Jays “Got what we wanted out of this game” according to McDermott
Before the game was two minutes old, Creighton led 8-0 thanks to three dunks from Ryan Kalkbrenner against an overmatched Holy Cross defense. By the time CBS Sports Network’s audience joined the game in progress at the under-16 timeout, their national TV audience had missed the only competitive portion of the game. Oh sure, Holy Cross tried to adjust to take away those easy baskets inside with a matchup zone — but CU buried back-to-back threes to push the lead to double digits. It was never closer the rest of the night.
“We got what we wanted out of this game,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “I really challenged the guys the last few days to take the things we’re emphasizing on the practice floor and do them in the games.”
He mentioned their pace as one of those key points of emphasis, and he was pleased that the Jays played both quicker and smarter in the full court and in the quarter court. This was a 73-possession game, the highest of the season so far, and they scored 1.29 points per possession.
They had 28 assists on 37 buckets and nine turnovers, and often had possessions where every player on the court touched the ball before finding the best shot. And of those 37 made baskets, the distribution was about as equal as you can get — 12 were three-pointers, 10 were dunks, and eight were layups or short jumpers.
Another place he was impressed was their defensive communication. Among the players who made a big impact in that area was Shereef Mitchell, who played 18 minutes of harassing defense. He’s a bit of a strange lightning rod on social media among Jays fans who feel like his offensive shortcomings are too significant to override what he brings defensively; one of the questions we get most consistently on the “Bluejay Beat” podcast and in emails is about Mitchell’s playing time.
On the latest podcast, the Omaha World-Herald’s Joel Lorenzi said of the criticism, “It’s a lot easier to hand the keys to the defense to Mitchell and trust him than it is to hand the keys to the offense to someone like Ben Shtolzberg.” And he’s right. There are plenty of guys on the roster who can score. Mitchell brings something unique — a ball-hawking, aggressive defensive pest. And his experience plays a role, too.
“Mac and I have had a lot of conversations. He always reminds me of how big of an impact I can make on the team,” Mitchell said on the postgame show. “Trying to be a vocal leader is a big part of that.”
The 94-65 win moved the Jays to 3-0 and might be the last cupcake game they play all year — UC Riverside on Thursday marks a sizable jump in competition level, and with the exception of Nebraska, every game the rest of the way is against a team with postseason aspirations. That makes McDermott’s challenge to bring their points of emphasis in practice over to the game floor even more important.
“We just have to get better every week. Don’t rest, don’t get casual, don’t get comfortable,” McDermott said. “We may not be practicing as long now that the season’s started, but every time we practice let’s use the time to clean something up or get better at something.”
Creighton’s Two Ryan’s Have Perfect Games
Creighton’s two Ryan’s had absurd games, regardless of the opponent. Nembhard put up 12 assists and ZERO turnovers, while Kalkbrenner was 10-of-10 from the floor.
Kalkbrenner is the only player over the last dozen seasons in all of college basketball to make 100% of his shots (with a minimum of 10 attempts), with one of them being a three, and three blocks in the same game. He’s made 19 straight shots going back to the North Dakota game. And he took one dribble — one total dribble — in attempting those 19 shots. Hat tip to Jacob Padilla for stitching together a video of all 19, and breaking them down on Twitter:
“Some of those shots aren’t as easy as you think,” McDermott gushed on his postgame radio show. “There’s bodies banging around, he’s turning in the air coming out of those ball screens…think back to him trying to do that as a freshman. At times it was kind of comical. But with repetition comes comfortability.”
“Me and (Kalkbrenner), I don’t think people understand our relationship. We’re really close,” Nembhard said. “We’ve built such a good chemistry on the floor — he knows where I’m going to be, I know where he’s going to set screens, I know when he’s going to roll, I know where he wants the ball, we’re just really good together. I love playing with him. He’s a great big man.”
Nembhard has played 74 minutes this season, and has 23 assists with just two turnovers. Going back to the last game he played as a freshman — at St. John’s where he had seven assists and no turnovers before his injury — he has 30 assists and two turnovers in nearly 100 minutes of action.
“Coach was on me all year last year about turning the ball over. And I really haven’t turned it over a lot in my career other than last year. I wasn’t happy with it, either,” Nembhard said. “It’s been a huge emphasis for me — after games (when I see the box) the first number I always want to know is how many turnovers I had, and I’m super happy the tables have turned.
“The game is slower this year. I have more experience. And I’m watching a lot of film to see what future opponents might do to defend me, and how they’ll approach my ball screens. I’m ready.”
Because of the blowout, the second unit played most of the second half. Of those players, Mason Miller and Fredrick King stood out most. Miller had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting with eight rebounds, and showed both his explosiveness and his readiness to step into a major role off the bench this year.
Talking about his explosiveness, McDermott said that Miller’s vertical jump has been measured as the highest on the roster.
“He’s a great two-foot jumper,” McDermott noted. “Some guys can jump high but they jump off of one foot, and when they have to go off of both feet they’re not nearly as explosive.”
As for King, he continues to show that his ceiling is almost unlimited. He scored nine points in 16 minutes and was nearly unguardable; Holy Cross put him on the line eight times. The depth of this Bluejay team is the biggest difference between them and the 2019-20 and 2020-21 Bluejay squads who won the Big East and advanced to the Sweet 16, according to Mitchell.
“Look at this roster. Anyone 1-13 can go at any given time,” he said on the postgame show. “That helps the starters — they know they don’t have to preserve energy because there’s a second wave of guys who can maintain or even level-up in some games. That Sweet 16 group really relied on the starting five. We don’t have to.”