Slow Start is Again Too Much to Overcome at Hinkle
For the third straight season, Creighton got off to a slow start at Butler and could not recover. Two years ago, they fell behind 42-22 in the first half and though they made runs once their offense settled in, they never got closer than 13 the rest of the game. Last year, Butler scored on 21 of their first 35 possessions and built a 48-29 lead by halftime. An 11-0 burst out of the locker room cut the deficit to single digits but they could never get closer than that. The common denominator: CU’s defense was unable to get stops while they waited for the offense to find a rhythm, and by the time they did, the hole was too big to overcome.
Saturday, their offense was once again slow out of the gates. They missed their first five 3-pointers. After ten minutes, they had nine points. But it was a game because their defense had only allowed 14.
“We had our opportunity early,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “The first 10 possessions, we only had one turnover. We had a lot of wide open looks (that we missed). If we hit those and go up by eight or ten it’s a different game because our defense was really good, especially early. It might have changed the complexion of the game.”
But they didn’t, and eventually Butler strung together a few made baskets to break open the game. Ahead 10-9 with 11:27 to go in the half, the Bulldogs used a 14-3 run to build a 24-12 advantage. And it was an uphill climb for the Jays from there. After making just 10-of-29 shots in the first half, 3-of-15 from three point range, and committing eight turnovers it could have been much worse — but it could have been much better, too.
Missed Opportunities in the Second Half
Down 34-24 at halftime, Creighton got as close as four on multiple occasions. The first run came early; Damien Jefferson scored six straight points on drives to the hoop, and cut the deficit to 43-38.
Christian Bishop blocked a shot on the other end to give CU a rare transition chance, but Ty-Shon Alexander couldn’t connect on a jumper. Two more defensive stops followed, but the Jays came up empty on their end, too. And the lead stayed at five.
With just over eight minutes to go, the Jays pulled within four at 50-46 when Ballock’s behind-the-back pass to Alexander led to two free throws.
On the next trip down, Denzel Mahoney drove to the basket for a layup that could have cut the lead to two, but his shot was blocked.
“And then Baldwin hits a three from 27 feet away with a hand in his face to make it a seven point game,” a frustrated McDermott said. “We didn’t recover from that very well.”
Another chance came a few minutes later, when Mahoney followed up a really nice dribble-drive for a layup with an ill-advised, quick-trigger shot that was blocked. The made shot cut the lead to 54-50; the blocked one led to a run-out for Butler and a transition bucket. Three consecutive turnovers by the Jays — two from Marcus Zegarowski and one from Mitch Ballock — gave Butler the opportunity to put the game on ice, and they did just that. They scored off all three turnovers, built a double-digit lead, and the game was never in doubt from that point forward.
Defense Plays Well Enough to Win
“Defensively, often times you’re going to play 20-25 seconds or more and as soon as you have any breakdown they’re going to make you pay,” Greg McDermott said of Butler’s methodical offensive philosophy. “Sean McDermott got us in the first half, and we did a good job on (Kamar) Baldwin. We did a better job on McDermott in the second, and then Baldwin got us.”
Indeed, Baldwin was held without a point in the first half, as Ty-Shon Alexander shut him down. Baldwin was 0-for-9 from the floor, 0-3 on three-pointers, and had zero assists and zero rebounds, in 18 minutes of box score invisibility. But Sean McDermott burned them for 12 points and 6 rebounds, making a very efficient 5-of-7 from the field.
In the second, the Jays adjusted a bit to slow down McDermott, and Baldwin got hot — he scored 20 second-half points thanks to 7-of-13 shooting. He also got to the line, making 5-of-8 from the charity stripe.
“If you’d told me Baldwin was going to get 20 points on 22 shots I’d have probably thought we’d win this game,” Greg McDermott noted. “If you’d also told me it was going to be a 70-possession game I would have guessed we could win it. They barely got one point per possession. Our offense just wasn’t where it normally is today.”
Defensively, Creighton was good enough to win. Their perimeter defense held the Bulldogs to just 6-of-19 shooting on three-pointers (31%) in their home gym. They’ve made 35% on the season, and only had two games worse than Saturday. And CU got the game to be played at a faster pace than Butler wanted; this was the first time all season that the Bulldogs played a game with more than 68 possessions (there were 70 in this one). But continuing a trend at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the Jays simply couldn’t make shots. They made 25% of their threes in 2019 (7-of-27) and 30% in 2018 (8-of-26); it’s no coincidence that the last time CU won at Hinkle, in 2017, they were scorching from the perimeter (13-of-21).
Big East Remains Unpredictable
Three nights after losing big to Creighton in Omaha, Marquette took it out on #10 Villanova. They led the Wildcats by 20 in the second half and won 71-60.
Four teams sit at 1-1 after the first week, as the middle of the league is as topsy-turvy as predicted. There’s surprises everywhere. Butler, picked eighth, is 2-0 and looks like the best team in the league. Providence, 7-6 in the non-conference and the only team without realistic at-large NCAA hopes entering Big East play, is 2-0. DePaul, the darlings of November after a hot start, are 0-2 with a pair of home losses.
There aren’t likely to be many road wins for anyone. So protecting home court is vitally important. That continues Tuesday for the Jays, as a Villanova team coming off that loss at Marquette heads to Omaha.
