As a back-and-forth game with nine ties and 13 lead changes wound down on Tuesday, Creighton trailed 70-65 with 87 seconds to play. It looked like Kansas was going to ultimately be the team to survive and pull just far enough ahead to win. Then Denzel Mahoney hit a three-pointer, intercepted a pass 14 seconds later, and raced down court for the game-tying bucket.
Suddenly, Bluejay fans were envisioning a very different ending. An ending with late-game heroics leading them to victory in the most historic venue in the sport, against a team ranked fifth in the nation.
It wasn’t to be. Kansas went back ahead on a three by Jalen Wilson. Marcus Zegarowski was fouled shooting a potential game-tying three with 1.1 seconds left. He made the first two, and then the third was a bit long, giving KU a 73-72 win.
There’s no one on Creighton’s team that you’d want taking a shot with the game on the line more than Zegarowski. He’s done it before — sinking a buzzer beater against Providence a year ago — and he’s the best, most important player on the roster. He took it personally.
“The kid hates to lose,” Greg McDermott told the media on Thursday. “If he thinks had has any blame for a loss taking place, he’s going to take it harder than most would. He’s a perfectionist. He’s a competitor. He’ll be back in that situation again, and when he is I’m confident the result will be much different.”
Much like the last two years, Creighton’s first test of the year against a quality power-conference opponent didn’t go as they’d hoped. Two years ago, Ohio State had a 13-0 run to end the game and turn a 60-56 CU lead with 2:57 to go into a 69-60 loss. Last year, they trailed most of the night at Michigan and lost 79-69.
Their first real test of the 2020-21 season showed how much the Crossover Classic games in South Dakota would have come in handy. Against a quicker, longer, more athletic defense than they’d seen in three home blowout wins, CU’s offense made lots of poor decisions, too many careless turnovers, made just 9-of-18 from the foul line. Defensively, the Jays gave KU 10 more shot attempts than they had thanks to a +10 advantage on the offensive glass, and had moments where they simply lost shooters defensively. In other words, things you kind of expect to see the first time a team plays tough competition — against a team that was too good for them to overcome those deficiencies.
As they seek to bounce back from that loss, they play host to Nebraska for the second straight year — a favor from McDermott’s program to Fred Hoiberg, who asked the Jays to consider moving the site of the game when faced with the prospect of playing his first game in the CU-NU series in front of hostile fans in Omaha, the second in an empty Pinnacle Bank Arena, then the third next year in another sold-out hostile arena here.
“I’d like to think he would do the same thing for us if the roles were reversed,” McDermott said on Thursday.
It’s a completely different Nebraska team than the one Creighton blew out a year ago, with their top six scorers new to the active roster (or the team) this year. 93% of their scoring has come from players who did not play a year ago, in fact. They’re obviously more talented. But the same problems seem to plague them: they don’t have the shooters to excel in Hoiberg’s pace-and-space system, they have difficulty closing out games, when the other team gets on a roll they get impatient, and they don’t respond well to adversity.
All of those traits were on display Wednesday night in Lincoln against Georgia Tech. They led 52-51 after 33 minutes, then surrendered a 16-4 run and the bottom fell out. Stars Teddy Allen and Trey McGowens combined to make just six of 25 shots in the game, returned to the floor after the game to shoot, and left frustrated when those shots didn’t go in either. The World-Herald’s Sam McKewon wrote that “at one point postgame, Allen, having missed a series of runners, punted the basketball rugby style about 35 yards over McGowens’ head until it crashed into bleachers.”
With the loss, the Huskers haven’t beaten a power-conference team in 337 days — Iowa on January 7 — as they ended last season losing 16 consecutive Big Ten games and lost their lone conference tournament game by 25 to Indiana.
Junior college transfer Teddy Allen leads the team in scoring at 17.2 points per game while also chipping in 5.2 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game. He averaged 31.4 points per game at Western Nebraska Community College last season, and has been in double figures in all five games and posted 20-point games against both North Dakota State (22) and South Dakota (23). Nebraska is his fourth school in four years, starting at West Virginia in 2017, transferring to Wichita State before being kicked off the team before playing a game, then on to WNCC and now to Nebraska. To call his college career troubled is putting it mildly.
His talent is undeniable, though, especially inside the arc. Allen has made 52% of his two-point baskets, and 76.9% of his shots at the rim — his strength allows him to drive into traffic and absorb contact, scoring against bigger, taller defenders. He initiates contact and draws lots of fouls, attempting 32 free throws through five games. If you can stop his dribble, though, he’s a lot less effective. His jump shot leaves a lot to be desired — 40% on two-point jumpers, and 27% on three-pointers.
Western Kentucky transfer Dalano Banton, a 6’9″ point guard, averages 14.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. Much like Allen, he’s a guy you need to keep from dribbling into the paint — he’s made 75.0% of his shots at the rim, he draws contact, and either scores through it or draws fouls. He’s been to the line 27 times in five games. But he’s an even poorer jump shooter than Allen; he’s made just 38.9% of his two-point jumpers and 21% of his three-pointers. Defensively, he’s a pest, with his length disrupting ball handlers — Banton is third on the team in steals (nine) and first in blocks (six).
Western Illinois transfer Kobe Webster is immediately eligible, and has averaged 12.2 points and 2.4 rebounds all off the bench. Webster is their instant offensive spark guy, and can heat up from outside — 63% of his total shots have been three-pointers, and he’s made 42.3% of them. Those numbers scream “small sample size” and it’s true for Webster: he was lights out against WIU, making 6-of-7 from three-point range. He’s 5-for-19 in the other four games. He made 33.3% of his threes a year ago, 41.3% as a sophomore and 36.6% as a freshman. Defenses can’t let him get hot and need to know where he is, but he’s also not going to light teams up like he did on Wednesday very often either.
Of note, Webster faced the Bluejays as a sophomore at Western Illinois on Nov. 6, 2018 and had his first career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 78-67 loss to the Bluejays in Omaha.
Pitt transfer Trey McGowens, also immediately eligible, is their fourth player averaging in double figures at 10.4 points per game, adding 5.0 rebounds. He has very little mid-range game, with 79% of his shots coming either at the rim or from three-point range; like the rest of the roster, stopping his dribble and forcing him to jack up threes pays off as McGowens is just a 29.4% shooter from long range.
TCU transfer Lat Mayen is a 6’9″ stretch-4 who wreaks havoc on defenses by pulling his defender with him — three-fourths of his shot attempts have been three-pointers, and he’s made a respectable 37.9% of them. With his defender running the perimeter with him, that takes a rebounder away from the paint, and takes away shot blockers at the rim as the last line of defense against the Huskers’ driving guards. He impacts their offense as much as anyone despite being a lower-usage player; he does average 9.0 points and 6.2 rebounds a game, though.
Nebraska presents some challenges stylistically for Creighton. They’ve forced a turnover on 23.5% of opponent’s possessions, 45th best in D1. That’s not at Kansas’ level, but it’s plenty disruptive. And the Huskers’ preference for putting their heads down and driving at the rim to draw contact forces you to defend them without fouling, and for a CU team that isn’t very deep, they could get into foul trouble quickly if they’re unsuccessful at stopping dribble penetration.
The same is true the other way, too. Creighton’s much, much better at the pace-and-space style of basketball Nebraska likes to play, with better connected teamwork and more experienced talent running in it. They’ve lit up the scoreboard in this series in Omaha in recent years, including last year. They have the firepower to do it again.
- Tip: 6:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: Big Ten Network
- Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Shon Morris
- In Omaha: Cox channel 1080
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 610, Dish Network channel 439
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Nick Bahe
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Nebraska averages 10.2 steals per game, a total which leads the Big Ten and ranks 16th nationally.
- Only four players on the 2020-21 Husker roster have faced Creighton (Thorir Thorbjarnarson, Yvan Ouedraogo, Akol Arop and Kobe Webster) in their collegiate career. Thorbjarnarson had 12 points at Creighton in his first start of the season last December, hitting 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Ouedraogo had two points and three boards in 12 minutes, while Arop had two points, four rebounds and a blocked shot in three minutes of work in the loss in Omaha. Thorbjarnarson also played the final minute of NU’s win in Lincoln in 2018. And Webster had 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 2018 loss to Creighton while he was at WIU.
- Friday’s game against No. 8 Creighton begins a stretch where Nebraska could potentially play five straight top-25 teams. NU opens Big Ten play at No. 13 Wisconsin before returning home to face a Michigan team which is the first team outside this week’s AP Top 25. NU will then travel to No. 22 Ohio State before hosting No. 4 Michigan State on Jan. 2.
- Creighton has spent most of the last two decades in the lead when hosting Nebraska in the regular-season. Creighton raced to a 31-11 lead in 2005, a 40-13 edge in 2007, a 19-9 start in 2009, a 38-8 margin in 2013, an 18-4 advantage in 2015 and a 37-7 bulge in 2019. In the past 10 regular-season meetings in Omaha Creighton has led for a combined 336:38 compared to NU’s total of 38:17. Creighton has opened up a double-digit lead in each game.
- Creighton has won each of its last nine home games by double-figures, a streak that started on January 26, 2020. A win by 10+ points on Friday vs. Nebraska would tie it for the second-longest such streak in program history. And the Bluejays have beaten Nebraska by 10+ points in seven of the last eight meetings in Omaha.
- Creighton has won every Friday home game it’s played since Dec. 12, 1975, back when Greg McDermott was 11 years old, and more than 26 years before current Bluejay freshman Ryan Kalkbrenner was born. The streak is now 31 straight, with the Jays beating Kennesaw State 93-58 last Friday.
Creighton leads the all-time series 27-26.
As Creighton head coach, Greg McDermott owns an 8-2 record against Nebraska. He is the only Creighton men’s basketball coach to win seven straight games over the Cornhuskers (2011-17), and his eight overall victories trail only Dana Altman (who was 10-7 against NU) among Bluejay head coaches all-time.
McDermott owns a 14-4 record in his career against the Cornhuskers. The only other teams he has beaten more as a head coach are DePaul (15-1) and Drake (15-7).
Creighton has led at halftime in 17 of the past 21 regular-season meetings (including 12 of the last 15 meetings), with eight double-digit leads at intermission in that span. Four of the five times that Creighton trailed it half, it came back to win the game anyway. Nebraska has led at halftime and beaten Creighton in the regular-season just once since Jan. 8, 1997, with that coming in December of 2018.
Also of note, Nebraska has scored more than 30 first half points in just two of the last 17 regular-season meetings at all sites.
Creighton has beaten Nebraska on December 11 in recent seasons, both notable for different reasons. On December 11, 2004 they won a slugfest in Lincoln 50-48 thanks to a last-second game winner. We featured this one on a Bluejay Rewind a couple of years ago; here’s some of the write-up:
A three-pointer from the corner — banked off the glass! — from Jason Dourisseau tied the game at 48 with 26.8 seconds left, and after running down the clock to get the last shot, Funk made his move. He drove at the rim and challenged Turek, but had his shot emphatically blocked out of bounds.
With 3.2 seconds left, they opted not to call timeout, and McKinney inbounded the ball under their own basket. Funk was covered up at the three-point line, and the pass came in to Miliner just inside the arc. He put the ball on the floor, drove past Jake Muhleisen, and stuck a jumper from 15 feet out with under a second to play to give CU a 50-48 lead. A desperation three by the Huskers’ Marcus Neal was offline, and the Jays had escaped Lincoln with the win.
Miliner’s 20 points led the team, and the buzzer-beater was etched into the Bluejay history book despite coming in a game that, prior to his shot, had been mostly forgettable.
“We’re all fairly in agreement that won’t make the ESPN classics,” Altman noted after the game. “I think both teams tried awfully hard and worked awfully hard, but neither team could seem to get a flow to the game. It was just one of those games that turned into a slugfest.”
The very next year, Creighton beat Nebraska again on December 11 in a game where they had nearly as many players in street clothes as they had dressed for the game — and blitzed the Huskers with a memorable first half onslaught.
As they prepared to host Nebraska on December 11, they were suddenly on the ropes — not only did they have a 3-2 record, their star senior Nate Funk was out indefinitely with an injury suffered at DePaul. Then the injury bug proved contagious. Jimmy Motz suffered a stress fracture in his foot. Pierce Hibma hurt his knee. Against their in-state rival, the Jays dressed just eight scholarship players — combined with players already redshirting, they had nine players in uniform and seven in street clothes, making for a most unusual scene on the bench.
Creighton used their disadvantage in numbers to their advantage on the court, however. Nebraska missed their first 11 two-point shots and made just one total in the first half, while turning it over 17 times against a suffocating defense. Creighton took a 31-11 lead into halftime, just the second time since 1985 that a Bluejay opponent was held to 11 points or less in a half.
“We had our backs to the wall, but we weren’t going to make excuses,” Creighton sophomore Dane Watts told the media after the game. “We just wanted to play harder than them, play with a lot of heart and not worry about shots falling. We wanted to be the aggressor.”
The Bottom Line:
Creighton is favored by double digits just about everywhere you look in this one (KenPom, ESPN’s BPI) though the Vegas line was not set at publish time.
Prediction is that while Creighton left Lawrence pissed after Tuesday’s win, Nebraska will leave pissed after this one.
#8 Creighton 85, Nebraska 67
