Bluejays NET Ranking Skyrockets
Fresh off of a week where they dispatched with a pair of power conference foes, Creighton’s NET ranking has risen substantially. When the first set of official NET rankings came out a week ago, CU was 56 — good for seventh place in the Big East. One week later, they find themselves all the way up at #24, thanks to three Q1 wins (#30 Texas Tech on a neutral floor, #43 Oklahoma, and #55 Arizona State on the road).
Given what’s ahead in the Big East over the next two months — nine of the ten teams are ranked in the top 60 of the NET — Creighton has set themselves up to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if they can stay above water in the league. That’s reflected in this week’s bracketology updates, as they are now in 27 of the 32 brackets tracked by BracketMatrix.com with an average seed of 9.
Jays Have Come up Clutch
Their lofty ranking is due in no small part to winning close games. Last February, after losing four straight games where they blew a late lead, they were rightfully described as a team that couldn’t close. Since that streak, they’re 5-1 in games where they’ve been tied, led by one possession, or trailed by one possession entering the final four minutes — and they’re 3-0 this year including two of those Q1 wins.
Saturday night in Tempe, they led 61-55 after Christian Bishop’s layup with 4:01 to play. Arizona State scored five straight points, and held CU scoreless for three minutes, to cut the lead to 61-60. The last of those Sun Devil points came on a wide open dunk from Rob Edwards, the result of a blown defensive assignment, that brought the home crowd to its’ feet. Last year’s Bluejays might well have melted under that pressure. This year?
Ten seconds later the home crowd was silenced when Mitch Ballock calmly drained a three-pointer to give the Jays breathing room, 64-60. And then he silenced them for good with a breakaway dunk.
For the second straight game against a power conference foe, they withstood their opponent’s best shot in the game’s waning minutes, answered, and won the game. They were poised and under control, and made winning plays when they needed them. The story of this group will be told more definitively once conference play wraps up, but as they head into 2020 the Jays have the look of a team who went through the fire together and emerged out the other side as a tougher, more confident team.
CU’s Defense is Key
Three straight opponents have shot under 40%, the first time that’s happened in five seasons. Assistant coach-slash-defensive coordinator Paul Lusk has the Jays playing great on that end of the floor, and they were key to the win at Arizona State.
They held leading scorer Remy Martin, averaging 18.5 points per game, to just seven points on 3-of-11 shooting (and 1-of-7 on threes). After giving up 26 points to to the duo of Alonzo Verge Jr. and Romello White in the first half, they held them to 11 in the second — on 2-of-11 shooting.
And when the game was being decided, their defense was arguably the deciding factor. Clinging to a 61-60 lead, they forced four straight missed shots. Two of them were blocked by Christian Bishop. The stops allowed them to get into transition, where they scored the game-clinching points — a three-pointer from Ballock, and a fastbreak dunk where Bishop threw a pass halfway down the floor to a streaking Ballock.
The unlikely defensive stopper, as WBR’s Matt DeMarinis pointed out on Twitter? Ty-Shon Alexander.
That’s…surprising, no?
Bigs Come up Big
Arizona State’s defensive focus was on slowing down CU’s Big Three. And they succeeded, as Marcus Zegarowski and Ty-Shon Alexander combined to commit more turnovers (seven) than made field goals (four). Zegarowski’s seven points matched a season low. Alexander’s five points were his lowest in two years, going back to his freshman year.
Creighton’s bigger players made them pay. Denzel Mahoney scored 14 first-half points. Christian Bishop had 12 in the second half, with nine boards and two blocks.
The trio of Bishop, Damien Jefferson and Kelvin Jones combined for 27 points, 20 rebounds and 13-of-20 shooting. And they scored all 13 points in the game-deciding stretch.
With 9:37 to play, Creighton trailed 49-48. Jefferson scored seven straight — beating the defense back for a layup in transition, rebounding an air-balled three pointer and putting it back for a layup, sticking a jumper, and hitting a free throw. Suddenly it was 55-49 Creighton.
Bishop scored the next six, on two layups and a lob dunk, in a 90-second span. And just like that, it was 61-55 Jays, and they never trailed again.
Highlight Reel
And finally, since Saturday’s win was difficult for many Jays fans to watch, given the Pac-12 Network’s lack of reach, we present the triumphant return of the WBR Highlight Reel with all the made-baskets and relevant plays from the win!!