Fresh off their sixth-straight win over Nebraska, the undefeated and tenth-ranked Creighton Bluejays return to the court to face the Longwood Lancers. The game was originally slated for Saturday afternoon, but was rescheduled when the opportunity for WBO, WBC & Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight Champion Of The World Bud Crawford to fight in Omaha surfaced.
“He’s awesome for Omaha. When Bud’s people called us to move the game, we were willing to do whatever to have this fight at home,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said on the postgame radio show following Wednesday’s win. “I really appreciate Longwood, because they had to change some things and move some things around to make it happen during their Finals Week.”
A game against an unheralded opponent just 48 hours after an emotional win usually has “trap game” written all over it, but I’m not sure the Lancers have the ability to trip up the Jays regardless of the scenario. That’s not being mean or flippant, it’s just facts; Longwood is 1-4 and dead last in Division 1 according to RealTimeRPI.com (351 out of 351 teams) while the Bluejays have see-sawed between #1 and #2 with Baylor depending on when you check (they were #1 Thursday night; Friday morning they’re #2). Either way, this is statistically as big of a mismatch as you can possibly have in college basketball — one of the best versus the absolute worst.
The Lancers are 336th in adjusted offensive efficiency at 93.3 points per 100 possessions according to KenPom — 23.6 points fewer than Creighton, at 116.9 (which is ninth best in the country, for what it’s worth). And the Lancers are 332nd in adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up 111.4 points per 100 possessions. CU is 61st, at 96.9 per 100 possessions. Add it up and that’s 38.1 points separating these teams according to advanced metrics; no wonder Vegas has the spread on this game at 36.
Traditional stats are no kinder. Longwood averages 70.3 points per game but allows opponents 76.3 per game, while their opponents shoot 47.7% from the floor. With 6’8”, 235-pound Damarion Geter, a three-year captain who broke his foot last month out with injury, they’re left with only one player in their rotation taller than 6’6” — the 6’8” sophomore Chris Shields who comes off the bench, leaving them with a starting five consisting entirely of players 6’6” and shorter.
It’s almost cartoonish how bad this basketball team is. Longwood turns it over on 22.4% of their possessions, ranking 312th; they grab an offensive rebound on just 20.1% of their misses, ranking 342nd; they get only 11.9% of their points at the free throw line, second to last in the country (350th); and they have an assist on just 50.8% of their made baskets.
If there’s something to worry about, such as it is, it’s this: Longwood gets an astonishing 42% of their points on three-point shots — just five teams in the country get more. And they shoot 40.5% from three-point range. That’s 2013-14 Creighton territory. That Bluejay squad got 38% of their points behind the arc and made 41.5% of their shots from outside, albeit against a Big East schedule and a much tougher non-con slate. Those are terrific numbers for Longwood, but rather than just a grain of salt you can probably dump the entire container on them because they’ve done it against the eighth-worst non conference schedule in the country.
Individually, the high-scoring trio of Darrion Allen, Khris Lane and Isaiah Walton account for 63 percent of the Lancer offense. Allen averages a team-high 15.7 points per game, with the 6’2” senior generating most of his production from outside — more than half of his shot attempts are three-pointers (15-38, 39.5%).
The 6’4” Walton is their most well-rounded player, equally adept at scoring from inside (17-40 on two-pointers), outside (6-16 on threes) and the line (16-18 on free throws). Lane, at 6’6” 245-pounds the biggest player among their starting five, is their best interior player (8.3 rebounds per game) but shoots just 45% on two-pointers, and that’s come against teams who aren’t throwing seven-footers at him.
Longwood doesn’t drive much, anyway, but against Creighton they will probably abandon the paint almost entirely on offense, and try to shoot over the Bluejays from outside. At least when their starting five is on the floor, they’ll be significantly undersized at four of the five positions.
With all that said, strange things happen in college basketball all the time, often when you least expect them. “Florida Atlantic had won one Division 1 game, they go into Ohio State as a 20+ point underdog Tuesday night, and they won,” McDermott noted on his postgame show Wednesday night. “This was an emotional win, and we’ll have only a mental practice tomorrow. We can’t be too physical because we’re going to get back late. We have to get our minds right and put together a plan to take care of business Friday night. I hope our fans come out — we don’t play many Friday or Saturday night games. It’ll be a fun way to celebrate this win over Nebraska by getting the arena rocking.”
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Quick Notes on the Lancers:
- The Lancers own wins over Salem International and Dartmouth, and have lost to Maine, Stephen F. Austin, Saint Francis and James Madison. They’re winless in two games away from their FarmVille, Virginia campus.
- Longwood was the site of the 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate (or “Norwood” as eventual Vice-President Elect Mike Pence referred to it in his opening remarks).
- Head Coach Jayson Gee’s son, Bryan Gee, is a redshirt sophomore on this year’s Longwood team. He has played in all six games this year, including three starts, and averages 3.8 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.
Bluejay Bytes:
- With the win on Wednesday, Greg McDermott became the third coach in CU history to record 150 wins on the Bluejay sideline, as only Arthur A. Schabinger (165) and Dana Altman (327) had previously reached that milestone. McDermott needed 71 games at Creighton to win his 50th contest and 134 games to earn his 100th win. Another milestone looms tonight: a win vs. Longwood would be McDermott’s 300th as a Division I head coach, as he is 299-203 in 16 seasons.
- The Bluejays have outscored teams just 179-170 in the first half of games vs. Ole Miss, Loyola (Md.), Buffalo, Akron and Nebraska but crushed those same foes by a combined 241-163 after intermission.
- Creighton has shot 63.2% from the field after the break in those five contests, with Justin Patton a near-perfect 21-for-23 (91.3 percent) from the floor. CU’s top three second-half scorers in those games (Patton, Marcus Foster and Khyri Thomas) are a combined 47-56 (83.9%) from 2-point range in the second half of those five games.
- Isaiah Zierden joined some elite company by helping Creighton to a win on Wednesday, becoming the rare Bluejay player to appear in four wins vs. Nebraska. Creighton’s only 10 men to play in four career wins over the Cornhuskers are Kyle Korver, Joe Dabbert, Mike Grimes, Michael Lindeman, Tyler McKinney, Ethan Wragge, Will Artino, Austin Chatman, Avery Dingman and Isaiah Zierden.
The Series/ The Last Time They Played:
Creighton won the only previous meeting with Longwood by a 105-57 margin on November 20, 2012 in Omaha. From Matt DeMarinis’ recap the following day:
In the finale of their four-game home stand to begin the regular season, the Creighton men’s basketball team easily dispatched the visiting Longwood Lancers, 105-57, on Tuesday night at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.
Longwood (0-4) was coming off a 112-63 loss to Arkansas just two days prior, and things quickly got out of hand in this one, too. The Bluejays (4-0) broke a 4-4 tie game open with an 11-0 run starting at the 18:12 mark of the first half, and they never saw their lead get to single digits after that. A buzzer-beating tip-in by junior Doug McDermott gave Creighton a 53-24 lead going into halftime, but the lead was built thanks in large part to an impressive all-around effort by sophomore point guard Austin Chatman. The young floor general had 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, with no turnovers, a steal, and he hit all three of his shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
Ott’s postgame column has an amusing story in it about the one Longwood super fan who cheered loudly from behind their bench in that game.
Greg McDermott is 2-0 all-time against Longwood, having also beaten them 84-63 on December 23, 2004 when McDermott was head coach at Northern Iowa.
Gratuitous Linkage:
Longwood announced on November 25 that they were naming their court in honor of Jerome “No Mercy” Kersey, the former Lancer who went on to play in more than 1,100 NBA games, most of them with the Portland Trail Blazers, where he was part of two teams that advanced to the NBA Finals. He won an NBA Championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 1999 and took part in two NBA Dunk Contests, finishing as runner-up in the 1987 edition to the great Michael Jordan. Here’s 90 seconds of old-school NBA action featuring Kersey’s most memorable plays and dunks courtesy of NBA.com.
Kersey returned to Longwood in 2005 to complete the degree he left unfinished when he entered the 1984 NBA Draft, and after doing so, was the school’s commencement speaker in 2009. He passed away at age 52 last year of a pulmonary embolism, leaving behind a legacy on and off the court.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On December 9, 1987, Tony Barone’s Bluejays defeated Nebraska 88-73 at the Civic, the Jays’ second straight win under Barone after losing all four times during the Willis Reed Era.
Senior guard Rod Mason scored 17 of their final 23 points to lead them to victory, and had 32 points with 10 rebounds for the game. He was 12-18 from the floor, 2-4 from three-point range, and 6-8 from the line, torching the Huskers from all over the court.
Afterward, Nebraska’s players couldn’t believe the Bluejays had won.
Husker forward Jeff Rekeweg told the World-Herald’s Lee Barfknecht in the locker room, “I don’t want to get undressed. I want to play them again right now. On these kind of games, you don’t want to go home. You want to do it over. It’s embarrassing. The whole time, I didn’t think they could beat us. I thought we would finally settle down and control the game.”
Forward Derrick Vick shared the sentiment. “I know we’re better than they are. But they were better than we were tonight.”
Clifford Scales did too. “I’ll give Creighton credit. But this is a game I thought we should have won.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same, etc.
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
I let my wife pick this one, and she gave me two options: John Legend’s new single or this one from Fitz & The Tantrums. These guys were the better (read: more fun) live act between the two, so that’s what we’ll go with.
The Bottom Line:
The ideal situation in this game would be for Creighton to get up — roll up, if you’re into bad puns inspired by catchy pop songs, perhaps? — early and get the starters out after 15 minutes or so. Lots and lots of playing time for Davion Mintz, Kobe Paras, Martin Krampelj, and Ronnie Harrell. Very little playing time for Cole Huff and the starters, please.
Honestly, and with no malice towards Longwood when I say this, the only drama in this one is whether Creighton hangs 100 points on them or not, whether they cover the absurd point spread, and whether Paras gets his first ridiculous dunk or two of his CU career to give his massive Philippine fanbase something to enjoy in highlight packages. As Meatloaf said, two outta three ain’t bad.
Bluejays 104, Longwood 76