Three nights after an uninspired performance against SIU-E that saw Creighton escape with a victory after a furious late-game rally, the Bluejays turned in their best all-around game of the season in a 80-55 rout of North Dakota State. It gave observers a glimpse of what this talented young team is capable of when clicking on all cylinders — the Bison are a veteran team expected to contend for their league title and the Summit League’s auto bid to the NCAA Tournament, and the Jays completely dismantled them on both ends of the floor.
Their defense was active from the tip, but when Shereef Mitchell checked in at the under-16 timeout, it found another gear. The speed of Ryan Nembhard, Trey Alexander and Mitchell bothered the Bison, and forced turnovers on five straight possessions. Twice in that early stretch, Mitchell covered up for a teammate who had let a Bison player beat them, stopping dribble penetration and preventing a basket. On at several others, he sniffed out their play and disrupted their action either by communicating it to his teammates or picking up the ball handler and making them abandon their plan.
(If you weren’t there in person, though, you missed half of those. In the Georgetown vs Longwood game, on FS2 before this one, the teams committed a combined 30 fouls in the second half alone. It ran over time by so much, when FS2 joined the Jays game in progress, there were nine minutes gone.)
“Before the game we talked about how this was a good team and we needed to play 40 minutes of good basketball,” Mitchell said. “It started from the jump, the first four minutes. The starters brought good energy on defense, and when you have good energy and good defense that creates pace and good shots on the offensive end.”
While Mitchell deferred credit to the starting five, his coach and teammates cited him as the difference maker.
“Just having a veteran presence on this young team is huge,” Ryan Kalkbrenner said. “Reef knows how to play. He sets an example for all the young guys to follow. We were sitting on the bench together at the end of the game, and I looked over at him and said ‘I’m so glad you’re back.’”
It’s not a coincidence that the Jays have looked like a different team in the games where Mitchell has played. Their execution on both ends has been crisper, and they’ve played with more confidence. Greg McDermott refers to him as a “calming presence” on the floor for his young players, who follow Mitchell’s lead as the team’s veteran.
“He impacts winning in a lot of ways,” Greg McDermott said. “I’m proud of him because he’s playing through a lot of pain, and probably will be most of the season. He impacts our team in a huge way and it was great to have him out there tonight.”
While Mitchell and the Bluejay guards were forcing turnovers, the Jays’ big men were busy blocking and altering shots. On this play midway through the first half, they blocked two shots on one possession!
They switched almost every screen defensively, as McDermott and his staff accurately scouted North Dakota State’s gameplan. He explained the strategy on the postgame radio show.
“They run a kind of flex action, where they have two big guys up top playing a two-man game. Sometimes that flex action on the baseline is just smoke to get your defense moving around, when they’re really concerned with the two-man game up top. So we decided to switch everything, and keep our big under the basket. To do that, you need elite communication. It has to be early, it has to be loud, and everybody has to do it. Our willingness to communicate tonight was as good as it’s been.”
That energy extended to the other end, where they grabbed 12 offensive rebounds. This one saw Alex O’Connell sprint in from the three-point line and out-battle four NDSU players in the paint for the board.
And then Ryan Kalkbrenner did the rest. He scored 17 points, ranging from screen-and-rolls:
to reverse layups:
to turnaround jumpers.
Ahead 40-32 at the half, Creighton buried North Dakota State in the second half in an avalanche of offense — something we’ve become accustomed to from the Jays over the years, but we haven’t seen much of from this group yet. A 12-5 run out of the locker room pushed the lead to 52-37, with all 12 points coming in the paint. Six came on dunks from Kalkbrenner:
And then over a six minute stretch, they outscored NDSU 19-2 and built a commanding 74-44 lead. It began with a three from Rati Andronikashvili, the first of his career — he was left all alone in the corner, and a driving Trey Alexander turned down a decent look at the rim to kick it out to him. Moments later, Alexander hit his own three from the opposite corner.
And then Mitchell provided the highlight of the night, driving the length of the floor and then spinning 360-degrees around a defender in the lane to create space for a layup.
It was their most complete 40 minutes of the year, and a marked departure from not only the SIU-E game but the previous two home games as well. And for the first time all year they were able to clear the bench in the waning moments, getting extending playing time for both Modestas Kancleris and John Christofolis, as well as walk-ons Sami Osmani and Devin Davis.
“We had a really rough film session after the SIU-E game,” Mitchell said. “There were a lot of opportunities, I guess. But those film sessions are important. Our guys learn so much from seeing what they did in a game, and it helps them to make changes for the next game. Translating that to our practices has been huge for us, and understanding that it’s not going to happen in one day. We all trust the process. Everyone’s bought into it.”
Key Stats:
Everywhere you look on the stat sheet, Creighton dominated. They had a 44-16 edge on points in the paint, and outscored North Dakota State 26-2 in points off turnovers. They had 16 assists on 32 made baskets, and most importantly, committed a season-low six turnovers.
Greg McDermott cited the lack of turnovers as a signal of what the Jays offense is capable of when they take care of the ball.
“Turnovers are momentum plays because generally — and especially ours because it’s not like we’re traveling or stepping out of bounds, ours have been live ball turnovers — they’re really hard to defend,” McDermott said. “R2 played with a really good pace tonight. Having Shereef back takes some pressure off of him, because he can help attack ball pressure so it’s not all on R2, and it also lets us rest R2 a little more. And Rati’s played two good games in a row now, so that’s three guys who can do good things with the ball.”
While Mitchell’s return was a highlight, the star of the show was undoubtably Ryan Kalkbrenner. Statistically, he’s had bigger nights this year — his 17 points were a season high, but he had “only” four rebounds and three blocks. It’s become a bit of a running gag over the first eight games, as Kalkbrenner gets credited for X number of blocks in the official box score while tipping or altering countless others that aren’t tracked.
“I swear I get at least one or two tips a game that they don’t want to credit me for, but those are just as much of a block as the other ones,” Kalkbrenner joked on the postgame radio show. “But you know what, that just means I have to block even more shots.”
As for the blocks he does officially get credit for? Those numbers are impressive enough on their own. He has 13 blocks over the last three games — and has only been whistled for two fouls. Elite rim protection without being foul crazy? It’s been an awfully long time since Bluejay fans have seen a player with those attributes.