[dropcap]When[/dropcap] Creighton lost in their first game of the Big East Tournament, there was very real concern it had knocked them out of the NIT — and given comments from the staff about not being interested in the CBI, CIT or Vegas 16 — that it had ended their season. Those fears were unfounded, as it turns out, because the Jays not only made the field, they got a home game, and a game against a good power conference opponent to boot.
A year removed from missing the postseason for the first time in almost two decades, Creighton is back in the postseason and continues to regain solid footing in the post-Doug McDermott Era. The NIT is viewed by some of the more cynical Bluejay fans as an unexciting consolation prize and a disappointment because of what it isn’t — namely, the NCAA Tournament — but if you ask me, it sure as hell beats what the Jays were doing this week last March.
The Alabama Crimson Tide finished with the same 18-14 record as the Bluejays, and like CU, was picked to finish second-to-last in their conference in preseason polls. Also like CU, they spent time on the NCAA Tournament bubble in January and February before a late-season slump knocked them out. They were listed among the “Last Four Out” in The Bracketeer’s bracket on WBR as late as February 29, but they lost three of their last four following that projection, and five of their final seven overall. They remained on the bubble despite hovering around .500 in the SEC because they played a rock-solid non conference slate, and while they missed out on the biggest opportunities (their three losses came to Oregon, Xavier, and Dayton), they did beat Wichita State, Notre Dame, and Clemson, all of whom finished at or near the Top 50.
A team with not much returning experience or production (their top returning scorer averaged just 8.2 points per game last season), Alabama got off to a 16-9 start and 7-6 in the SEC, including wins over four ranked teams. Given what could have been, the NIT is being viewed as a bit of a disappointment if you gauge Alabama fan sentiment by what you read online, but for a team picked second-to-last in the SEC in the preseason and finishing their first season under new coach Avery Johnson, it seems like a good opportunity to springboard into 2016-17 where they’ll be expected to be much improved…just like Creighton.
It’s one of the most intriguing first-round matchups in this year’s NIT, and no doubt that’s why ESPN picked it up for television on the flagship channel, while televising the others elsewhere on the ESPN family of networks (or online only via ESPN3).
One of the storylines for the Bluejays is the health of their team. Cole Huff’s knee and Isaiah Zierden’s shoulder are both likely to require off-season surgery; Huff seemed no worse for wear last Thursday night in NYC as he had his finest game in a Bluejay uniform, but Zierden was clearly hampered by his shoulder and played just 19 minutes. Maurice Watson’s groin pull didn’t keep him out of the lineup, but his explosiveness and juking ability was clearly compromised. Toby Hegner and Zach Hanson are also nursing nagging injuries.
There’s a school of thought that the Jays should shut Zierden down and use the NIT as an opportunity to play Malik Albert at the “2”, that they should give Ronnie Harrell heavy minutes at one of the forward spots, and use the tourney to build for next year. That sort of experimentation recipe worked brilliantly in the 2011 CBI; after being a slow, methodical, defensive-first team in Greg McDermott’s first season, they opened things up in the CBI and layed the groundwork for the offensive juggernaut that would be unleashed the next three years. Will they do something similar this year with their young players? Or will they play the guys that got them here?
Speaking of experiments, another storyline to follow is NIT allowing players to foul six times before being disqualified, instead of five. The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a package of rules changes last June, including the switch to the 30-second shot clock, and buried in that release was this note:
“The panel also approved an experimental rule to allow players six personal fouls, instead of five, in the 2016 postseason tournaments other than the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.”
That’s a potentially huge thing for a Creighton team who’s big men have been plagued by foul trouble lately; giving Groselle and Hanson six fouls to work with instead of five should keep them on the floor a bit longer Tuesday night.
Scouting Alabama:
Senior guard Retin Obasohan earned first team all-SEC honors and all-defensive team honors, and averages 17.7 points a game. Obasohan had 14 games of 20 or more points and was remarkably consistent, scoring in double figures in 26 of their 32 games. He upped his scoring average to 20.6 points in SEC games, making him the third-highest scorer in the league, and he had several monster games highlighted by a career-high 35 pts at LSU, 32 points vs. Arkansas, 29 points in a road loss at Kentucky, 27 points at Auburn, and 25 points and a career-high 8 asts at Mississippi State. Something that sticks out is that of those five games, four came on the road.
Obasohan hit a last-second bucket to topple then-#17 Notre Dame 74-73 in Orlando, their second win over a Top 20 team in three days in that tourney (having defeated Wichita State previously). That was his breakout performance, and since then he’s become one of the most improved players in the country (though Ben Bentil might have something to say about that). Obasohan nearly tripled his per game scoring average from a year ago, while all of his other numbers have had drastic improvements. Last season, Obasohan averaged 6.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists in 19.5 minutes per game. He enters this year’s NIT averaging 17.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 32.4 minutes per contest, with 14 games of 20 or more points – 11 of which came during SEC play.
The vast majority of his offense comes inside the arc, as he makes his living driving to the basket. Just 125 of his 400 field goal attempts have been three-pointers, though he is a good shooter from outside when he does shoot it (47-125, 37.6%). He’s gotten to the line 203 times, or just over six times a game, and shoots 69.0% from the line. Obasohan can be turnover prone, owning 83 assists and 80 turnovers a game.
Junior forward Shannon Hale and senior guard Arthur Edwards rank second and third in scoring average at 10.8 ppg and 9.7 ppg, respectively. Hale, who missed several games due to injury during the season, is a streaky shooter who has been known to let shooting woes affect him in other facets of his game. Half of his shot attempts come from outside, and he makes 33.1% of his attempts. The 6’8″ forward is also turnover prone, giving it up 56 times (nearly twice per game).
Edwards is a graduate transfer from New Mexico, and leads the team and ranks fifth in the SEC in three-point field goal percentage at 40.8 percent (71-of-174) for the year. He has 17 double-digit scoring games on the year, including a career-high 20 points and 6 threes vs. Kentucky in the SEC Tournament.
Sophomore Riley Norris stepped up his play during the SEC season, featuring a game with 27 points and a school-record eight 3’s in a win over South Carolina, and a career-high 16 rebounds in the win at LSU on February 17. Norris leads the team in rebounding in SEC games (6.1 rpg), ranks second in three-point field goal percentage (.380), fourth in scoring (8.3 ppg) and second in minutes per game (31.6). At 6’7″ he’s a bit of an in-between guy, and can’t really create his own shot, though he can make teams pay when they leave him open.
Alabama is not a great offensive team, ranking solidly average (104.7, ranked 161st) in adjusted offensive efficiency per KenPom. They average 66.8 points per game, shoot 42.7 percent from the field, 34.3 percent from three-point range and 64.0 percent at the free throw line. They make up for it defensively, where they hold opponents to just 67.8 points per game and rank 48th (97.3) in adjusted defensive efficiency. They rank third in the SEC in scoring defense (67.8), blocked shots per game (5.3) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.328), and is sixth in field goal percentage defense (.407).
Curiously, Alabama is out-rebounded by 3.2 caroms per contest and has committed 88 more turnovers than it has assists. The entirety of that rebounding disadvantage comes on the offensive glass, as the Tide have grabbed 796 total rebounds to their opponents 798 — but opponents have grabbed 103 more offensive boards than ‘Bama has. That’s absurd; their opponent has grabbed 10 or more offensive rebounds in 26 of their 32 games, and 15 or more 11 times!
This looks like a good matchup for the Bluejays, because Alabama is not likely to get a lot of offensive boards and second-chance opportunities (which doomed Creighton several times in Big East play), while conversely, the Bluejay big men should be able to get enough defensive boards for their guards to run in transition. The early line has Creighton favored by 7.5, and unless they have one of those nights where none of their shots fall (which, for any Alabama fans reading this, isn’t out of the realm of possibility), a two-possession game sounds about right.
Quick Notes on the Crimson Tide:
- Alabama went 7-9 against teams that qualified for the postseason (not including the Vegas 16), including a 3-7 mark against NCAA qualifiers (wins over Wichita State, Notre Dame and Texas A&M), a 2-2 mark against NIT qualifiers (South Carolina and Florida), a 2-0 mark vs. the CIT (Louisiana-Lafayette and Norfolk State).
- Alabama has played just two true road games in its last 13 NIT contests and owns an overall record of 4-3 in true road NIT games. Alabama’s last true road win in the NIT game on March 23, 2001, when the Tide captured a 85-77 double overtime win at Purdue. That win sent the Tide to Madison Square Garden
- The Tide boasts an overall record of 24-16 (.600) in the NIT and has won seven of its last 10 games in the postseason event. Alabama has reached the NIT semifinals on six different occasions, coming in 2011, 2001, 1996, 1979, 1977 and 1973.
Bluejay Bytes:
- At the Division I level Greg McDermott has taken six teams to the NCAA Tournament and one to the CBI, but this will be his first time coaching a team in the NIT. McDermott is 7-8 in his Division I career in the postseason, as he was 0-3 at Northern Iowa and is 7-5 at Creighton.
- Alabama is just the third different SEC school to ever visit Omaha to play Creighton, and just the second since 1941. Vanderbilt played at CU on consecutive nights during the 1936 season, while Kentucky played at Creighton on December 19, 1940, then returned for a March 23, 2009 NIT game.
- Since the NIT was trimmed to 32 teams and taken over by the NCAA in 2007, home-court teams are a combined 187-65 in the event. In the last nine years, home teams are 109-35 in the first round, 55-17 in the second round and 23-13 in the quarterfinals.
- Only one current Creighton player has ever played in the NIT, Maurice Watson Jr. Watson had seven points, 12 assists and four rebounds vs. Illinois in the 2014 NIT while playing at Boston University. The Fighting Illini won that game, 66-62.
- Creighton is returning to the postseason for the 18th time in 19 years when it plays in the NIT on Tuesday. That span includes 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, six NIT appearances (including 2016), one CBI and one CIT appearance.
The Series / The Last Time They Played:
Creighton and Alabama have met exactly one time, in the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and Greg McDermott is 1-1 in his career against Alabama, losing 83-68 on December 27, 2007 in Las Vegas.
The Bluejays won 58-57 in that lone meeting, and despite a litany of missed free throws in the final minute, escaped thanks to a key defensive stop and some of the best late-game coaching strategy in the Coach Mac Era.
Gregory Echenique missed the front end of a one-and-one with 33 seconds left, but Doug McDermott grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He made only one of two free throws, but their defense forced Alabama into a two-point shot attempt, which they made, leaving them a point short. Then Josh Jones was fouled, and he missed BOTH free throws. Here’s how we described the final moments:
“As the teams huddled at their benches before the final possession, Greg McDermott was playing chess and Alabama’s coach Anthony Grant was playing checkers. McDermott sent the Jays out showing man-to-man defense, and instructed his players to switch to a zone at the last possible second. When they did, it confused Alabama, who had called in a play to attack a man-to-man defense from the bench just before inbounding the ball.
Grant panicked, calling timeout to set up a play to attack the zone defense, but in doing so cost his team half of the 4 seconds they had to work with. The play they ran was familiar to the Jays. “We felt like we knew what play they were going to run from one of their earlier SEC games that we saw on the Internet, and thought we could cover it in the zone the best,” Greg McDermott commented afterward. “Josh Jones did a really good job of it. He got Releford’s right hand, and made him take a really tough shot.”
Trevor Releford’s off-balance shot was well short, Doug McDermott secured the rebound and then launched the ball into the rafters as the Jays celebrated their first NCAA Tournament win in 10 years.”
NIT History:
Creighton owns a 5-10 all-time record in 10 previous appearances in the NIT. CU has not appeared in the NIT since 2009, when it topped Bowling Green 73-71 before falling to Kentucky, 65-63. They’ve gone 1-1 in each of its last three NIT appearances (2009, 2008, 2006), and have not won an NIT game away from home since a March 25, 1942 victory over Toledo at Madison Square Garden (the one that was open from 1925-68).
Alabama is making its 14th NIT appearance in school history and its fourth in the last six years. The 14 NIT berths are most all-time in the SEC; Tennessee, which made its last NIT appearance in 2013, is second with 13. Alabama is 24-16 (.600) all-time in the event. The 24 victories gives the Tide the most NIT wins among SEC schools, surpassing South Carolina’s 21 wins in NIT play. They’ve advanced to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden six times – the most of any SEC team, and third most all-time for any team. They’ve never won the tourney despite those six semifinal appearances, however.
Gratuitous Linkage:
Some of Alabama’s fans may be disappointed by the NIT berth, but their players are fired up. According to a report on AL.com, the team got into a dustup at practice Monday before leaving for Omaha, something that pleases coach Avery Johnson:
“I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it,” Johnson said with a grin. “I was just hoping … because I was on the floor trying to break them up, I was just hoping I didn’t get punched in the eye. Because if I would have gone home with a black eye, it wouldn’t have been nice.”
Johnson wouldn’t reveal who did the scrapping, but said it was a good sign. He said his really good teams had three or four of those in a season.
“It’s good stuff. I don’t want to divulge too much, but it’s good for you guys to know that. And I like that kind of stuff. I like it. You go to some football practices, you always see guys getting tangled up. We need more of that.”
Even More Gratuitous Linkage:
How has Alabama changed under Avery Johnson? In this AL.com piece from early February, they detail, both statistically and schematically, how the Crimson Tide are different from the team they ended 2015 with.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On March 15, 2002, Creighton defeated Florida 83-82 in a double-overtime thriller in the first round of the NCAA Tournament when Terrell Taylor nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer. It’s one of the most famous wins in program history, and was featured last summer in our Bluejay Rewind series.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
In looking back at the pregame write-ups before the 2012 NCAA Tournament win over Alabama, I learned that this montage from Rocky IV appeared in this spot of the Primer. As you know, I’m not superstitious AT ALL (read: I very much am!) so we’re running with it again. Besides, you can’t beat a good montage set to a Robert Tepper song.
The Bottom Line:
Alabama will try to use their aggressive defense to slow down the game and limit possessions, a style that Creighton doesn’t thrive in but has won games with in Big East play. Conversely, Creighton will hope to get stops, and run in transition to quicken the pace and increase possessions. The Tide aren’t suited for that style of game, and if the Jays can get out and run, I like their chances a lot.