Kalkbrenner’s Enormous Second Half
Ryan Kalkbrenner had just two points at halftime. He scored 20 points and 8 rebounds in the second — and quite literally put the team on his back to carry them across the finish line. Connecticut erased a 16-point first half lead and repeatedly tied the game, but never went ahead because Kalkbrenner answered them time after time. After RJ Cole cut the lead to one at 37-36, Kalkbrenner scored 19 of Creighton’s next 23 points; after UConn tied the game at 48 with 9:16 to play, he scored the Jays’ next 12 points on three dunks, a layup and a short jumper.
“Everyone talks about Sanogo being one of the best bigs or sometimes the best big man in the Big East,” Kalkbrenner said on the postgame radio show. “Tonight I got a chance to prove that I’m just as good if not better than him. It was a big time battle and I feel like I came out on top.”
That kind of swagger shouldn’t be surprising given Kalkbrenner’s reaction after several of his baskets. After his twisting dunk in transition, he was quite excited.
He also showed off his post game, working to back down Sanogo and ultimately scoring on a short jumper:
And his pick-and-roll game, drifting to the basket behind the defense and taking a bullet of a pass from Ryan Hawkins for another dunk, and moments later doing the same off a pass from Alex O’Connell:
His 22 points equaled a career-high, and with 10 rebounds it marked his fifth-career double-double. His second half run, scoring 12 straight points and 19 of the Jays’ 23 points over a 13-minute stretch, is one Creighton fans will remember for a long time.
And it might not have been possible without KeyShawn Feazell’s five-minute run in the first half — arguably the best and certainly the most important five minutes he’s given the Jays this year. He had a textbook seal to create a driving lane for a Trey Alexander layup, blocked a shot that started a transition opportunity and a jumper from Hawkins, corralled a loose ball and threw it ahead to Arthur Kaluma for a dunk, and capped it off with a dunk of his own:
Those five minutes, in between two media timeouts, gave Kalkbrenner nearly 20 minutes of real time to rest on the bench. And it paid dividends when Kalkbrenner played all 20 minutes of the second half without a single break — a second half where he dominated and led the Jays to the win.
Arthur Kaluma’s Offensive Barrage
Continuing his comeback from a knee injury, Arthur Kaluma scored 15 points in an electric first half that saw him make 6-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-5 from three-point range. His jump shot is a night-and-day improvement from November; his ability to play above the rim is the same as it always was.
First, there was this putback dunk that showed his knee was feeling OK.
“When I came down the floor, I saw Hawk initially calling for the ball, but I didn’t like the angle of the pass so I took another dribble,” Kaluma explained on the postgame show. “Then Hawk screamed my name even louder so I hit him, but I think I got him out of rhythm with the extra dribble. When his shot went up I thought, my defender is either going to him or he’s going to be out of position for the rebound. So when it bounced off the rim perfectly, I was like, man I can dunk this! Might as well!”
Might as well indeed.
30 seconds later, he raced down court for a vicious transition dunk that put CU ahead by double-digits.
Andronikashvili’s Defense a Difference Maker
Rati Andronikashvili has carved out a role as a defensive specialist, using his long arms and great instincts to come up with big defensive plays in key moments over the last month. There was the steal that sealed the Marquette win two weeks ago. And then there was his work on RJ Cole in the final five minutes.
After Cole had scored seven straight points midway through the second half to keep UConn in the game, Creighton switched up their ball-screen coverage. Andronikashvili came in and was charged with making Cole give up the ball, and then denying him the ability to get it back. Over the next eight minutes, Cole not only didn’t score, he didn’t even take a shot.
“Rati and I had a good meeting yesterday. He was trying too hard to do what I asked him to do. It probably took too much of his game away, and that’s on me,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “So yesterday, I told him all I wanted him to do was go have some fun and we’ll let the chips fall where they may. The 90 minutes we talked yesterday was far more important than anything we could have done on the practice floor, because his mind was where it needed to be today. The defensive plays and the hustle plays he made changed the game.”
NCAA Tournament ticket likely punched
At 20-9 and 12-6 in the Big East, Creighton is almost assuredly dancing now despite what their NET ranking looks like (hint: it’s still ugly). They clinched a top-five finish in the league, giving them a bye past the first day of the Big East Tournament into the quarterfinals. Winning this game, without Ryan Nembhard, shows the committee and any remaining doubters that the team can and has won without their point guard.
“When R2 went down, a lot of teams would have looked it at like their season was over,” Kaluma said. “But with us, him going down lit a fire under us like no other. That’s our floor general, and we love him to death. This is all for him.”
And with a win on Saturday, they can finish third in the league. Not bad for a team replacing all five starters and picked eighth in the preseason poll, huh?
