Creighton picked up their 20th win of the season on Wednesday and (almost assuredly) locked up a bid to the NCAA Tournament. But the 75-65 win over DePaul left a lot to be desired, and no one was happy about it afterward. Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth both lamented the team’s lack of execution and focus on their postgame radio interviews. Greg McDermott went a little further.
“I’m happy as heck that we won, but our standard has to be a little higher than this,” McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “Like, some of the sloppy decisions we made on the defensive end, and the times we were a little late with our communication, we’ve got to be better than that.”
A win is a win, especially as March draws near, but regressing back to some of the mistakes that plagued the Jays in November is not a positive development. Was it a bump in the road, a case of overlooking an opponent in last place? Or should the Jays be concerned? We’ll know soon enough because they’re walking into a hornet’s nest on Saturday.
Xavier comes in at 18-10 and 10-7 in the Big East, having won four straight to give themselves a chance to sneak into the tournament. But they’re the sixth team out according to Bracket Matrix, and aside from the Big East Tournament, have only one more chance for the type of win that could get them into the field: Saturday against Creighton.
“We know that going to Xavier and going to Seton Hall on this long trip is not going to be easy,” McDermott said. “Seton Hall led Villanova the whole game (Wednesday) and Xavier’s playing for their lives. We’re going to get the best version of Xavier on Saturday, and for us to be successful we’re going to have to be a better version of ourselves than we were today.”
“I mean, they’re desperate. And they’re a really good team,” Kalkbrenner added. “We’ve got to match the energy they’re going to come in with because at the end of the day, we’ve got things we’re still aspiring to this year, too, and we need that win as well.”
Kalkbrenner had a big game a month ago — when he was on the floor. He scored 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting, but had two first half fouls for the first (and only) time this season — and for the first time since January 27 of *last* season. Kalkbrenner sat the final four minutes of the first half after picking up those two fouls, upon returning scored seven of the Jays’ first 11 points in the second half, and then promptly picked up a third foul just five minutes in. In five seasons, he has rarely had to play through foul trouble, but it was a struggle against Xavier a month ago. Obviously, a repeat of that on Saturday would make CU’s chances of winning slimmer.
Especially when you consider that the player he’ll primarily guard, Zach Freemantle, has had big games over the years against Kalkbrenner and the Jays. He leads Xavier in scoring (16.6 points per game) and rebounding (7.1 rebounds per game), and scored 16 in the first meeting. But he struggled to guard Kalkbrenner, and so Xavier gave his backup, John Hugley IV, nearly 20 minutes off the bench in his place — Hugley IV had 13 points and six rebounds, but fared no better in slowing down the Jays’ center.
Still, Freemantle is their leading scorer for good reason, and he’s scored in double figures in all 25 games he’s played in this season. Kalkbrenner explained this week why he’s such a different player to defend than other big men in the league.
“He’s got really good touch around the rim,” Kalkbrenner said. “Even when I think I make it a tough shot for him, he still finds a way to make a lot of those — more than I think he should. He shoots it well enough that I can’t just sit back and protect the rim like I like to do. He’s really talented, a really well-rounded player.”
Freemantle is surrounded by three other players who also average in double-figures (or close to it): Ryan Conwell at 15.7 points per game, and Dayvion McKnight and Dailyn Swain who both average 9.9 points.
Conwell has twice as many made threes as anyone else on the team (77-of-197), making 39.1%. He’s taken the third-most threes of any player in the Big East, behind only Steven Ashworth and Eric Dixon; he’s made the fourth-most, behind Ashworth, Dixon and Solo Ball. But he’s also effective inside the arc, making 60-of-122 on two-pointers. Conwell scored 20 in the first meeting, making 7-of-15 overall and 4-of-8 from three. He’s coming off a 22-point performance against Seton Hall where he made 4-of-6 from three and 8-of-8 at the line.
Dayvion McKnight leads XU in assists at 4.5 assists per game, his fifth straight season with 100 or more assists. He struggled mightily in Omaha, scoring eight points on 4-of-7 shooting with two assists and three turnovers — one of only three games this season where he’s had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio.
Dailyn Swain (9.9 points per game) has averaged 12.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game over the last 10 games. Swain had 13 points, seven rebounds, four assists and a career-high six steals in their win over Butler on Feb. 18. But although he scored 11 in Omaha, he needed 13 shots to get there — Swain was 4-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-4 at the line.
Xavier leads the Big East in fastbreak points (10th nationally at 15.6 points per game). They’re second in the league in free throw percentage (79.0%, seventh nationally) and third in three-point shooting (38.3%, 17th nationally). CU did fairly well in all three areas in the first game — Xavier had only six fastbreak points, attempted only 17 free throws and made 9-of-24 (37.5%) from three — but McDermott’s review of the game film left him feeling like their defense didn’t play well.
“That game, neither team defended very well,” he said on Friday. “We won that game because we outscored them. I don’t know that we’re going to go into their building and outscore them.”
He’s confident that the Jays will be ready for Xavier’s A-game.
“Our guys are smart guys. They know how important this game is to Xavier,” he said on Friday. “But they also understand how important it is to us. Anytime you can move up a seed line, whether it’s the Big East Tournament or the NCAA Tournament, you do yourself a favor.”
- Tip: 3:30pm
- Venue: Cintas Center in Cincinnati, OH
- TV: FOX
- 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 Fox Sports app and website
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 392 as well as on the SiriusXM App
Other players of note include Marcus Foster (no relation to the former Bluejay great), who’s shooting 39.8% from three while making 37-of-93. He averages 8.2 points and is third on the team in rebounding with 4.7 per game; he’s snagged 6.0 rebounds per game over the last 10 contests. Foster scored two points on 0-of-4 shooting in Omaha, but had six rebounds (two offensive).
Dante Maddox Jr. tied his collegiate highs for points (26) and 3-point field goals (six) in the win at Providence on Feb. 12, his third 20-point game of the season. He’s averaging 7.3 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. Maddox played 21 minutes off the bench in the first matchup, scoring five points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Jerome Hunter is averaging 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. He had 12 points and five rebounds in 13 minutes vs. UConn in late January, and hasn’t scored in double figures since.
According to Basketball-Reference.com (and as pointed out in Rob Anderson’s always-excellent game notes), Creighton’s Steven Ashworth and Xavier’s Dayvion McKnight are two of 37 players since 1983-84 with at least 1,880 career points and 685 career assists, and the only two active players. Ashworth has 1,881 points and 688 assists, while McKnight owns 1,927 points and 701 assists.
Creighton’s bench has scored 389 points in 28 games this season, already outscoring last year’s point production of 367 in 35 games a season ago. Creighton has not scored 400 bench points or more since 2020-21 after doing it for 14 straight seasons from 2007-08 to 2020-21. The Bluejays have won 46 straight games when scoring 17 or more bench points. Creighton’s bench has outscored the opposition 59-30 in the last five games
Creighton is 13-4 in Big East play, the sixth straight year the Bluejays have opened league play 11-6 or better after 17 league contests. With a win on Saturday, CU’s 14-4 league start would match its best mark ever after 18 league games as a Big East member, something previously done in 2020-21 and 2013-14.
Xavier owns a 22-20 lead in the series with Creighton, but Xavier has a 12-8 edge in games played in Cincinnati. Greg McDermott is 14-13 against Xavier, and 4-2 against Sean Miller. Miller is 3-7 against Creighton.
Creighton swept the Musketeers last season, winning a pair of games decided by seven points (85-78 in Omaha; 78-71 in Cincinnati). They were victorious 86-77 last month in Omaha for their third straight win in the series.
On March 1, 1991, Creighton beat Drake 70-59 in their first-ever MVC Tournament game in St. Louis. MVC Player of the Year Chad Gallagher was limited by the flu to just 14 points, and Bob Harstad scored just seven points after spraining his toe in the first half, the only time all season he failed to score in double-figures.
Duan Cole and Latrell Wrightsell were a more-than-capable Substitute Dynamic Duo. Cole scored 21 points, 17 of them in the first half when the outcome was still in doubt, and Wrightsell had a remarkable eight — yes, eight — steals to go along with eight points. Those steals keyed a 17-0 run to end the first half that effectively won the game for the Jays; they led 46-26 at the break and coasted to a 77-58 win.
The Bottom Line:
Vegas odds had yet to be posted when this published; KenPom gives Xavier a one-point edge and 52% odds of victory while ESPN’s BPI is leaning the other way — they give CU a 51.4% chance of winning. Either way it figures to be a close game decided late.
Creighton 78, Xavier 74