“It’s Senior Day for James and Geoff, and they’ve meant a lot to this program. We want to leave our fans with a better taste in their mouth than what I have right now, because this isn’t the brand of Creighton Basketball that I expect.”
-Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM following Wednesday’s loss
[dropcap]Wednesday[/dropcap] night against Marquette, the Bluejays had one of the more perplexing performances in recent memory — coming out with a lack of energy and urgency just when they’d played themselves into an opportunity to make a late case for the NCAA Tournament. In a must-win game, they had nothing. Nobody seemed to be interesting in playing defense, nobody wanted to share the ball, nobody could make a shot, and they turned it over with sloppy passes and bad decision-making.
To make matters worse, comments after the game indicated that none of this should have been surprising. In the opening statement of Coach Greg McDermott’s press conference, he let loose with an uncharacteristically critical assessment of his team’s effort.
“We haven’t practiced the best the past week or so. I’m not sure we really want to practice that much. Sometimes in life you get what you deserve, and we deserved this, because from our seniors all the way down to our freshmen, for whatever reason they think they’ve arrived and they weren’t much interested in practicing. Obviously that’s my responsibility, because I let it happen. I let guys walk away from me in practice. I let them stand by the trainer. I let them talk back to me. That’s unfortunate, because we had a chance to do something special here and tonight we didn’t have it.”
He didn’t name names, leaving people to speculate who he was referring to, and to connect the dots — rightly or wrongly — between his statements about players blowing him off at practice and to a couple of rather obvious scoldings he gave to players during Wednesday night’s game.
And he’s 100% correct. A team that wasn’t interested in practicing or in preparing for Marquette, then walked away from and/or talked back to coaches when they were called on it, got exactly what they deserved:
A loss that knocked them out of at-large NCAA Tournament contention, and left them (probably) needing to win a tough road game at either Providence or Xavier to avoid having to go out on the road in the NIT.
It’s been a good season where the Jays have exceeded most reasonable expectations, answered questions about the short-and-long term trajectory of the program post-Doug McDermott, had some memorable moments, and built a good foundation for a tourney run in 2016-17. It would be a shame if the last impression they left on the 17,000 fans who will be in attendance on Sunday was of a team that coasted to the finish line instead of running through it.
***
Creighton has taken the third-most three point attempts in the league, despite being the worst-shooting team in the Big East from three-point range since conference play started, making just 30.1% from long range. That puts them on pace to be CU’s worst three-point shooting team during conference action since the 2009-10 Bluejays made just 31.2% of their shots from behind the arc in Valley play.
For sure, it’s a turn of events for a team that made 40.1% of their three-pointers in the non-conference, but after 15 games, it’s no longer a slump. And if not for a statistical outlier — the game on January 17 where they made 13-26 at DePaul — they’d be even worse. They made 10 or more threes in a game eight times in 13 tries during the non-conference, and that game at DePaul is the only time they’ve accomplished it during conference play. Removing that one game, they’re a ghastly 92-323 — that’s 28.4% — in the other 14 games.
- at ST.JN: 7-22
- vs NOVA: 5-23
- vs GTWN: 8-19
- at HALL: 8-19
- vs PROV: 5-23
- vs BUTL: 6-24
- at GTWN: 4-21
- vs HALL: 6-23
- at NOVA: 8-25
- vs DEPL: 9-23
- vs XAVR: 7-30
- at MARQ: 7-25
- at BUTL: 9-25
- vs MARQ: 3-21
That’s what they call a statistically significant sample size, and what it says is the Bluejays have been a terrible three-point shooting team for over two months.
“It is what it is at this point,” Cole Huff said after the game Wednesday. “There is only so many times we can say we had an off shooting night. When it’s 75% of the season it’s not an off night. It’s how we’re shooting the ball, it’s in our DNA. There are guys getting in the gym and getting extra shots up, and maybe for some reason, maybe the bright lights, or wanting it to go in too bad, but whatever it is it’s not getting the job done. We’re still playing the same way. We’re getting open looks, and that’s why we’re here is to shoot the ball, but we better figure something out.”
Especially now that teams have film of Mo Watson, Geoff Groselle, and Zach Hanson, they’re collapsing the paint to take away Watson’s ability to drive and Groselle/Hanson’s ability to post up. That leaves guys open on the wings, and those guys are shooters who have proven they can make three-pointers at a high level in their collegiate careers. What’s Creighton to do at that point? James Milliken, Cole Huff, Isaiah Zierden, and Toby Hegner were all recruited as shooters, have all been average to above average three-point shooters in their careers, they’re getting wide-open looks because of opposing defenses collapsing the paint…and they can’t make the shots.
“It’s baffling, because the numbers on the practice floor aren’t anywhere close to what’s happening on the game floor,” Coach McDermott noted on the 1620AM postgame show Wednesday. “As a coach, if guys aren’t making them in practice, at some point you say ‘Hey, we’re not taking that shot anymore.’ But we’ve got James and Cole and Z and Toby knocking them down in practice, so we’ve got to let them go in games. We had really, really good looks tonight and we were unable to knock those down. It’s perplexing, it really is. For a team that shot it as well as we shot it all through the preseason, all through practice, all through November and December, to go this long shooting this poorly, it’s perplexing.”
The good news is the Bluejays’ next opponent is St. John’s, who enters Sunday’s game with just one win in Big East play, an 80-65 victory over DePaul on February 17. Playing a 1-15 team is almost always good news, but the way St. John’s is currently constructed makes them the perfect opponent to not only get back in the “W” column against but to use as a springboard into the season’s final week.
That’s because Creighton’s three-point woes might not matter against the Johnnies, as they’re a team that doesn’t possess the ability to pack the paint successfully, at least not on a consistent basis. Thursday night, DePaul went 12-16 on dunks and layups, 5-7 on jump shots in the paint, and just 2-8 outside of the arc, yet rolled to a double-digit win. The Blue Demons’ top four big men combined to shoot 11-14, with most attempts coming at close range, and was a big reason they scored 24 points in the paint. St. John’s also allowed dribble penetration from DePaul’s guards all night, and if they allow Mo Watson to do that combined with an inability to stop Groselle and Hanson from scoring at the rim, Creighton won’t need to make threes to win.
In the first meeting, Groselle was 9-10 from the floor, Hanson was 3-5, and the Jays scored 34 points in the paint. While that game seems like an eternity ago, St. John’s hasn’t really improved in that area since New Years Eve, so Creighton should be able to once again exploit that weakness and score inside enough to make up their continued inability to score from outside.
They do possess shot blockers, as they’re tied for fifth in the nation averaging 6.0 blocks per game. Freshmen Kassoum Yakwe (2.83) and Yankuba Sima (2.64) have the second-highest shot blocking average for teammates in Division I with 5.47 rejections per game. The pair of freshman aren’t the big, muscular shot blockers St. John’s had the last two years when they terrorized Creighton big men, however. Yakwe is 6’7″ 205, and Sima is 6’11” 215, and while they’re able to block a lot of shots, they’re not always able to hold their position long enough to block a shot attempt.
Durand Johnson, a graduate transfer from Pitt, leads the team in scoring at 12.0 points per contest and is second with 35 steals and 49 three-point baskets. Freshman Federico Mussini is second on the Red Storm in scoring (11.0 ppg.), leads the club in assists (68) and steals (37), has made a team-high 54 three-point baskets, and tops the club in free-throw percentage (.869). He’s hit the dreaded freshman wall as the calendar turned to February, however, and has scored in single digits in eight of his last nine games, capped by a dreadful 0-5 performance, with zero points, against DePaul.
Malik Ellison, a freshman guard, had his career high of 17 points in the first game against Creighton, and is coming off a 12-point, six assist game against DePaul. He’s averaging 10.0 ppg and shooting 61.1% from the field (11-18) and 71.4% from three-point range (5-7) in last four games.
The Red Storm score 67.1 points per game and allow opponents to score 75.2, while shooting 39.9% as a team. Their opponents shoot 44.0% for the season. Creighton has a sizable advantage in assists, turnovers, shooting percentage, and defensive efficiency, while being relatively even on rebounds and steals. This should be a double digit win for Creighton, though as we saw Wednesday, anything can happen in the Big East and particularly if you aren’t ready to strap it up.
Quick Notes on the Red Storm:
- Over the past three games, St. John’s has outscored opponents by +10.0 points in the second half, shooting 46.0 percent (40-87 FG ) from the field and 35.0 percent (14-40 3FG) from 3-point territory. Earlier this week, the Red Storm poured in 47 second half points at DePaul on Thursday. Durand Johnson and Ron Mvouika combined for 24 of the team’s 47 points draining six 3-pointers to fuel a comeback bid that fell short, despite outscoring the Blue Demons by nine in the second stanza.
- St. John’s has held its ground in the team’s last two trips into challenging road venues. Earlier this month, the Red Storm battled then-No. 5 Xavier to the wire before a sellout crowd of 10,250 at the Cintas Center. Felix Balamou scored a career-high 20 points as St. John’s held a four-point lead early in the second half. The Red Storm shot 54.5 percent (18-33 FG) in the second half, never trailing by double-digits, and made it a four-point game on the team’s fifth second half 3-pointer with 35.0 seconds to play. Then on Feb. 13 before 18,052 fans at the Wells Fargo Center, St. John’s battled No. 1 Villanova deep into the second half with Amar Alibegovic going for a career high 18 points. It was a one-point game at halftime and an eight-point game with three minutes left in regulation before Villanova sealed it at the free-throw line.
- The Red Storm drained 10 triples Thursday at DePaul marking the fifth time this season the squad posted double-digit 3-pointers. St. John’s has averaged 7.8 3s in the last four contests.
Bluejay Bytes:
- Creighton is 18-2 in the last 20 years in its final home game of the regular-season, losing only in 2002 to Drake, and last year to Xavier. Each of the last 16 Creighton teams to win on Senior Day would go on to reach the postseason.
- There have only been four efforts of 40 points or more in a game at CenturyLink Center Omaha, as Cavel Witter (42 points vs. Bradley on 3/1/08), Evansville’s Colt Ryan (43 points at CU on 2/21/12), Doug McDermott (41 points vs. Wichita State on 3/2/13) and McDermott again (45 points vs. Providence on 3/7/14) have done it. All four 40-plus point outings came on a Creighton Senior Day. Paging Mo Watson!
- Creighton has won 92 straight home games against teams that enter with a record of .500 or worse. The last team to pull such an upset was February 25, 2002, when Drake won at the Omaha Civic Auditorium on a Senior Day. St. John’s enters Sunday’s match-up with an 8-21 record this season.
- Creighton is 28-1 all-time on Sunday’s at CenturyLink Center Omaha, with 27 straight wins. The only loss came on January 9, 2005 to Southern Illinois.
The Series:
St. John’s leads the all-time series with Creighton by a 7-5 count, but Creighton has won all four previous meetings in Omaha. The teams have traded wins and losses over the past eight meetings, including CU’s 80-70 win in Queens on New Year’s Eve this season.
The Last Time They Played:
Cole Huff scored eight of Creighton’s first 10 points, including two three-pointers, to get them off to a good start, and wound up with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds for the game. An 11-5 St. John’s run to close the first half made the game closer than it had been, but another hot start to a half put to rest any Red Storm comeback hopes. Geoff Groselle scored the first six points of the second half, James Milliken scored six straight of his own a couple of minutes later, and by the 13:30 mark the Jays had a double-digit lead again, 53-43. The outcome was never really in serious doubt again, and the Jays won 80-70.
Gratuitous Linkage:
Rumble In The Garden’s “Three Takeaways” from the Red Storm’s loss to DePaul on Thursday does a nice job of laying out what went wrong for them, and how it relates to what’s gone wrong for them all season.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On February 29, 2009, Creighton beat Illinois State 74-70 on the final day of the regular season to clinch a share of the MVC regular season title. The Redbirds, led by Osiris Eldridge, had beaten the Bluejays four straight times, including an 86-64 thumping in Normal on January 3 of that season. Booker Woodfox and P’Allen Stinnett both scored 20 points in the game, and Woodfox went a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line in the final 17 seconds to secure the win.
It was their tenth straight win, moving them to 14-4 in the league and 25-6 overall, and sent them to Arch Madness as the #2 seed after losing the tiebreaker to co-champion Northern Iowa. They’d blow a huge lead to Wichita State in the quarterfinals only to be saved by Woodfox on a buzzer-beater, and then be blown out by the Redbirds in the semis 73-49 to banish them to the NIT despite their regular season accomplishments.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
The Bottom Line:
Creighton sends their two seniors off in style, and clinches both a winning record in the Big East and a top-six finish.
Bluejays 78, St. John’s 66