[dropcap]Friday[/dropcap] night, the Florida portion of the Emerald Coast Classic tips off as the Jays tangle with Mississippi, a team that finished 19-14 a year ago, including a 9-9 mark in the SEC, but missed the postseason. Their loss to Georgia in the opening round of the SEC Tournament cost them their 20th win, and possibly an NCAA at-large berth.
So far this year, they’re 3-1 with their only loss coming at the buzzer in overtime to Charleston Southern — no great shakes, but a better team than you probably think (ranked #191 by KenPom and projected to win 17 games). Ole Miss returns four of their five starters from a year ago, and an SEC-best five seniors, so getting off to a good start isn’t surprising.
They’ve scored an average of 72 points a game, which is impressive because they’ve been one of the worst teams in D1 from behind the arc — the Rebels have made just 23% of their shots from long-range — so they’ve had to get their points in the paint and at the line. That’s where they’ve missed the departed Marshall Henderson, their enigmatic star, who led the team in points at 19.0 a game and ranked third in the nation with 4.3 three-pointers a game. A year ago with him, they got 31% of their points from three-point range and 46% from inside the arc; this year, they’ve scored just 18% of their points from long range and 55% from inside. Despite returning four starters, it’s a very different team offensively, at least through four games.
Jarvis Summers, who averaged 17.3 points and 3.8 assists a game last year, was the SEC’s active career leader in both points and assists coming into the season. The 6’3″ guard is once again one of the most well-rounded players in that league, leading the team in scoring at 14.3 points and 3.8 assists per game.
Stefan Moody, a 5’10”, 179-pound guard, is a junior college transfer who joins the Rebels after being named the Sunbelt Conference Freshman of the Year at FAU, where he averaged 15.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He’s second on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game, and has pulled in 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game so far.
LaDarius White is third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.5 points per game, and the 6’6″ guard has come off the bench this year to provide a spark as their sixth man. He’s their most prolific scorer from three-point range, though that’s relative; he’s 7-15 from behind the arc (46%) and is the only player with more than five makes. As noted above, this team scores the bulk of its’ points inside — when they do get points on three-pointers, it generally comes from White.
6’9″, 240-pound M.J. Rhett, a fifth-year senior transfer from Tennessee State, supplanted Aaron Jones in the starting lineup at power forward. Rhett is averaging 6.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, while shooting 52% from the floor. Jones started 27 games a year ago, led the team in rebounds at 6.6 per game, and was third in the SEC with 69 blocks. Coming off the bench this year, Jones is averaging 5.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks a game, though he’s shooting just 25% from the field, which could be a reason for his demotion.
Ole Miss is a solid, NCAA Tournament-caliber team, and a team that scores primarily inside so it will be a good early-season test for Creighton’s three-headed monster in the post. Which player out of Will Artino, Zach Hanson, or Geoffrey Groselle will be the best matchup? They’ll need at least one of them to have a great game. If Creighton’s shooters are off — and in their first game away from home, they might be — they’ll need to fight for rebounds, because Ole Miss will be ferocious on the glass.
Ultimately, the Rebels’ beat writer for the Daily Mississippian told us he doesn’t think the Rebels will be able to score enough to keep up with the Jays, and I agree. Creighton should win this one.
About the Rebels: The Rebels are averaging 72.0 points per game, despite making just 18 three-pointers on 23.4 percent marksmanship from long-range … Ole Miss has outrebounded teams by eight caroms per contest and owns 21 blocked shots in four games … Ole Miss is 16-6 in regular-season tournaments under head coach Andy Kennedy, including capturing the 2007 San Juan Shootout and 2013 Barclays Center Classic championships. Last year they defeated Georgia Tech and Penn State in Brooklyn to claim the Barclays Center Classic title.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is 24-12 in true road games the previous three years, and 39-17 when you also include neutral site games. Last year’s team was 7-4 in true road games and 4-4 at neutral sites … Creighton has started 5-0 or better for the fourth straight year. The only previous time CU has started 5-0 in four straight years had come in a five-year stretch from 1916-17 to 1920-21 … Creighton will be making its first trek to the state of Florida since an 0-3 trip to the Old Spice Classic in Orlando in 2009; the Jays have lost five straight games in the Sunshine State since its last win, a memorable 62-58 victory over Louisville in the 1999 NCAA Tournament … Since the start of the 1998-99 season, Creighton has participated in 12 in-season (including the Emerald Coast Classic) and 16 conference tournaments. In those events, the Jays are staggering 62-17 — they’ve compiled a 32-9 record with five in-season titles and a 30-8 mark in league tournament play with eight titles in those 16 seasons.
The Last Time They Played / The Series: Creighton and Ole Miss have never played.
Greg McDermott is 4-12 in his career against teams currently in the SEC, though the majority of those were against Missouri (2-6) and Texas A&M (0-5) when they were Big 12 rivals and he was at Iowa State. His only previous game as Creighton coach against an SEC team came in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, a one-point win over Alabama.
Gratuitous Linkage: In Grantland’s SEC Preview, Mark Titus named Jarvis Summers his “Best College Player” (a category probably developed just for that league, given most of Kentucky’s talent is more Pro Prospect than College Player). Here’s part of his rather amusing take:
“Summers has to be the happiest man in college basketball right now. Just think about this: Summers averaged 17.3 points, 3.8 assists, and 2.4 boards per game last season while shooting 48.6 percent from the field, and he did it with three guys in his jock every time he had the ball.
Sure, Summers only had one guy defending him. But Marshall Henderson running at Summers and begging for the ball should count as a second defender, and the defender Henderson brings with him is the third. The point is, Summers was Ole Miss’s best player last season, Henderson didn’t want to admit it, and Summers was stifled as a result. And he still put up great numbers!
Now that Henderson has graduated and started his career as a psychologist, Summers is the team’s undisputed leader. You could argue that Henderson’s shooting demanded the attention of defenses, which freed Summers to be as productive as he was. I’d argue that Henderson’s presence was one part that and about 10 billion parts “team cancer.” Henderson averaged 16 shots per game when he wasn’t even the best player on the team? How did Kennedy allow this? How did Ole Miss lose eight of 11 games toward the end of the season without Kennedy pulling Henderson to the side and saying, “Marshall, um, maybe stop RUINING EVERYTHING???””
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On November 28, 2013, Creighton steamrolled eventual NCAA Tournament team Arizona State 88-60 in the first game of the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim. By the first media timeout, it was 14-5 Creighton thanks to three-pointers from Jahenns Manigat and Grant Gibbs, and six points in the paint from Doug McDermott. By the second media timeout, it was 24-9 Creighton, with a red-hot McDermott making shots from everywhere on the floor.
Just as the Sun Devils tried to come back, Devin Brooks took over and put them away, scoring eight straight points. Highlighted by two treys bracketing a nifty dribble drive to the rim, Brooks’ run took the wind out of the Sun Devils’ sails and the Jays coasted into the locker room up 45-31. The game was never close in the second half.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Gobble gobble!
The Bottom Line: Creighton trades threes for twos — Toby Hegner and Isaiah Zierden make threes, Ole Miss has no one to counter, and the Jays move on to the title game Saturday night.
Creighton 73, Ole Miss 64