On the first night of the Big East Tournament, tenth-seeded DePaul pulled off a stunner, upsetting #7 seed Georgetown 60-56. This after KenPom gave the Blue Demons a 2% chance of winning. Almost everyone penciled in the Hoyas to advance to Friday, but as if we needed a reminder, DePaul winning gave it to us — this is March, and the only thing you can expect is the unexpected. (Edit: DePaul’s upset was the story of the tournament for all of 12 hours, as Seton Hall took down top-seeded Villanova in Thursday’s first game. Holy crap.)
It’s an interesting development for Creighton. A win over Georgetown was low risk/high reward — they’re a Top 100 team and a win would have given the Jays another positive notch for their NCAA seeding resume, while a loss wouldn’t be devastating. On the other hand, they’re a much tougher matchup for the Jays, as their loss in Washington, DC to them two weeks ago can attest. DePaul is without a doubt the better matchup, but it’s high risk/low reward. The Blue Demons offer them little in the way of improving their resume, but can add a HUGE negative mark to it if they were to pull off a second upset in as many nights.
Creighton swept the regular-season series with DePaul, winning 81-62 in Chicago and 78-66 in Omaha. In the first meeting, both Grant Gibbs and Doug McDermott were injured, but Avery Dingman stepped up and had perhaps his best game of the year, scoring 16 points — 11 of them in the second half when Gibbs was out and McDermott was ailing. CU outrebounded DePaul 39-32 in that game, including 15-12 on the offensive glass. That’s what made the rematch so strange, because in Omaha, with McDermott at 100% and Gibbs back, DePaul outrebounded Creighton 41-31, and killed them on the offensive glass 16-7. CU also made just 7-25 three-point attempts. I suppose it’s comforting that those two things happened and the Jays still won by 12, but that game was hardly a 12-point cakewalk.
DePaul trailed by just one point with seven minutes to play, 59-58, before Doug McDermott took the game over. He immediately took the ball to the rim on the next possession, drew a foul, and made both free throws to give the Jays some cushion. They got a defensive stop, and then Wragge chopped down a t(h)ree to make it 64-58. DePaul answered with a layup by Billy Garrett, but that would be their last stand. McDermott rattled off a personal 9-0 run to ice the game, going 7-8 at the free throw line and 1-1 from the field over a three-minute stretch. Before that McRun, the outcome was very much in doubt.
As they were in that second game, DePaul is without leading scorer Cleveland Melvin. He was suspended for that game, and subsequently was dismissed from the team. He was averaging 16.7 points and 6.4 rebounds and shooting a career-best 47.1 percent from behind the arc this season when head coach Oliver Purnell suspended him indefinitely; he left the program altogether during the suspension. Granted, they were struggling with him, too, but they’ve won just twice since — a 65-60 home win over Seton Hall, and last night against Georgetown.
In the post-Melvin Era, freshman Billy Garrett, Jr. has tried his best to fill the void. He averages 12.5 points to lead the team, but over the last six games, he’s averaging 16.5 points including 17 last night in the win over the Hoyas. Garrett was named the Big East Rookie of the Year on Wednesday, an honor he richly deserves — he finished the regular season as the top freshman scorer in the Big East, led all Big East freshmen with 90 assists and an 81.9 shooting percentage from the foul line, and he earned Big East Rookie of the Week honors five times.
Senior guard Brandon Young has also stepped up over the last month-plus; he averages 16.1 points for the year, but he’s averaging 20.0 points over his last six games, including 29 against Marquette, 23 against St. John’s and 24 against Butler. Young has proved to be a tough player for Creighton to defend — he’s scored 40 points against them in two games, though he’s taken 33 shots to get there.
Creighton beat DePaul once without Grant Gibbs and with Doug McDermott at about 50%. The Bluejays beat them a second time despite one of their five worst performances of the year. If they’re merely even on the glass, make anywhere near their average from the field, and defend even just a little bit, they’ll win a third time. If they exceed those very modest expectations, they’ll win going away and be able to rest their starters a bit for the semifinals.
Then again, it’s March, DePaul beat Georgetown last night and Seton Hall beat Villanova in Thursday’s first quarterfinal. Creighton could play really well and DePaul could play their best game of the year, and pull the upset. It’s possible, just not probable.
Catching Up with the Blue Demons: DePaul’s win last night advances them past the first game of the Big East Tournament for just the second time ever, and snaps a five-game losing streak in the event … The Blue Demons are 2-6 all-time in Big East Tournament play and 10-19 overall in conference tournaments … Brandon Young’s 13 points last night moved him past George Mikan (1,870 pts., 1942-46) for fourth on DePaul’s all-time scoring list … The win was the first this season when DePaul was outrebounded (1-11 record in such games).
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton owned a 43-20 all-time record in MVC Tournament play; their 12 MVC Tournament titles were seven more than any other school, while its 43 wins and .683 winning percentage in league tourney action were also tops in event history … Creighton was 19-12 in the quarterfinals, 12-7 in the semifinals and 12-1 in the championship games as a Valley member … Creighton won the MVC Tournament nine of the last 13 times it won its first game in the event … Since March of 2002 Creighton owns six tournament titles (all in the MVC), while the other nine schools in the current Big East have won a combined six league tournament titles — Georgetown (2007 BIG EAST), Butler (2008, 2010, 2011 Horizon) and Xavier (2002, 2004, 2006 Atlantic-10) … Creighton has won its last 11 conference tournament games decided by four points or less.
The RUN-DMD Show: Believe it or not, there’s still some personal milestones to achieve for Doug McDermott. He’s five points shy of becoming the sixth man in NCAA history with three different seasons of 800 points or more — so, you know, there’s just a slight chance of that happening tonight. Slight. That’s a feat which has previously been done only by Wayman Tisdale, Larry Bird, Freeman Williams, Pete Maravich and Oscar Robertson. Not bad company there.
He’s also 39 points shy of Creighton’s single-season scoring record that he set last year, 834 points. That’s slightly less likely, but you never know.
Out of Context Ron Swanson Quote: “History began July 4th, 1776. Anything before that was a mistake.”
The Last Time They Played: Creighton won 78-66 in Omaha on “Lumberjack Night”, with Ethan Wragge going 3-5 from downtown in front of bearded, axe-wielding, flannel-clad admirers.
The Series: DePaul leads the all-time series with Creighton 15-9, but CU has won the last four meetings. The teams have split two neutral site match-ups.
Gratuitous Linkage: In somewhat of a surprise move, DePaul is sticking by Oliver Purnell. This Chicago Sun-Times column from late February sums up why that’s such a surprise.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: The only time Creighton has ever played on March 13 came in the second round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament against Steve Francis’ #5 Maryland Terrapins. The Bluejays fell behind big early, and trailed 45-32 at the half. The deficit grew to as many as 21 points in the second before a furious rally made the Terrapins sweat the outcome. Creighton, looking uphill at a 65-46 score, ran off an 11-2 run that started with a 3-pointer from Corie Brandon and finished with a 3-pointer by Ryan Sears. The Bluejays were within 67-57 — with momentum squarely on their side — with five minutes to play. Then Maryland turned it over on two straight possessions, but missed 3-pointers by Rodney Buford, Brandon and Sears kept the Jays from capitalizing. Maryland held on to win 75-63.
Afterward, coach Dana Altman told the media, “It would have been very easy to throw in the towel today. It’s about like it was in mid-February when we were 15-8 and it didn’t look like we were going anywhere. But then they kind of toughened up and fought a little bit and had themselves a respectable season.”
That “respectable” season ended with the Jays 22-9, winners of both the MVC Tournament and of an NCAA Tournament game.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Jungle, Garden, whatever. Welcome to March.
The Bottom Line: DePaul continues their momentum from Wednesday night for the beginning stages of the game, then hits a wall with about ten minutes left.
Creighton 70, DePaul 58