With a pair of exhibition wins in the rear view mirror, the season tips off for real on Wednesday when Creighton hosts South Dakota. In the 10 days since their win over Colorado State, the Jays have gradually shifted from preseason mode where they primarily work on themselves to regular season mode where a lot of practice time is spent on preparing for the next opponent.
“Now the practices become less taxing physically, but they become more taxing mentally because you’re adding the layer of understanding and executing the game plan,” Greg McDermott said on Monday. “A lot of these new guys are still trying to remember where they’re supposed to go on a play and when they’re supposed to go there, and now we’re adding the layer of ‘alright, here’s what we have to do that’s specific to South Dakota to be successful.’ That can be challenging. Hopefully our guys can do it.”
South Dakota finished 19-14 a year ago and won nine games in the Summit League. Six of the 13 players from that roster are back, led by Preseason All-Summit League pick Isaac Bruns. The Coyotes have already played a game, losing 81-79 in overtime to Utah Tech on Monday night. They own the nation’s longest active streak of games with 75 or more points, having done so in each of their last 12 games. And while they needed overtime to extend that streak in the opener, scoring 11 points in the extra period shows how quickly they can fill it up.
Their adjusted tempo was second-fastest in all of D1 a year ago, at 74.9. Their average possession length was also second-fastest, at 14.7 seconds. How fast are those numbers? For comparison, the fastest CU team of the McDermott Era, the Maurice Watson-led Jays of 2016-17, averaged 14.9 seconds per possession. So that’s the kind of pace we’re talking about here. At 85.2 points per game, they ranked third nationally behind only Alabama (90.7) and Gonzaga (86.4).
“I think first of all, you’ve got to handle their full court pressure. That’s different than what we’ve seen,” McDermott said. “We have to be ready for that. I’m glad we have a couple days to prepare. You want to attack it, but at the same time, you don’t want to allow it to speed you up so much that you’re taking the shots that they want you to take versus the shots that we want to take. And then we’ve got to guard them in transition and keep them off the free throw line. They do a great job of making a quick decision when they catch the ball, whether with a shot or a rip to the basket. They utilize the shot fake extremely well and as a result, they get to the free throw line a lot. That’s a battle that we not only need to win in this game, we need to win that every game.”
To his point, 24.5% of South Dakota’s points came from free throws a year ago, sixth-most in D1. And they averaged almost one free throw attempt for every two shot attempts (a 45.4% FTA/FGA ratio), the fourth-highest in D1. In Monday’s OT loss, they went 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the extra period, with the lone miss being intentional in the waning seconds to give them a chance at an offensive rebound putback. They attempted 35 free throws in the game, making 27.
“Last year, we were No. 1 in the country at not turning the ball over,” USD coach Eric Petersen said last week. “But we played at such a frantic and fast pace and I always say shoot it before you turn it over. Our shooting percentage was low from three because we did take a lot of bad shots. … I think we’ll be a much better passing team, and you’ll just see the ball zip around. I don’t know if we’ll play at as fast of a pace but I think it’ll be more fun to watch because we’ll share the ball a lot better.”
Adding to the chaotic nature of USD’s games, as McDermott noted, is that they use a full-court press to speed the game up and force opponents to play at their pace. The Coyotes ranked 16th nationally in both turnover margin (+3.8) and fewest turnovers themselves (just 9.6 per game).
“The press in year two is going to get better. (The players), they’re in better shape,” Petersen said. “I would say our press is much better, and we were able to fix situations much quicker, which was our issue last year.”
Isaac Bruns, a 6’4” sophomore, averaged 14.6 points and 4.3 rebounds a year ago. Against Utah State on Monday night, he scored 23 points, with 17 of them on 6-of-11 shooting in the second half. That kind of obscures the larger story, though, which is that he took 24 shots to score those 23 points — he was 8-of-20 inside the arc and 0-of-4 outside.
Overall, though, Bruns gets downhill quickly and draws a lot of fouls — a year ago, he averaged 4.7 fouls drawn per 40 minutes. And once he’s at the line he rarely misses, as Bruns was 99-of-116 (85.3%) on free throws.
He began last year coming off the bench, and was a big reason why the Coyotes ranked in the top 10 nationally for most bench points. After moving into the starting lineup early in league play, he scored in double-figures in 14 of 16 games to close out the season, including six games with 20+ points. He had his first career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting in the Summit League Tournament Quarterfinals against North Dakota State.
7’0”, 255-pound center Cameron Fens is also back after averaging 8.6 points and 5.0 rebounds a year ago. His season was cut short by injury, and based on how he looked Monday night the Coyotes are in a similar position with Fens as the Jays are with Owen Freeman — he’s still working himself back into game shape and will be a different player a month from now. Against Utah Tech, Fens played just 19 minutes and committed more turnovers (3) than he had made shots (2).
Freshman Evan Anderson was the only other player to score in double-figures on Monday, with 10 points on 3-of-3 shooting off the bench. He also had four rebounds (two offensive) and a steal. Another freshman, Vince Buzelis, nearly had a double-double in his collegiate debut with eight points and 11 rebounds (four of them offensive). A member of the U16 Lithuania National Team, Buzelis’ brother, Matas, was a first round selection by the Chicago Bulls in the 2024 NBA Draft.
They added four players from the transfer portal, led by 6’3” guard Jordan Crawford who averaged 7.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists for Eastern Kentucky a year ago. Crawford scored eight points in his Coyote debut Monday, but was just 2-of-11 from the field (including 1-of-8 from three). He’s a better shooter than that, but the trend lines are similar — he was just 30-of-67 inside the arc a year ago (44.8%) and 42-of-130 (32.3%) from three.
The Coyotes also added Josiah Dotzler, who played just five games for Saint Louis a year ago before suffering a season-ending injury. But Dotzler tore his ACL in preseason practice and will now miss a second consecutive season due to injury.
“We expected him to be a huge part of our team and have a huge role for us,” Peterson said. “Joe didn’t really practice much during the summer. I felt really good about our team without him, and it was going to be an added bonus.”
From Creighton’s standpoint, the start of games that count means it’s time to figure out a rotation, regardless of whether they feel like they have enough data to do so. After the win over Colorado State, McDermott admitted he was struggling to figure out how to get everyone onto the floor.
“I tried to actually sit down last night and put it on paper. I got to about the eight minute time out and I ripped it up and said, this is impossible,” McDermott said on his postgame radio show after that game. “It’s just really hard to do, and the reality of it is there’s gonna be a few guys that could probably help us win and probably are deserving to play that aren’t going to get to play a lot. The challenge will be, can they handle it the right way and can they stay ready? Because things always happen over the course of a season. We’ve got some tough decisions to make the next 10 days as a coaching staff.”
10 days later, it’s not any easier.
“In our exhibitions, some guys got more minutes than they’re probably normally going to get, some didn’t get as many as they’re normally going to get. That’s going to be kind of a game by game, matchup by matchup decision that we’re going to
make. I think they understand this team has a lot of depth and that the days of guys playing 37 minutes are probably over.”
And while the roster is full of new faces, McDermott noted that for the most part they’ve seen the natural progression through preseason practices that they hope for.
“The issue is just with so many new guys, there’s going to be mistakes and there’s going to be times in games that we look like we don’t know what the heck we’re doing. Because those times are happening in practice too.”
- Tip: 7:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: Peacock
- Announcers: John Fanta and Nick Bahe
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- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Tyler Clement
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South Dakota was picked to finish fifth in the Summit League Preseason Coaches’ Poll and received one first place vote. Isaac Bruns was named to the conference’s preseason first team after being an All-Summit League Honorable Mention a season ago. Bruns ranked No. 10 in the conference in scoring a season ago and is the league’s leading returner scorer at 14.6 points per game.
Eric Peterson is in his fourth year as the head coach of the South Dakota men’s basketball team and holds a 43-54 overall record.
In a 96-77 win over South Dakota last November in Iowa City, Josh Dix had a huge game with 23 points (on 5-of-6 from three-point range), five assists, four rebounds and a steal. Ahead of his Bluejay debut, McDermott said the Council Bluffs native is excited to play home games in front of his family. “It’s a 10-minute drive instead of a three-hour drive, and I think he’s excited to have them as part of this. He’s played in a lot of big games. He’s seen a lot of big moments as a college basketball player and I think he’s ready for it.”
Freshman big man Karem Konan will miss Wednesday’s game as part of the NCAA’s increasingly arbitrary eligibility process. They ruled last week that Konan, who played professionally overseas, will have three years of eligibility after sitting out a one-game suspension, and can make his collegiate debut next Tuesday at Gonzaga. That means Jasen Green is likely to see a lot of minutes as Owen Freeman’s primary backup in the middle against South Dakota.
Greg McDermott said no decisions have been made on possible redshirts, and that he isn’t sure they’ll have definitive answers this week. But if players we would otherwise expect to see on the floor don’t get off the bench, especially if the Jays build a big lead, that will be a good barometer on who the staff is considering to hold back.
Creighton leads the all-time series with South Dakota, 49-11, including a 33-1 mark in Omaha. The series started in 1918 with 17 consecutive Bluejay wins. The teams met nearly every season from 1933 to 1968, but the only meetings since 1968 between the clubs have been a 2010 CIT game at the Omaha Civic Auditorium and a 2014 double-overtime battle at CHI Health Center Omaha. In that one, Creighton blew a lead in the final minute after USD’s Tyler Larson hit back-to-back threes in the last 10 seconds, including one from the right wing at the buzzer. The Jays needed two overtimes to outlast the Coyotes 91-88.
Greg McDermott is 3-4 all-time against South Dakota, having coached against USD when he was at Wayne State (2-2), North Dakota State (0-2) and Creighton (1-0). He is 0-0 against Eric Peterson.
College hoops’ opening night has gradually moved closer and closer to the beginning of November over the last three decades. In 1992 the Jays’ began the season a full month later — on December 3. Wednesday’s game is tied for the earliest-ever regular season game the Jays have played, as the 2019-20 team also opened up on November 5 with an 81-55 victory over Kennesaw State.
Ty-Shon Alexander buried a pair of three-pointers in the first 76 seconds. And when it was followed by a three from Marcus Zegarowski for a 9-0 lead that forced Kennesaw State into a timeout, it looked like we were in for a very different game than the one we wound up seeing.
Alexander and Zegarowski each hit another three ahead of the first media timeout to make it 15-4 Bluejays. But instead of delivering an early knockout, CU scored just 24 points the rest of the half. Leading 39-31 at the break, Creighton took control of the game over the first four minutes of the second. They scored 11 points on their first five possessions, and in roughly two minutes’ time, built a commanding 50-33 lead.
ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton 98.7% odds of winning, and KenPom predicts a 25-point win with 99% probability.
It’ll be a track meet, but the Jays should win this one easily.
#23 Creighton 104, South Dakota 73