Old MVC rival Tulsa comes to Omaha tonight, a year after having their spirit broken by Doug McDermott in a 83-64 win where McDermott scored 35 points on 16-23 shooting. It was a virtuoso performance that led Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik to make that remark following the game, one that was picked up by national media as the Doug McDermott Bandwagon began to pick up support outside of Omaha — SportsCenter even named Doug “King of the Night” on the evening edition. I remember sitting at the Bluejay Banter watch party for that game, and being completely flabbergasted at the offensive moves Doug executed against the Tulsa defense. He was as close to unstoppable as you can get, and by the mid-way point in the second half no one in the bar had any superlatives left. We simply sat there with our jaws figuratively on the ground.
The Golden Hurricane team that will matchup with the Jays tonight is a much different one than they saw last December in Oklahoma. For a myriad of reasons, Tulsa had a ton of roster turnover from last year, and they boast one of the youngest and most-inexperienced teams in the country this year. They have a whopping eight newcomers, including six freshman and two transfers — among the 13 players on the Tulsa roster, they have just 12 total years of experience at the college level (including junior college and years played at other schools).
New coach Danny Manning has them playing at a faster pace, and his first recruiting class includes three guards who have the ability to create their own shots, something they lacked a year ago. One of those newcomers is freshman guard James Woodard, who leads the active Golden Hurricane players in scoring, averaging 13.6 points while shooting 49 percent from the floor, and also averages 5.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He’s been named Conference USA Freshman of the Week twice already this year, picking up the first honor after scoring 28 points in the season opener against LSU Shreveport on Nov. 11, when he made 9-of-12 field goals, including 5-of-6 three-pointers and 5-of-5 free throws in just 20 minutes on the floor. Woodard picked up his second award on Nov. 26 after averaging 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists against Jackson State and Stephen F. Austin. In those two games he shot .500 (14-of-28) from the field.
Another newcomer is Shaquille Harrison — yes, he goes by Shaq — who nabbed seven steals in the season-opening win over LSU Shreveport. He averages 6.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game, and in a win over Missouri State earlier this month he filled up the stat sheet, scoring 10 points with seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. The 6’3″ freshman has started all ten games in the backcourt alongside Woodard; joining them in the starting backcourt is the team’s lone senior, Scottie Haralson. Starting all ten games, Haralson has made 23 three-pointers this season – an average of 2.3 threes per game – to raise his career total to 195 three-pointers, fifth-most in Tulsa history. Last year against Creighton, he scored eight points on 3-8 shooting in 34 minutes. In case you’re curious, Haralson is the only Golden Hurricane player to see action in last year’s game who will play meaningful minutes tonight.
If the backcourt is young, the frontcourt is even moreso, as all four of Tulsa’s post players this season are either new to Tulsa or in their first year of playing collegiate basketball. Brandon Swannegan is the only post player who was on the roster in 2011-12, but he redshirted last year. Kauri Black played for three years at Northeastern University, and is in his first season at Tulsa, while both D’Andre Wright and Zeldric King are freshmen in their first years of college basketball.
Black graduated in three years from Northeastern, and was able to play immediately after transferring for his senior year. He has started all 10 games, averaging 6.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and against Wichita State in late November he had an impressive game, scoring nine points on 4-6 shooting with five rebounds.
Wright has played in all 10 games, and averages 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 54 percent from the floor. Impressively, since moving into the starting lineup in early December, he’s improved on those numbers, shooting 60% from the floor while averaging 10.8 points and 5.8 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Rashard Smith has missed the last six games with a foot injury, and isn’t expected to play tonight either. His loss is a big one, as he averages a team-high 14.5 points to go along with 4.8 rebounds per game; he also 62 percent from the field. When he returns, it will be huge boost, but they’ll still be shorthanded tonight.
This is a talented team, but with three freshmen starters and two others getting major minutes, they’re also a team plagued by freshmen mistakes more than most. Costly turnovers, foul trouble and sub-par free throw shooting have all hurt them at one time or another this season. The next two years when these two teams meet (this is the second of a four-game contract), Tulsa might very well be one of the best teams on Creighton’s non-conference schedule. But for tonight, Creighton’s depth, overall talent and experience will be too much.
About the Golden Hurricane: This is the second of a four-game non-conference road trip for Tulsa, as they lost to Arkansas-Little Rock last week and will travel to Oral Roberts and Florida State before returning home … Tulsa averages 68.8 points per game while holding foes to 62.5 per contest … The Hurricane have held opponents to 39.7 percent shooting from the field and 59.4 percent free-throw shooting … Tulsa owns 105 assists but has turned the ball over 164 times … In 2008, Danny Manning was on the Kansas bench as an assistant coach as the Jayhawks won their first two NCAA Tournament games in Omaha before eventually winning a national title, and this past March, Manning was again a Kansas assistant coach as KU won its first two NCAA Tournament games in Omaha, only to fall just short in the national title game vs. Kentucky. He’s 4-0 all-time when sitting on the bench at CenturyLink Center Omaha.
One Big Paragraph with Lots O’Dots™: Creighton is 10-1 heading into its final game before Christmas break. This is just the fourth time in program history the Jays own 10 or more wins by Dec. 25th, and a win on Wednesday will make this year’s team the first to ever reach 11 victories before Christmas … Saturday’s win over Cal was the first time since Feb. 14, 2004 that all five Creighton starters played 30 minutes or more, a double-OT loss at Drake that featured a starting five of Johnny Mathies, Nate Funk, Michael Lindeman, Mike Grimes and Brody Deren. Prior to last Saturday, Creighton hadn’t had a non-overtime game where all five starters logged 30 or more minutes since Dec. 23, 1992 at Siena, when Matt Petty, Andre Tucker, Mike Amos, Jason Bey and Jason Singleton did it.
The RUN-DMD Show: Doug McDermott scored 30 points in a Dec. 9 win vs. Akron, then followed that performance with a season-high 34 last Saturday night at Cal, making him the first Creighton player with 30 points in consecutive contests since Bob Harstad in 1990. If McDermott can score 30 or more on Wednesday vs. Tulsa, he’d be CU’s first player with three straight games or 30 or more since Benoit Benjamin in 1985.
The RUN-DMD Show, Part Deux: Eight days after tying a career-high with five-three pointers in a 29-point blowout of Atlantic-10 favorite Saint Joseph’s, McDermott shot 6-for-8 from downtown in a 77-61 win over defending MAC champion Akron on Dec. 9th. He followed that up by making 4-7 from behind the arc in the win over Cal.
His career 46% accuracy from three-point range ranks tops in CU history — yes, it’s even higher than Kyle Korver or Booker Woodfox. But here’s what really crazy. Since starting his career 15-of-53 (28.3 percent) from downtown over his first 20 games, McDermott has made 113-of-225 three-pointers (50.2 percent) in his past 65 games since then.
The Last Time They Played: Last December 19, Creighton beat Tulsa 83-64. The Jays fell behind 5-4 in the opening minutes before a 10-0 run that included scores from four different men. With Gregory Echenique and Ethan Wragge on the bench with two fouls, freshman center Will Artino made the most of his opportunity, scoring five points and blocking a shot in the first half alone. But it was Doug McDermott who dominated down low during the final four minutes of the half, scoring on five lay-ups and hook shots to give CU a 42-34 lead at the break.
The Series: Tulsa leads the all-time series with Creighton by a 43-33 margin, and the Golden Hurricane have won 14 of the past 18 meetings against Creighton. However, the Jays have won the two most recent meetings, both in Tulsa, and the Jays are 22-15 all-time in Omaha. Wednesday will mark Tulsa’s first trip to Omaha since 2000.
Gratuitous Linkage: Josh Jones successfully underwent surgery yesterday. In a series of tweets, Greg McDermott gave this update:
“(Josh) finally recovering after a long day of procedures. He is resting comfortably and will spend tonight in the hospital. Please keep Josh in your thoughts and prayers. He is one tough dude. Proud to call him a Bluejay!”
This Date in Creighton Hoops History: Here’s an ironic fact. Each of the last two times Creighton has played Tulsa, it’s been on December 19, making this the third straight time the Jays and Hurricane play at that date.
Since we already talked about the last time, let’s go back to the previous meeting on December 19, 2000. That night, the Jays beat Tulsa 86-76 as senior Ryan Sears scored 21 points. Creighton used a 16-0 second-half run to break open a close game, a run which included seven Tulsa turnovers. Senior all-MVC guard Ben Walker added 20 points, while Korver had 19 points and sophomore forward Terrell Taylor had 13 in the winning effort.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day: It’s a Polyfro Primer tradition dating back to 2004 — the final game before Christmas, I play this video for the greatest Christmas song ever recorded.
The Bottom Line: Tomorrow, at least one recap will use an incredibly forced weather analogy trying too hard to cleverly work “Hurricane” and “Blizzard” into the lede. And if no one does, I’ll do it myself, just so I can say I was right. You bet.
Creighton 82, Tulsa 61