Wednesday night, the tenth-ranked Creighton Bluejays make the short trek down I-80 to Lincoln for the annual showdown with the Huskers. CU’s won five straight in the series, a fact that isn’t lost on either side.
Nebraska’s lone senior, Tai Webster, told Steven Sipple of the Lincoln Journal-Star that last year’s loss to Creighton was embarrassing, and added “I’ve been waiting for them for a long time.”
Meanwhile, Creighton freshman (and Omaha native) Justin Patton said on the postgame radio show after the Jays’ win Saturday that he couldn’t wait for the Nebraska game. “I want to beat them so bad. This is a blue state, and I’m a Creighton Bluejay. I’ve always wanted to go to Creighton and I’ve never really liked Nebraska.”
Although the Jays have won five straight and 15 of the last 20, the games in Lincoln have had a much different flavor than the games in Omaha. Jays fans have great memories of burying the Huskers under offensive onslaughts in Omaha, the most famous being the 2005 game where they led 31-11 at the half and won 70-44, and the 38-8 first half lead in 2013 that led to a 82-67 win, but games in Lincoln are almost always lower-scoring, lower-octane affairs.
A big reason for that: Creighton shot really poorly at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in recent history, averaging 56.2 points per game the last five times they played at the venerable old barn — the most points they scored there in that span was 64, Doug McDermott’s junior year when they were lighting up scoreboards almost everywhere else. They broke 70 points exactly once in their last ten games there, when the great 2002-03 team scored 81. Several times in that span they had shooting percentages in the high 30s, often winning in spite of one of their worst offensive games of the season.
Thankfully that place is history. In their one game at Pinnacle Bank Arena, they shot 24-51 (47.1%) for the game and 10-23 (43.5%) from three, both significantly higher than their season averages of 42% overall and 34.5% from three. Still, they scored just 65 points in that game, with long possessions on both ends dictated by Nebraska’s preferred style.
Once again, Nebraska would love to keep the scoring in this game in the 60s, and they’ll do everything they can to slow the game down into a mid-60 possession game. UNL has allowed just 62.5 points per game so far this year, despite going up against some of the nation’s most efficient offenses during the first month of the season. UCLA (fifth), Virginia Tech (16th), Clemson (27th) and Dayton (37th) are among the top-40 offenses in the country according to KenPom, and the Huskers held Clemson to their lowest point total of the year, while holding UCLA and VA Tech to their second-lowest points in any game this year. Only one team (UCLA) has shot over 45 percent against the Huskers this season.
Their adjusted tempo is 68.4, which ranks 248th out of 351 teams nationally, and their average possession length is 18.5 seconds, ranking 296th. In terms of pace, Nebraska is very similar to Akron (adjusted tempo of 68.3) and Loyola MD (67.2), two teams who tried unsuccessfully to grind games against the Bluejays to a halt before succumbing to the fury of Creighton’s fast pace in the second half. Wisconsin, with the fourth-lowest adjusted tempo in the nation of 63.7, wasn’t able to keep the Jays from running either.
Can Nebraska succeed where those teams failed? They’ll certainly try. UCLA plays a very similarly fast-paced game, with the exact same average possession length (14.0 seconds) as the Jays and an even faster adjusted tempo (76.1 for UCLA, 72.8 for CU). The Huskers slowed the game down in their meeting in the Wooden Legacy, playing a 69-possession game and keeping the score relatively close as a result. Problem is, UCLA still scored 82 points, averaged 1.19 points per possession…and Nebraska lost by double digits.
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Just 31.1% of Nebraska’s shot attempts are three-pointers, 70th fewest in the country. That makes sense because they’re not very good from outside; Nebraska is 49-154 for the year, so if you can stop them from getting into the paint, you can really limit their effectiveness on offense. They don’t share the basketball all that well, either — they’ve had an assist on just 43.4% of their made baskets this year, ranking 320th out of 351 teams in D1.
In other words, this Nebraska team isn’t all that different from recent ones the Jays have beaten soundly. They get the bulk of their offense from guards driving into the paint and either scoring, or securing an offensive rebound and a second-chance basket. If you turn them into a jump-shooting team, that’s to your advantage. And if you can rebound the inevitable missed jump shots, even better.
Webster leads them in scoring at 16.9 points per game, and is their best three-point shooter such as it is (13-31, 41.9%). About a third of his shots come from outside; Webster’s better suited as a slasher, and gets to the line more than twice as often as any other Husker, where he shoots 34-44 (77.3%). The 6’4” guard set a personal high for assists twice in the last four games, dishing out seven against UCLA and nine against South Dakota over the weekend. For the year, he averages 5.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
6’0” sophomore guard Glynn Watson is their second leading scorer at 13.8 points per game, though his game is not quite as diverse as Webster’s. Watson shoots just 31% from outside (9-28), and doesn’t get to the line very often (15-17, 88.2%), with the bulk of his points coming off the dribble.
While Webster and Watson are good players, there’s no quality depth behind them, which is why they’ve averaged 32.1 and 31.3 minutes a game, respectively. They’d probably like Anton Gill, the 6’3” junior transfer from Louisville, to be a sixth-man type off the bench but he’s been nothing short of terrible so far — despite the most minutes of any reserve, Gill is 8-38 from the floor, 5-20 from three-point range, has more turnovers (8) than assists (5), and averages less than two boards a game. And despite that, he’s their best backup option, so if foul trouble takes Webster or Watson out of the game for any length of time, that’s a huge problem for Nebraska.
Inside, it’s the same story. 6’7”, 235-pound sophomore Ed Morrow, Jr. has been solid (11.1 points, 7.5 rebounds per game), and averages nearly three offensive boards a game. He’s a turnover machine, though, with 20 giveaways in their eight games so far. Jack McVeigh, a 6’8”, 215-pound sophomore, has the most three pointers on the team (16-47, 34.0%), but isn’t terribly versatile, as three-fourths of his shot attempts come from behind the arc. He does average 4.4 rebounds a game, but because he camps out behind the arc most of the time, is not really a threat on the offensive glass. Michael Jacobson, a 6’9”, 230-pound sophomore, is the fifth starter and averages 6.1 points with 6.0 boards a game. He averages just over two offensive boards a game, and along with Morrow, gives them two big guys that can create second chances for their offense.
Much like their backcourt, though, there’s not much behind them. Isaiah Roby, a 6’8” freshman, has a lot of potential to be the kind of smooth, athletic stretch-four that Nebraska’s needed forever, but he’s raw and in nearly 13 minutes of action per game this year, averages just 3.0 points and 1.4 rebounds and has turned it over nine times. Jordy Tshimanga is a huge guy at 6’11”, 275-pounds, but doesn’t score much (22 total points this year), is turnover prone, and doesn’t run the floor very well making him susceptible to teams with big men that can run.
As you look at Wednesday night, is it better to try and dare Webster and Watson beat Creighton by themselves? If the answer is yes, in my mind you take away McVeigh’s ability to shoot on the perimeter, front Morrow the entire night to try and limit his damage on the offensive glass and on putback shots, and take your chances with whatever Webster and Watson do.
If it’s no, then assign Khyri Thomas to try to stop Webster from getting into the paint and scoring, face-guard Watson the entire game, and double Morrow every time he touches it. Let McVeigh shoot, and dare everyone else to do enough to beat you. That’s not crazy; in four games against Top 100 opponents this year, Nebraska’s only had two instances of a player OTHER than Webster, Watson or Morrow scoring 10 or more; unless Creighton shoots uncharacteristically bad, even by the standard of games in Lincoln, Nebraska probably needs at least 50 points from those three to win, and another 20 from some combo of McVeigh, Jacobson, Gill, Roby, and Tshimanga. Even then, it won’t be enough if Creighton can push the pace enough to get the score into the mid-70s.
Quick Notes on the Cornhuskers:
- The Huskers will face consecutive top-10 foes in non-conference action for the first time in program history with matchups against the Bluejays on Wednesday and at No. 3 Kansas on Saturday
- Through the first eight games, 69 percent of NU’s minutes and 68 percent of the Huskers’ points have come from the freshmen and sophomore classes.
- In all three of their losses, the Huskers have been in the game until the final two minutes. Against both UCLA and Virginia Tech, NU was within six points in the final two minutes, while NU had two shots to win and another shot to tie at the end of regulation against Clemson.
Bluejay Bytes:
- CU is ranked 10th in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls this week, the first time in program history that Creighton has been a top-10 team in either poll in consecutive weeks. CU has now been ranked 73 weeks in program history, with 45 of those under the direction of Greg McDermott
- There are four Big East teams in the top 16, as the Jays are joined by Villanova (#1), Xavier (#13), and Butler (#16). Power conference basketball is fun, isn’t it?
- Creighton basketball center Justin Patton won Big East Freshman of the Week accolades for the second straight week after averaging 16.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 2.0 blocked shots per game on 82.4 percent shooting from the field last week.
The Series:
This is the 50th all-time meeting in the Creighton-Nebraska rivalry. Nebraska owns a 25-24 all-time lead in the series, though CU has won 15 of the past 20 meetings, as first Dana Altman and now Greg McDermott have dominated the ‘Skers.
It’s a series that began in 1923, but was discontinued for 45 years starting in 1932. The story about why it was stopped, and why it wasn’t played for nearly five decades, is often speculated on but rarely explained so last year I headed down to the Omaha World-Herald archives to research it. With the Jays potentially on the verge of evening up the overall series, it seemed worth revisiting.
It turns out the series went on hiatus in 1932 after a wild game in Lincoln in which the crowd rushed onto the floor and prevented the end of the game. From a report in the World-Herald on March 8, 1932:
Creighton won a basket ball game from the University of Nebraska at the Coliseum Monday night but they’ll have to bring in Roberts’ rules of order to determine the score. The final count was 29 to 26 or 28 to 26, depending on how you read the basket ball rules.
The mixup occurred as the game ended, the crowd surging on the court so that it was impossible to clear the floor to permit Schmidt to attempt to convert Koster’s foul.
On March 9th, 1932, an article explained Creighton’s reluctance to continue the series.
Creighton, with nothing to gain and everything to lose, gained nothing, and lost nothing. Nebraska lost nothing because they had already lost everything. Even the Superior (Wis.) Teachers’ college team had outscored the Huskers, so the only surprise would have come had the Bluejays failed to do so.
Initially it was Creighton who suspended the series, according to reports at the time in the World-Herald — partially because they felt they could find better opponents elsewhere, partially because of concerns about UNL’s failure to control their crowds. When Red McManus tried to resume the series in the 1950s, UNL claimed to still be insulted at Creighton’s refusal to play after 1932, and returned the favor in saying no thanks.
From a December 9, 1977 article:
“There was resistance in Lincoln, partly because of some ill will when the seven-game series was halted in 1932,” Tom Apke said.
The spacious year-old Sports Center was preferable to the old N.U. Coliseum and its 8,500 seats because, “It’s more conducive to good crowd behavior,” Devaney said. “But I’m not worried about it at all. This could develop into a fine, fine series. It could become home-and-home every year.”
“The No. 1 reason we can play now is 15,000 seats,” Husker Coach Joe Cipriano said. “We can make some money. I’ve heard that there were some problems between the schools before, but we want to look at it from the positive standpoint.”
Later in that article, there’s this fun little anecdote:
Devaney had worked hard to develop Omaha support in his term as Husker football coach. Many major football contributors in Omaha also supported Creighton in basketball. A Nebraska-Creighton basketball rivalry might siphon off some football backing.
“We finally got Omaha and Lincoln united, all pulling together for the football program. We hated to have a breech open up,” Devaney said.
Apke said, “Nebraska was concerned that playing us would force some people in Omaha to get off the fence, but I think the good points far outweigh the bad in playing this game.”
So all the way back in the mid-70s, Nebraska was worried about the existence of people who root for them in football and for the Jays in basketball — and according to Bob Devaney, at least part of the reason they did not play the Jays was because they were fearful a rivalry in basketball would cause people to pick a side that might not be theirs. Interesting stuff.
As for the series totals, the bottom line is this: both sides are at least somewhat to blame for the 45-year hiatus. Creighton would probably have a big lead in the series instead of trailing 25-24 due to the success they had in the 1950s and 1960s relative to what Nebraska was doing, but it’s impossible to say for sure. It’s a fair assumption to say they’d lead, though, even if only by a game or two.
The Last Time They Played:
Creighton used two big runs at the beginning of each half — 18-4 to start the game, 19-5 early in the second — to beat the Huskers 82-67 in Omaha. Freshman Khyri Thomas had a huge game with nine rebounds, seven points and seven assists, while frustrating Nebraska’s leading scorer, Shavon Shields, defensively. Shields had six points and five turnovers, but was blanketed by Thomas all night and never allowed him to make a positive impact.
Gratuitous Linkage:
The annual (good-natured) pregame Twitter trash talk between Greg McDermott and Tim Miles began in earnest Tuesday afternoon, and did not disappoint.
@ThorTripp @CoachMiles Adjustment was made for day 2 to keep it interesting….it still wasn’t! #itwasoverearly
— Coach McDermott (@cucoachmac) December 6, 2016
Adjustment? He gave coach Mo 2 extra strokes!! Merf shoots 81 https://t.co/gGIczP8Cbl
— Tim Miles (@CoachMiles) December 6, 2016
@CoachMiles Merf is a gamer!
— Coach McDermott (@cucoachmac) December 6, 2016
@cucoachmac Does he have any eligibility left? Can he stop Watson in transition? We’ll trade for him
— Tim Miles (@CoachMiles) December 6, 2016
@CoachMiles And Merf has a fake hip…Mo lost to a guy with a fake hip!
— Coach McDermott (@cucoachmac) December 6, 2016
@CoachMiles We are just going to walk it up….
— Coach McDermott (@cucoachmac) December 6, 2016
@cucoachmac really? us2
— Tim Miles (@CoachMiles) December 6, 2016
What the Other Side is Saying:
Miles is 0-4 against Creighton as Nebraska’s head coach, with an average losing margin of 15.8 points.
I’ve watched both Creighton and Nebraska play two full games this season. If you’re picking the Huskers to pull the upset, you’re zany. The Bluejays are loaded offensively. They entered the weekend shooting 54.1 percent from the field (second nationally). Their versatility is exceptional.
Make no mistake, this Creighton team is much better than the one that defeated Nebraska 83-67 last season in Omaha…Nebraska will do well to come within 10 points, or perhaps even 15.8.
“Miles Knows 0-4 Record Against Creighton No Joking Matter”
-Steven M. Sipple, Lincoln Journal-Star
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On December 7, 2014, Creighton strolled into Lincoln still licking its wounds after a 77-64 setback at Tulsa, and squared off with a Nebraska team that had most of their roster back from a team that earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament the previous season. The Bluejays trailed by as many as 10 points, but battled back to take the lead midway through the second half and secured a 65-55 win.
After the game, Nebraska coach Tim Miles said a curious thing. “I felt like we could beat them with what we run. I was wrong. He (McDermott) was right. His game plan was better than my game plan.” In one concise statement, he was more revealing than any long explanation could have been. He thought they could beat Creighton straight-up — that they didn’t need to alter their gameplan or scheme for the Jays. He thought they could come in and win, because they were better, because of everything Creighton doesn’t have anymore, because of the home crowd and because of the Huskers near-invinceability at the Bank.
He was wrong. This Creighton team might not have Doug McDermott and his cohorts, but they have guts, they play defense, and mostly, they have Austin Chatman. Tim Miles and his team found that out on Sunday night, much to their chagrin, and with about 90 seconds left in the game, many Husker fans headed for the exits — having lost 13 of the last 16 games to the Jays, they knew what it looked like to see the Jays congratulate each other on a victory on the Huskers’ home court, and they didn’t care to witness it again. Not this year, when they’d convinced themselves so assuredly that the outcome would be different. That it ended with yet another double-digit victory for the Bluejays had to sting particularly hard.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
The game against Nebraska gives me a great deal of anxiety and angst on an annual basis; a win offers more relief than enjoyment, a loss leads to unhappy encounters with neighbors and colleagues in red.
Old-school thrash metal soothes me in times like these. So let’s Seek And Destroy!
The Bottom Line:
Per usual in Lincoln, it’s a low-possession, low-scoring game, decided in the second half. Creighton pulls away late.
Creighton 71, Nebraska 60
