After blowing out Seton Hall in one of their most complete performances of the year, Creighton prepares for their home finale against a team who did the same to their Wednesday opponent. Marquette dispatched with Providence 91-69, lighting up the Friars with an electric offensive display — the Golden Eagles made 14-of-26 from three point range, and had 19 assists on 35 made baskets.
It was a costly win, however, as the reigning Big East Player of the Year and Preseason All-American Tyler Kolek exited early in the second half with an oblique injury on his left side. Kolek is left-handed, and most of his passes and shots come from that hand — making an oblique injury on that side of his body a tough one to play through.
Kolek is second on the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game, is shooting 53.2% inside the arc and 40.0% from three, and second in steals with 1.6 per game. Additionally, he leads the entire country in assists with 7.6 per game. His passing angles are as creative as any player in college basketball; his knack for making huge shots at huge moments is legendary; he’s a pest defensively who pressures ball handlers; he’s their vocal leader on both ends of the floor. To say that he’s the most important player on Marquette’s roster is somehow still underselling it.
So the obvious question that probably won’t have an answer until gametime is: will Kolek play, and if he does, how effective will he be? But it feels like unless their doctors order him not to, he’ll at least try — earlier in Wednesday’s game he knocked down a three with blood running down his face. In November, he suffered a nasty ankle injury and played four days later, scoring 24 points. Last March, he injured his thumb in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and played with a brace in the next game.
Marquette head coach Shaka Smart gave an update on Kolek on Thursday. Talking on ESPN Milwaukee (94.5 ESPN FM), Smart said, “He spent a lot of time today with our training staff and our doctors. He’s still being evaluated…I don’t really have a timetable on exactly when he’ll get back. He didn’t do anything today, practice-wise. But Tyler’s a guy, I promise you this, as soon as he’s available and he’s physically capable of coming back, he will be back.”
“But at the same time, he tried to come back in the game after he sustained that injury. It was just too painful to play. We want to make sure we get that right for him. And right now they’re still figuring out what the right course of action is in terms of the short term.”
His importance was obvious in the first meeting against Creighton this season. Kolek had eight assists and hit five buckets himself, meaning he was responsible for 13 of their 25 made baskets. His status being up in the air makes game planning tough; it’s not apparent who slides into his role as primary distributor and facilitator.
Kolek or not, the game has massive implications in the Big East. Marquette is two games up in the loss column on third-place Creighton, but has played one fewer game. And their next game is against UConn. A Bluejay win could give them the inside track to the #2 seed in the Big East Tournament, and all but lock up no worse than a 3 (thus avoiding UConn on Semifinal Friday). A look at the seeding scenarios shows that CU has already guaranteed themselves a first-round bye.
The Golden Eagles have been fabulous all year; of their six losses, two are to #2 Purdue and #3 UConn. They boast the nation’s 12th best defense in terms of adjusted efficiency (94.9) and the 24th best offense (117.8), as well-rounded a team as you’ll see.
Kam Jones leads them in scoring at 15.9 points per game, and is their best three-point shooter both by percentage (40.1%) and volume (his 67 made threes are eight more than anyone else on the roster). Oso Ighodaro isn’t far behind at 14.0 points, and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game. David Joplin averages 10.6 points as a solid fourth option. And with the offensive emergence of Stevie Mitchell — he’s scored in double figures in seven of the last 11 games — Marquette is that much tougher to guard.
Mitchell is their lock-down defender, and his work on Providence’s Devin Carter was really good on Wednesday. This thread shows how he did it, and shows some of Marquette’s other defensive actions:
The Jays have lost three in a row to Marquette, and it’s been largely the same problem in all three: Marquette’s on-ball defensive pressure has forced a ton of turnovers, flipping the game in their favor with easy transition buckets. Last March in Omaha, CU gave up an eight-point halftime lead thanks to nine turnovers on their first 21 second half possessions. They had 15 turnovers for the game.
On December 30 in Milwaukee, they had a season-high 18 turnovers (on 25.3% of their possessions). 10 of them were liveball turnovers that Marquette turned into 24 points. Then CU compounded the problem by surrendering 18 offensive rebounds, which Marquette turned into 18 points. 42 of Marquette’s 72 points were on extra possessions.
The biggest culprit? Ighodaro, who had 16 rebounds. Nine of them were offensive boards, most of them tip-outs to the perimeter where open shooters then buried jumpers against a defense caught scrambling. CU’s first-shot defense was good enough to win on the road, and their offense did enough to win, as well. But as it’s been in each of the last three games against Marquette, turnovers and rebounds did them in.
So it’s as simple as cleaning up those two areas, right? Not so fast.
“We knew they were going to try to be aggressive on the ball, obviously, that’s what they’re known for,” Baylor Scheierman said on the postgame radio show after that game. “We were pretty undisciplined. That’s something that we talked about all week in practice. But then we got out here, and we didn’t do what we talked about.”
Marquette’s reputation for on-ball pressure is well-deserved. They rank 11th nationally in turnover percentage (22.3% of opponent’s possessions) and 13th in steals (coming up with one on 12.8% of possessions). Their numbers a year ago were very similar (22.5% and 13.0%). It’s who this group is.
Offensive rebounds are another story. They’ve not been especially great, or even good, at securing second chances — their offensive rebound percentage is 26.8%, ranking 257th nationally. Yet against the Jays in the first meeting, Marquette grabbed a rebound on — are you ready for this? — 39.1% of their missed shots. THIRTY-NINE-POINT-ONE-PERCENT!
Creighton has generally been really good at keeping opponents off the glass on offense. CU’s opponents have grabbed a rebound on just 25.4% of their misses, 45th best in D1. The Jays rank second in the Big East in league play, giving up an offensive board on just 26.3% of missed shots. But they’ve been beaten up on the offensive glass by top-shelf teams — UConn grabbed a board on 44.7% and 42.9% of their misses in two games, and Alabama grabbed one on 40.5% of their misses back in December. It’s concerning. Getting a win on Saturday might very well hinge on figuring out a way to contain the Golden Eagles after missed shots. Regardless of whether Kolek plays or not, if they let Ighodaro clean up the offensive glass and facilitate offense out of the post, the Jays will be in a world of hurt.
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Media Menu:
Tip: 1:30pm
Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
TV: FOX / KPTM-42
Announcers: Brandon Gaudin and Robbie Hummel
In Omaha: Cox channel 10 (SD), 1010 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 42 (SD), 1042 (HD); DirecTV 42; Dish Network 42 or 5203
Outside Omaha: Your local FOX affiliate
Streaming on FoxSportsGO
Creighton Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
Announcers: John Bishop and Ross Ferrarini
Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 164 or 201, as well as on the SiriusXM App
Marquette Radio: 94.5 FM ESPN Milwaukee
Announcers: Steve “Homer” True and Tony Smith
Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 81, as well as on the SiriusXM App
National Radio: Westwood One
Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Stephen Bardo
Syndicated nationwide
Marquette wrapped up a three-game homestand on Wednesday night, winning each of the three matchups (DePaul, Xavier, PC) by at least 22 points, marking the first time since the program joined the Big East in 2005-06 the team has claimed three-straight conference games by 20-or-more points. MU shot 54.8 percent from the floor overall and 43.4 percent from behind the 3-point line as a team in the three games. Defensively, MU held opposing squads to just 38.9 percent from the floor and 30.8 percent from deep, forcing 17.7 turnovers per contest.
Led by Chase Ross (12 points), Tre Norman (eight points) and Ben Gold (six points), Marquette’s bench unit combined to contribute 29 points in Wednesday’s win over Providence, marking a high in Big East play this season. Norman netted a career-best eight points, all in the first half, knocking down a pair of treys to match his season total entering the game. He also chipped in two rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals in 18 minutes.
With 15 points on Wednesday, Trey Alexander became the sixth player in Creighton history to surpass 500 points as both a sophomore and junior, joining Doug McDermott, Bob Harstad, Ty-Shon Alexander, Paul Silas and Rodney Buford.
Baylor Scheierman had 20 points and 11 rebounds against Seton Hall, and his 13 double-doubles this season are tied for the most by any Bluejay since 1987-88, as he did it last year and Bob Harstad did it in 1988-89.
Ryan Kalkbrenner passed Vernon Moore and Paul Silas to move into ninth place on Creighton’s scoring list with 23 points on Wednesday. He’s scored in double-figures in 16 straight games, the third-longest active streak in the Big East and just ahead of Scheierman (14) and Trey Alexander (11). He’s also had 52 straight games with eight points or more, which is tied for the nation’s fourth-longest active streak.
Marquette leads by a 59-39 margin, but the teams have split 22 meetings since becoming Big East rivals.
Creighton has won seven of the past 11 meetings. Seventeen of the last 20 meetings have been decided by eight points or less, including the most recent meeting on December 30 — a 72-67 Marquette win.
On March 2, 2013, Creighton defeated Wichita State 91-79 in a winner-take-all game for the MVC Regular Season title on the final day of the season. It was a memorable Senior Night where the Venezuelan national anthem was played for Gregory Echenique prior to the “Star Spangled Banner”, Josh Jones suited up one final time and was introduced as an honorary starter, and the greatest moment the CenturyLink Center DJ has ever had, playing audio of Dorothy from “Wizard of Oz” stating “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” right before the tip, leading into video of the locker room speech from Rudy.
Then Doug McDermott went out and scored 41 points to lead the Jays to the title, in what would wind up being the Jays’ final MVC regular season game, and it became an even better memory. What a helluva game that was. Here’s a whole bunch of links to WBR content after that one, because it’s worth reliving.
- Morning After: Creighton 91, Wichita State 79
- Creighton Seniors Defeat Shockers, Cut Down Nets in Home Finale
- Ott’s Thoughts: McDermott Remarkable in Championship Clinching Win Against Wichita State
- Highlight Reel
The Bottom Line:
KenPom predicts a four-point Bluejay win, and ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton 69.3% odds of victory. With or without Kolek, I think Creighton snaps their three-game skid against the Golden Eagles.
Creighton 78, Marquette 73
