen Darian Harris, Toby Hegner, and Zach Hanson also saw their first minutes at the D-I level, with solid returns. We don’t know what parts of Triple H will redshirt this season, but they looked pretty good against Northern State. Hanson (5 points, 2 rebounds in 8 minutes) has soft hands and found himself on the scoring end of some solid passes in the paint. Hegner (9 points, 2 rebounds in 6 minutes) didn’t miss a shot, including a three-point attempt that looked extremely nice for a power forward. Harris didn’t score but saw a few minutes late in the game.
The shear glut of walk-ons not named “McDermott” makes the box score from an exhibition game read like the Creighton Dean’s List. Mo Oginni got his annual ferocious dunk late in the game. Alex Olsen grabbed a few rebounds in two minutes of play. Steven Ferrarini did his best Ross Ferrarini impression, immediately launching a three (and connecting!) after coming in the game late. Tyler Clement hit a free throw, while John Burns and Eric Roberts didn’t score in a handful of second-half minutes.