[dropcap]On[/dropcap] Sunday, the Jays struggled at times with the full-court press that Chicago State played, made poor choices with their passes, and turned it over 17 times. That’s problematic because the next opponent, Oklahoma, plays an even more aggressive style of full-court defense with better athletes who are more experienced. It’s fair to assume the Jays’ veteran guards will be more locked in against a top-notch opponent in a rowdy arena instead of a mediocre opponent in a subdued, Sunday afternoon environment, and if they’re to pull out a victory, that assumption needs to come true.
Ranked 18th in the polls this week, Oklahoma is the highest-ranked non-conference opponent the Jays have played at home since 2001, when they played #17 Western Kentucky. That game was an all-time classic, a double OT win where Brody Deren outdueled All-American Chris Marcus in the paint and DeAnthony Bowden hit what would go on to be the game-winning three with 41 seconds left.
Last season in Lon Kruger’s third year at the helm in Norman, the Sooners went 23-10, finished second in the Big 12 to Kansas, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. They averaged 81.9 points per game, seventh best in the country, and started the same five players in every game. Those five players accounted for 77% of their scoring: Buddy Hield at 16.8 points per game, Cameron Clark 15.3, Isaiah Cousins 10.8, Jordan Woodard 10.3 and Ryan Spangler 9.8. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they were upset by #5 seed North Dakota State, 80-75 in OT.
Oklahoma returns 68% of its scoring from that team, thanks to four returning starters (Clark is the lone departing starter, and is now playing professionally in Italy). The four who are back: preseason All-Big 12 selection Buddy Hield, a junior guard (16.5 points per game), fellow junior guard Isaiah Cousins (11.0 ppg), sophomore guard Jordan Woodard (10.3 ppg, 4.6 assists per game) and junior forward Ryan Spangler (9.6 ppg, Big 12-leading 9.3 rebounds per game).
Hield was named to the preseason All-Big 12 Conference team, and for good reason: he led the team in scoring last year, averaging 16.5 points per game while shooting 44.5 percent from the floor and 38.6 percent from deep on 7.1 three-point attempts per game. Those skills were on display Sunday, when he set a school record for most three-pointers without a miss, going 7-7 from long range in a 78-53 win.
Woodard broke the Oklahoma school record for free throws made by a freshman with 146 last year, part of a huge debut campaign that saw him take on a leading role. On Sunday, he filled up the stat sheet with seven points, seven assists, and four steals.
Spangler, at 6’8″, managed to lead the conference in rebounding despite playing out of position at center most of the year. What will he do now that he can play his more natural position? If Sunday was any indication, it’s bad news for opponents: he registered a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards.
And then there’s Houston transfer TaShawn Thomas (15.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.4 blocks in 2013-14), who sought a waiver to become eligible without redshirting, and was granted that waiver over the weekend. Merely by suiting up on Sunday, he immediately became one of the Sooners best players, and many believe he makes them a legit Top Ten team. Why? He gives them a legit scoring threat in the paint, and combined with Hield’s prowess from behind the arc, it forces defenses to pick their poison. Thomas is also a ferocious rebounder and an elite shot-blocker; he’ll take some of the pressure off of Spangler, and could make him even better. It’s a season-changing addition, taking the Sooners from a Top 25 team to Final Four contender.
Oklahoma is a very, very good team, and we’ll know significantly more about the Creighton Bluejays after this one than we did after two games against overmatched cupcake opponents. This group of Bluejays has yet to be challenged. They’ve yet to face adversity. If they get behind early, who leads the comeback? If they need a big shot late in the game, who takes it? If they need free throws in the final minute when 18,000 people are eerily silent, can they convert? If they need a defensive stop, who guards the ball? We’ll get answers to a lot of those questions on Wednesday night. Let’s hope we like what we find out.
About the Sooners: After averaging 70.6 points per game in 2012-13, last year’s Sooners averaged 81.9 points to rank seventh nationally out of 351 teams, OU’s highest scoring average in 20 years … The Sooners scored at least 80 points 18 times last year after doing it 17 times the previous three seasons combined … Oklahoma returns 71% of its three-point production from last season’s team that averaged a school-record 8.6 treys per game, and welcome back their top three 3-point producers: Buddy Hield (90 makes), Frank Booker (42) and Isaiah Cousins (38) … OU was ranked No. 19 in the AP and USA Today Coaches top-25 preseason polls, the first time it has been ranked to start a season in five years, and moved up to No. 18 after winning on Sunday.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Prior to Sunday, Will Artino’s previous career-high scoring game was 14 points (done three times), and his previous high in steals was two. His five steals in the game gave him six this season in 39 minutes, just three steals behind his entire 2013-14 total — which he compiled in 457 minutes … Creighton has won 20 straight home games (tied for seventh-longest nationally) and has never trailed in 10 of those contests … Impressively, Creighton has won 35 straight games when leading at halftime and 38 straight games when leading with 5:00 left … Here’s a fun stat: On Sunday, Will Artino snapped a streak of 17 straight games in which Creighton’s leading scorer was a walk-on. Huh? Doug McDermott was the leading scorer in each of the last 16 games last year, and walk-on Rick Kreklow led the team in scoring Friday night.
The Series: Oklahoma leads the all-time series 2-1. CU’s lone win came back in 1921, by a score of 27-16.
Greg McDermott is 1-4 all-time vs Oklahoma, with all five games coming while he was coach at Iowa State. Amazingly, though, McDermott has never coached against Lon Kruger, despite the two coaches combining for nearly 1500 games coached.
The Last Time They Played: On December 26, 1986, Tony Barone’s Bluejays travelled to Oklahoma City to take part in a four-team event — the 51st Annual All-College Tournament — featuring Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, and Creighton. The Sooners were ranked #6 and had a 6-1 record entering the game, with their only loss coming in a true road game at #1 UNLV, 98-81. With OU known for a fast-paced run-and-gun style under coach Billy Tubbs, the Jays figured their best shot was to slow the game down.
“Oklahoma is a big-time basketball team,” Creighton Coach Tony Barone told the media the day before the game. “It’s the best collection of athletes we’ll see all year. They are very physical and very quick. We’ve got to play very patient basketball in terms of shot selection and play very aggressively on the boards against them.”
Well, the game didn’t exactly follow script. Creighton came out of the gates shooting lights-out, and made 19 of their first 30 shots, thanks to 22 points from senior Gary Swain. Oklahoma shot even better, though, and led 58-47 at the break. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw we were 19 for 30 and down by 11,” Barone said afterward. “It’s a joke. There’s nothing I can say about that. You figure you would be up 10 when you shoot like that.”
How the teams went about scoring couldn’t have been more different, however. CU was red-hot from behind the arc, while OU was unstoppable in the paint. The Sooners got 29 points from 6’9″ forward Harvey Grant (on 10-15 shooting) and 25 points from 6’5″ forward Darryl Kennedy (on 10-14 shooting). “We felt when we got the ball inside we could score,” Tubbs told the media after the game, “but I got the feeling they probably felt when they got it outside on us they could score. We could say we weren’t playing any defense, but we tried our whole repertoire of defenses.”
The second half was even wilder than the first, with the teams essentially trading jump shots for layups; the Sooners increased their lead thanks to a massive discrepancy at the free throw line. They connected on 25-32 free throws, while the Jays attempted just six FT’s — CU was whistled for 26 fouls, while Oklahoma was called for just 10, and didn’t have a foul called on them in the second half until there was just 2:26 left. Creighton’s post players committed 15 fouls trying to defend the Sooners inside, as Mike Pomeroy and Brian Darcy fouled out, while Bill Nygard finished with four fouls.
“It’s ridiculous,” Barone stewed after the game. “I know they might not play a lot of defense, but I think there has to be some calls.” Tubbs countered, “We couldn’t get close enough to anybody to foul them!”
Swain wound up with a career-high 34 points on 15-28 shooting, and played lock-down defense on the Sooners’ leading scorer, Tim McCalister, holding him to 13 points (he averaged 25.6 coming into the game). Rod Mason scored 22 points for the Jays, making 4-7 from three-point range. The 106-89 loss dropped the Jays to 5-4 on the season, and they’d go on to finish 9-19 in Barone’s second year at the helm. Oklahoma went on to finish third in the Big Eight, and lost in the NCAA West Region Semifinals to Iowa.
Gratuitous Linkage: SBNation has a great article explaining just how big of an addition TaShawn Thomas is for Oklahoma.
Thomas gives them a go-to option in the front court and enough talent in the lineup to conceivably matchup with any team in the conference.
With Thomas, every projected starter for Oklahoma averaged over 9.5 points per game last season. Most teams are fortunate to have two or three scoring options this early in the season. The Sooners are going to be able to beat teams from the outside, in the paint and in transition. The threat of Hield’s shooting paired with Thomas’ penchant for scoring inside is a great combination for the Sooners. At 6’8, 240 pounds, Thomas has the size to match up with any power forward in the country.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: On November 19, 2005, Jimmy Motz had a then-career high 17 points on 6-7 shooting off the bench, and the Jays rolled to a season-opening 87-55 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Holding a 36-31 lead with just over four minutes left in the first half, CU reeled off 13 straight points. The first six came courtesy of back-to-back threes by Motz, and Nate Funk followed with one of his own moments later. Suddenly, what had been a close game was 53-36 at the break, and it was never close again.
Motz wound up 5-6 from deep, leading four Jays in double figures — Dane Watts contributed 15, Funk had 14, and Anthony Tolliver chipped in 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Just missing that group was Nick Porter, who had nine points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: Playing in the Big 12, Oklahoma is no stranger to intimidating road environs. As Big East teams found out last year, the CLink can be as loud and intimidating as any arena in the country — ask Marquette or Providence or Xavier or Villanova about that. Well, the CLink needs to be ROWDY on Wednesday. I’m talking New Years Eve rowdy. Wragge dropping long-range bombs on Xavier rowdy. Senior Night against Providence rowdy. Rowdy with a capital R. Loud, intimidating, impossible for a road team to talk to one another Rowdy.
Remember this quote from last January after the Xavier game?
“The fans have really bought-in right now. They wouldn’t let us hang our heads, and they were ready to go every possession. And as soon as we showed a glimmer of a run to get back into it, several times we had communication problems on defense because our guys couldn’t hear one another. The crowd was that loud. If we can’t hear each other when we’re standing next to one another, there’s no way Xavier players can hear their coach from the bench. We won the game today because of the crowd. If this game’s played on a neutral court somewhere with 800 people in the building, we don’t win this game. We won today because of our home crowd. They were outstanding.” -Coach Greg McDermott
That’s what we need on Wednesday. Welcome to the jungle, baby.
The Bottom Line: I think this will be closer than the experts think. I know that I’ll be hoarse on Thursday morning from doing everything in my vocal chords’ power to will the Bluejays to victory.
The question is, can Creighton make winning plays in a close game against a Top 15 team? By March, this team will have answered the bell and will know who fills what roles. On November 19, we don’t yet know what will happen when they’re challenged. We don’t know what will happen the first time they face adversity. We don’t know who will spearhead the comeback if they fall behind early. We don’t know who wants the shot if they need a bucket late in the game. We don’t know who will lead the defense if they need a stop late.
We’ll get answers to a lot of those questions on Wednesday night. I think we’ll like the answers.
Creighton 76, Oklahoma 74