In two meetings a year ago, Creighton led by six points with four minutes left at Seton Hall, and by four points with four minutes to go in the rematch in Omaha. They were outscored 27-6 — TWENTY SEVEN to SIX!! — in those eight combined minutes and ended both games with a loss. The stat lines in those two games down the stretch were the basketball version of a horror story.
- 1-13 overall shooting
- 0-6 on 3pt shots
- 0-4 on layups
- 4-5 on free throws
- 5 turnovers
All of that adds up to a ghastly 0.300 points per possession, and a rotten taste in the mouths of Bluejay coaches, players, and fans. There’s two big takeaways from that. One, Creighton was good enough and played well enough for a large enough portion of both games to have leads late in both games. That’s good! And two, Seton Hall still found a way to win both games. That’s very, very, very bad.
It’s tempting to wonder if it’s as simple as the Pirates having college basketball’s best closer, Myles Powell, and the Jays not. But as unbelievably clutch as he is, Powell didn’t make the Bluejays miss 12 of 13 shots down the stretch of those games by himself. He certainly didn’t have anything to do with them missing four of five free throws. So let’s look a bit deeper.
In the first meeting, the Bluejays got zero points from Mitch Ballock (0-for-5 on threes), 11 from Ty-Shon Alexander but on a horrendous 3-for-14 shooting line, and Marcus Zegarowski did not play because of his hand injury. CU hung around because of 16 offensive rebounds and 17 second-chance points, as Martin Krampelj was really good — 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 steals. They needed it, as the Jays were 8-of-28 from three-point range as a team, though Seton Hall was just as bad at 7-of-25. And Powell was just as cold as Alexander, making 5-of-14 from the floor and 2-of-9 from three — the difference in the game might well have been that Powell took 10 free throws and made them all. Seven of those came in the final 1:47 of the game.
In the rematch, the Bluejays once again did a good job on the glass and collected 11 offensive rebounds to Seton Hall’s 10. But the Pirates turned theirs into 11 points; Creighton turned theirs into only three. Creighton had 12 turnovers that SHU turned into 16 points; SHU had 13 turnovers that Creighton turned into only nine points. Given that everything else more or less canceled out — Alexander was 5-of-16 for 20 points, Powell was 5-of-12 for 19 — the difference in this one was in the little details.
Converting second chances. Taking care of the basketball. Both of those were costly in the closing moments — Quincy McKnight had four steals in the final four minutes to continually give the Pirates transition opportunities, and failing to secure an offensive rebound created Powell’s three that gave SHU the lead. While the first meeting was turned around by Powell continually drawing fouls and making free throws down the stretch, the second was turned by the Jays getting sloppy with the basketball and giving Powell an open look at a game-winning three because of an offensive board.
So on second thought, maybe having the game’s best closer really is the difference.
He may not win national player of the year, but there aren’t many better players anywhere than Powell. He averages 21.9 points per game. He can rise up for a jumper with an impossibly small window, he can juke around you to drive off the dribble, he can run off of screens as well as any player in college basketball, and he can score in transition with a variety of moves. It’s tough for any one defender to handle him. A year ago, Davion Mintz did a fairly good job against him for almost the entire game — twice — only to see Powell take his game to another level in crunch time. Ty-Shon Alexander played with him all summer for Team USA at the PanAm Games, learning from him and studying his game, and it will fascinating to watch these two battle each other.
Fellow senior guard Quincy McKnight leads the team with 125 assists (5.4 per game) and is second in scoring at 11.4 points. He’s the perfect running mate for Powell: a tough-as-nails playmaker who can create around ball screens or off the dribble, constantly finding his teammates good shot opportunities. And he can score from all three levels himself, making 35% of his threes and possessing an array of moves to finish at the rim. He also uses his quickness and length to disrupt the rhythm of opposing ball handlers — and come away with steals. He had six steals in the game in Omaha a year ago, including the aforementioned four in the final moments.
Sandro Mamukelashvili missed two months with a wrist injury, but the 6’11” swing man is back for the stretch run. He had a big game against Villanova on Saturday, scoring 17 points with 8 rebounds. He hit three 3-pointers in that game. Where Mamukelashvili plays is one of the more interesting subplots in this game; if Creighton is able to push the tempo and speed the game up, can they force Seton Hall to go small? The Jays have had success this year in forcing teams to abandon their size advantage in the post, and if seven-footers Romaro Gill and Ike Obiagu can’t keep up, it will probably force Mamukelashvili into the middle. That might not effect Mamukelashvili a ton, but getting Gill — the Big East’s top shot blocker at 3.6 per game — off the floor will open up chances at the rim that won’t be there otherwise.
- Tip: 5:30pm Central
- Venue: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery
- In Omaha: Cox channel 78 (SD), 1078 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 620 (SD), 1620 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 219, Dish Network channel 150
- Streaming on FoxSportsGO
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Ross Ferrarini
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- For Cord Cutters:
- Myles Powell won Big East Player of the Week for the sixth time in his career this week, after two giant performances in wins over Georgetown and Villanova. He poured in 21 first-half-points at Georgetown, helping the Pirates get out to a 16-0 start that ultimately led to a 78-71 victory. He finished the game with 34 points on 12-of-24 shooting, his third 30-point effort of the season and 12th of his career. Then Powell helped Seton Hall earn its first road win at Villanova since 1994 with 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting.
- Wednesday is Bill Raftery Bobblehead Night, featuring a likeness of a young Raftery from his days as Seton Hall’s coach in the 1970s standing next to a bag of (what else) onions.
- Since the start of the 2013-14 season when Creighton joined the Big East, the Bluejays own three top-10 road wins. Creighton beat No. 4 Villanova in 2014, No. 10 Marquette in 2019 and No. 8 Villanova in 2020. The three top-10 road wins in those seven seasons rank tied for the fifth-most nationally, trailing only Kansas (6), Duke (5), Oklahoma (5) and Michigan (4).
- Mitch Ballock has made a three-pointer in each of his last 23 games, tied for the sixth-longest streak in program history with a three-pointer. But Ballock has faced Seton Hall four times in his career and made a total of two trifectas in those contests (both in the same game in Omaha).
- Ballock has made 75 three-pointers this season, while Ty-Shon Alexander has drained 58 treys. Both men could break the existing program record for three-pointers made by a junior of 82 by Tad Ackerman in 1994-95. (Heck, Ballock might do it this weekend. Here’s hoping.)
Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Creighton 14-6, and the teams have split six all-time meetings in Omaha. The Pirates swept the season series a year ago, beating the Jays twice in eight days — 63-58 in Newark on February 9, and 81-75 in Omaha on the 17th. Here’s the gory details of the loss in Omaha, from the Morning After:
“Davion Mintz had done a great job on Myles Powell all afternoon, but when he checked out for a quick breather at the 11:51 mark it was a turning point — Powell took advantage by draining two 3-pointers in three possessions, sandwiched around a three by Quincy McKnight, and by the time Mintz checked back in Powell was hot, unstoppable, and the Jays were in trouble.
They led 73-67 with 4:33 to go, and there was an uneasiness in the arena because even after Alexander’s red-hot shooting, they only led by six and now the Pirates’ star was heating up.
The fateful final four minutes began with a layup from Sandro Mamukelashvili off of a blown defensive assignment. Then Mitch Ballock missed a three badly, and turned it over on the next possession with a terrible pass that was intercepted by Quincy McKnight. His dunk cut the lead to 73-71, and the groans inside the arena were audible.
Here we go again.
Two possessions later, still clinging to a 73-71 lead, McKnight stole the ball a second time, this time picking Mintz’ pocket. He fed Myles Cale for a layup in transition to tie the game. On the next Bluejay possession, Ballock turned it over again — with McKnight again the player coming up with the steal — and though McKnight’s dunk attempt was blocked, the Pirates secured the offensive board, and Powell sank a three to give Seton Hall the lead.
McKnight wasn’t done. A fourth straight steal, this time with Zegarowski losing the ball, led to a pair of free throws that essentially clinched the come-from-behind win.”
FS1 produced this piece on the Jays’ August trip to Australia. It aired during halftime of the Butler/Marquette game on Sunday and as part of this week’s “Inside the Big East”, but you can view it below!
And on the latest episode of Nick Bahe’s podcast, his guest was Bill Raftery. They discussed a myriad of topics, from how Raftery prepares for games to the Big East in general and Creighton in particular. (There’s some chatter about Nebraska and Fred Hoiberg that you can easily fast-forward through, if you’re so inclined.)
On this date in 2003, the Bluejays moved their record to 22-2 (and 12-1 in the Valley) by virtue of a 70-67 overtime win against SMS. It was such a wild game that beat writer Steve Pivovar led off his recap in the OWH by suggesting Bluejay fans “buy stock in Rolaids.”
Ranked 12th in the nation and playing in front of a sold-out Civic, the Jays fell behind by 17 in the first half as Kyle Korver missed seven of his first eight shots. Then he made three big ones in the final 10 minutes of the game, including a dramatic three from 30 feet out as the shot clock expired to tie the game at 51. The Jays then went ahead 56-51, but had several empty possessions where they failed to extend that lead. And then they turned it over twice, missed two free throws, Korver fouled out, and SMS’ Tamarr Maclin (remember that guy?) forced overtime on a layup with 3.8 seconds to go.
Playing OT without Korver, the game’s biggest shot came from freshman Nate Funk. He buried a three-pointer to give CU a 66-65 lead; though SMS briefly re-took the lead, momentum was with the Jays after Funk’s huge shot and Brody Deren put them ahead for good on a short jumper moments later.
Afterward, Korver told the media, “We have this feeling that we can turn it on and off. Hopefully we learned our lesson tonight, and it won’t happen again. But we’ve already said that a few times this year.”
In literary terminology, that’s called foreshadowing, given how the season ended.
The Bottom Line:
If Creighton can figure out a way to sneak out of Newark with a win, things get mighty interesting in the Big East. They’d be two games back with six to play, and Seton Hall has to come to Omaha on the last day of the regular season. Who knows what happens in that scenario; Creighton’s favorable schedule opens up all sorts of possibilities.
Ultimately, barring more heroics from Myles Powell, Creighton’s chances of winning boil down to making jump shots. With Seton Hall’s block rate of 16.6%, fifth-best nationally, points in the paint will probably be hard to come by.
Creighton shot reasonably well in both games a year ago, and I don’t think SHU’s perimeter defense will shut them down on Wednesday either. But at The Rock, it won’t be enough. KenPom predicts a 76-70 win for SHU; ESPN’s BPI gives the Pirates a 79% chance of victory. That’s probably about right.
#10 Seton Hall 79, #23 Creighton 73
