[dropcap]Creighton’s[/dropcap] loss last Monday night to Butler was a gut-punch at the time, as they blew a six-point lead in the final minutes to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It’s particularly galling eight days later when you look at how the final two weeks of the season set up — three of the final four games are winnable, with a game tonight at a reeling DePaul squad, a game Saturday at a Seton Hall team in disarray and playing without two key cogs, and a home game against a middling Xavier team that the Jays beat in Cincinnati. If they’d held on to beat Butler, the possibility of going 7-3 in their final 10 conference games after their ghastly 0-8 start was a distinct possibility. That would have made them 7-11 for the year, which I think everyone could agree would have been an absolutely remarkable feat given where they were in late January.
I’ll stop now before I make everybody angry. I’m furious just thinking about what might have been.
Creighton (12-15) and DePaul (12-16) have nearly identical overall records, but they’re moving in different directions. The Blue Demons have lost four straight games and seven of their last eight, are 3-9 in their last 12 games after their 3-0 start, and are 6-9 in the league. Meanwhile the Bluejays are 3-3 in their last six games, and are 3-11 in the league after their historically terrible start.
The Blue Demons are one of two teams in the Big East (along with St. John’s) to feature four of the top 25 scorers in the league. Billy Garrett Jr. (13.1 ppg) is 12th, Myke Henry (12.4 ppg) is 14th, Jamee Crockett (11.4 ppg) is 20th and Tommy Hamilton IV (10.6 ppg) is tied for 22nd, giving them a strong offensive attack. They average 71.2 points per game, which is good. They give up an average of 74.1 points per game, which is bad. They’ve made 226 three-pointers on the year, or 8.07 per game, and allowed just 143 from their opponents (5.0 per game). That’s good. But they’ve also been outrebounded by nearly five per game, which is bad. It’s overly-simplistic, but basically they’re a team that scores a lot and struggles to score more than their defense gives up.
Billy Garrett, Jr. leads them in scoring at 13.1 points per game and in assists with 108 (3.85 per game). He’s scored in double-figured in 10 of 15 Big East games, with his high-water mark coming against St. John’s when he logged 20 points thanks to 13 free throws. That’s been a trend for Garrett this year — 42% of his points have come from the free throw line (155 of his 366 points scored). Here’s a wild stat: Among the Big East’s top 15 players in free throw percentage, only two players have ATTEMPTED more free throws than Garrett has MADE this season.
Second in scoring is Myke Henry, the 6’6″, 230-pound Illinois transfer who’s averaging 12.4 points per game in his first year for the Blue Demons. He’s cooled off significantly in conference play; he averaged 14.4 points in 13 non-conference games including 29 against Stanford, 24 against Lehigh, and 22 against George Washington, and is averaging just 10.7 in Big East games with his highest scoring output being 19 vs St. John’s. In the first game in Omaha, he scored 11 points on 4-9 shooting.
Jamee Crockett, a 6’4″, 205-pound senior, is third on the team in scoring at 11.4 points per game. He’s the only four-year senior on the roster, and is one of three players to start every game this season. Crockett has scored in double-figures in 18 games this year, and has been hot lately — he’s averaging 15.0 points while shooting 52.6% (30-57) over the last five games. He had nine points and six rebounds against the Jays last month.
Their fourth player averaging in double figures is Tommy Hamilton IV, a 6’11”, 255-pound sophomore center who’s split time coming off the bench and starting in the middle. Hamilton IV averages 10.6 points a game this year, but has seen his average dip to 8.2 points in conference games with just four games in double figures. When he doesn’t start, Forrest Robinson, a 6’10”, 230-pound senior generally gets the nod. Robinson averages 6.5 points a game, but torched the Bluejays with five three-pointers in the first five minutes of the game in Omaha last month.
Losers of seven of their last eight games, DePaul has allowed their opponents to shoot greater than .500 five times in those eight games. Not coincidentally, DePaul’s lone win among those eight games was over Seton Hall, who shot just 36% (18-50) in the game. On the other side of the coin, all three of Creighton’s Big East wins have come when scoring 70 points or more, as the Jays average 77.7 points per game in conference wins compared to 57.4 per contest in league losses.
Given the fortunes of these two teams the past month, it’s clear they’re heading in opposite directions — the Jays are better than they were a month ago, and a lot better than they were two months ago, while DePaul is back to being DePaul. With eight days off to lick their wounds from the Butler game and prepare for DePaul, I like the Jays chances a lot in this one.
Quick Notes on the Blue Demons:
- At 6-9 in the league, a win tonight would give them seven — the most since the Blue Demons totaled nine Big East wins during the 2006-07 campaign. A win would also give DePaul it’s first 10-win season at home since going 14-2 that same year.
- DePaul’s 226 three-pointers this season are on pace to set a new program season record. The 2007-08 team holds the current top mark with 231 three’s. The Blue Demons enter the Creighton game averaging 8.1 three’s per game this season. In three of Oliver Purnell’s five seasons at DePaul, the Blue Demons have finished or will finish in the top six on the team season three-point chart. The 2011-12 team is currently second and the 2013-14 squad is tied for fifth.
- In addition to the top five ranking in three’s made, the 2014-15 team is currently fifth with 624 three-point attempts and tied for sixth with a .362 three-point percentage this season.
Bluejay Bytes:
- The loss to Butler last Monday was the fourth different Big East game this season in which the Bluejays have lost after allowing a go-ahead score in the final minute, and third in the final 15 seconds. After allowing just two game-winning go-ahead scores in the last 10 seconds in the first 11 seasons at CenturyLink Center Omaha, it was the second time this year the Jays had been done in by late heroics at home.
- Creighton has won each of its last seven games played in the state of Illinois, an impressive road run by any standard. The Bluejays have won all seven of those games by seven points or more, and they’ve come by an average of 15.9 points. One common theme in each win has been a high-octane offense. The Bluejays have averaged 83.6 points in those seven games, shooting 57.7 percent from the floor (206-357), 49.6 percent from three-point range (69-139) and 77.6 percent (104-134) at the line.
- Creighton’s bench has outscored the opposition’s bench in 10 straight games. For the season, the Bluejay bench has outscored its counterparts 744-421. The 744 points off the bench are the most in the five-year Greg McDermott era, and Creighton’s most since scoring 871 points off the pine in 2009-10 under Dana Altman.
The Series:
Tuesday is the 27th all-time meeting between the two programs, and the Blue Demons hold a 16-10 advantage in the series. The Bluejays swept all three meetings a year ago including an 84-62 decision in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals on March 13.
Greg McDermott is 3-1 against DePaul, and coach Oliver Purnell. Purnell is 1-3 when facing Creighton.
The Last Time They Played:
Forrest Robinson opened the game with four straight three-pointers, part of an early barrage that gave the Blue Demons a 20-5 lead just five minutes into the game. The Jays spent the rest of the game fighting back, cut the deficit to 66-60 with 2:01 to play after an 8-2 run, but didn’t score the rest of the way and lost 70-60.
Gratuitous Linkage:
Following a 68-63 loss to Georgetown where the Blue Demons allowed Josh Smith to grab 11 rebounds — and the Hoyas to outrebound them 43-30 — Oliver Purnell was succinct in analyzing why they lost. He told the media afterward, “I thought defensively down the stretch, we were really, really good. But, we didn’t rebound the ball. We did a good job stopping them on the first shot, but we were giving two or three shots. We have to do a better job of finishing things off.”
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On February 24, 2007, a national TV audience on ESPN2 watched as seniors Nate Funk, Anthony Tolliver, Nick Porter and Manny Gakou combined for 46 points on Senior Day. The Bluejays’ 71-54 throttling of Wichita State left the Jays alone in second place at 13-5, and set them up for a run through the MVC Tournament that culminated in an NCAA Tournament berth.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
This could be the theme song of Creighton Basketball 2014-15.
The Bottom Line:
This is a winnable game if the Jays can shoot even reasonably well, and the Blue Demons have made a habit of allowing opponents to do that. For that reason, I think the Jays pick up the “W” tonight.
Creighton 72, DePaul 65