Creighton’s next opponent, Louisiana Tech, may not jump off the schedule poster as a marquee opponent in the eyes of the casual fan. But they’re precisely the type of team that programs in Creighton’s situation (a power conference squad with NCAA Tournament goals) are smart to book for the “buy game” portion of the slate.
A 20-win team in 2018-19, Louisiana Tech returns four starters and nine lettermen, plus added an impact transfer in former McNeese State standout Kalob Ledoux. They’re solidly inside the Top 100 in all of the computer metrics; combined with a solid non-con slate and playing in one of the better mid-major leagues (Conference USA) they should remain there. They’ll give Creighton a run for their money — literally, since this is a buy game — and if the way LaTech’s games at Wichita State and LSU went a year ago are any indication, a lot of bang for their buck. The Bulldogs beat Wichita State by double digits in Wichita last November (71-58) and led LSU in the second half a couple of weeks later before falling 74-67.
Their leading scorer through two games is Kalob Ledoux, the aforementioned McNeese State transfer. He averaged 14.8 points a year ago for McNeese and has picked right up where he left off — he’s averaging 15.5 for LaTech this year. A 6’4″ wing, he has the green light to shoot whenever he has a sliver of an opening, and has the size (against most opponents) to get up shots even when he is covered. And with a 39% career shooting percentage from three-point range, it’s understandable why he has that green light. He’s been even better so far this year, making 7-of-17 from deep. He doesn’t drive much, and doesn’t shoot very often inside of 10 feet (79.4% of his shot attempts two years ago came from 10 feet+), so if you can crowd the perimeter you can neutralize a lot of his scoring chances.
Senior guard DaQuan Bracey led the Bulldogs in scoring a year ago at 16.9 points, and through two games has embraced more of a distributor role. He’s had an assist on 40% of the shots made by his teammates while he’s been on the floor this year, one of the best rates in D1. Part of that is because he’s a left-handed point guard who’s able to drive with both hands. Part of it is that he makes quick decisions and often gets opposing defenses off-balance. And part of it is you have to respect his shot — he’s really good at getting to the rim off the dribble (with just over 40% of his total shot attempts coming there), he made 55.5% of the shots he took from that distance a year ago, and he was pretty good at drawing fouls. Bracey is undersized at 5’11” and 175, but he’s lightning quick and hard to slow down.
6’5″ junior JaColby Pemberton is a great finisher around the rim, too. He’s longer than his height indicates, and it shows; he made 60% of his shots at the rim last season, he’s their best offensive rebounder, and most active defender. His activity on the glass is the fuel for their transition game — teams who allow him to clean up and feed the ball to Bracey often regret it.
LaTech likes to play fast, and goes 11 deep which allows them to play a full-court press for large stretches of games. They’ve forced 49 turnovers through two games. Yes, those were against sub-300 Texas A&M Corpus Christi and NAIA opponent Wiley College, but it gives you an indication of what they try to accomplish even if the number of turnovers is likely to be much lower against a team of CU’s caliber. And if the Jays play out of control and allow themselves to be sped up? LaTech will likely capitalize.
That sets up an interesting conundrum for Creighton. They’re not deep, at least not at the moment, and it has to be tempting to at least consider slowing things down. Greg McDermott says that’s not going to happen.
“We have to figure out a way to get through these next four or five weeks until we start getting bodies back,” he said in a postgame interview on 1620AM after the loss at Michigan. “The way we play, we’d like to get guys off the floor at least for a minute here or there, but it’s difficult to do that right now. And the guys want to play that style. They’re not ready to cave in and say we need to slow it down. They don’t want to grind it out and shorten the game. That’s not who we are and that’s not the way they prefer to play. We’re going to fight through this and continue to do what we do.”
The first of those injured Bluejays to return to action was Damien Jefferson, who played 27 minutes against the Wolverines. He was a game-time decision that night, and could be a game-time decision for awhile.
“The trainers and (strength coaches) watched him and said if it looks like he’s favoring it, we’ll pull him,” McDermott said. “Obviously he’s not anywhere close to where he needs to be, but we just don’t have any other bodies. His experience trumps what a guy like Jalen Wyndham or Jett Canfield can bring us at this point in time. Hopefully we can get his timing back so he can be more of a factor.”
They’ll likely prefer Jefferson’s experience to the youth of players like Wyndham and Canfield, at least initially, against LaTech too given the pressure their defense applies to opponents. But if he’s limited or can’t go at all, the Jays have a choice to make: get those young players into the game during high-leverage situations, or go with a short bench.
- Tip: 5:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS2
- Announcers: Chris Vosters and Nick Bahe
- In Omaha: Cox channel 216 (SD), 1216 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 621 (SD), 1621 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 618, Dish Network channel 397
- Streaming on FoxSportsGO
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Josh Dotzler
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- For Cord Cutters
- Louisiana Tech will debut throwback uniforms next month to commemorate the university’s 125th anniversary — specifically, the Columbia Blue unis worn by Karl Malone and the 1985 LaTech squad who advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16. Between the color and the unique typography I’m not entirely sure why they ever got rid of these in the first place.
- 6’10”, 250-pound junior Andrew Gordon was granted a waiver by the NCAA that allows him to play this season immediately after transferring from West Virginia. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds while appearing in 34 games for the Mountaineers.
- LaTech thrives on big runs. They had 12-2 and 16-0 runs against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and blasted the Shockers with a 18-3 run that broke open that game a year ago.
- Creighton began each of Greg McDermott’s last nine seasons at Creighton with a 2-0 record. That ended with Tuesday’s loss at Michigan. They’ve not been 1-2 after three games in nearly a quarter of a century — you have to go all the back to 1997-98 to find the last time they started a season in that fashion.
- Marcus Zegarowski has scored 18 points in each of CU’s first two games this season, marking the first time(s) in his career he’s scored that many points against a D1 opponent. He did have 20 points vs. Coe College on December 20 last year, for the record. A big reason for the increased output? He’s shooting a (probably unsustainably high) 54.5% from three-point range.
- Kelvin Jones tied a record for most offensive rebounds in a game during the McDermott Era at Creighton by grabbing seven of them against Michigan. The others to snare seven offensive rebounds? Gregory Echenique twice, Geoffrey Groselle twice, and Martin Krampelj once. Notably, Jones did it in far fewer minutes (16) than any of the others. In fact, he became just the third Bluejay under Greg McDermott to grab nine rebounds or more in 16 minutes or less, joining Toby Hegner (12/9/16 vs. Longwood in 14 minutes) and Devin Brooks (3/11/13 vs. UMKC in 16 minutes).
Creighton and Louisiana Tech have met one time previously, a 87-84 CU win on December 26, 1990. The game featured multiple future pros, and not just on the Bluejay side.
Bob Harstad had 28 points and 10 rebounds for the Jays, and Chad Gallagher had 24 and 11. For LaTech, P.J. Brown (yes, THAT P.J. Brown) had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Ron Ellis had 23 and 9.
You may not have known you needed some vintage late-90s SportsCenter nostalgia today, but trust me, you do. Especially the great Rich Eisen narrating highlights of one of the more infamous moments in NBA history.
On November 16, 2008, Steve Alford returned to Omaha with his New Mexico Lobos for the season opener, and the bombastic former SMS coach was once again bested by Dana Altman’s Bluejays. This time, Alford’s team had a 16-point lead with 10 minutes to go, and a nine-point lead with 3:39 remaining, and it still wasn’t enough to escape Omaha with a win — the Jays went on a torrid 19-3 run to end the game and get the win, 82-75.
P’Allen Stinnett finished with 30 points, including back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions. The first one gave Creighton the lead at 73-72, and the second one expanded it to 76-72 with 43 seconds remaining. Then Stinnett, Woodfox, and Dotzler made two free throws apiece to seal the win. All totaled, CU scored on their last nine possessions to send Alford home with a loss. Again.
Reading press clippings from the day after that win, I was struck by this quote from Dana Altman:
“We need to find people who are consistent. But we have a great attitude. I like that. Especially our two freshmen (Josh Jones and Antoine Young). I really like the way they practice and approach things. I told them they could be our next (Ryan) Sears and (Ben) Walker.”
It didn’t exactly work out that way, and Altman was off to Eugene by the time their careers wrapped up, but Omaha metro natives Jones and Young gave Jays’ fans more than their share of memories along the way.
The Bottom Line:
Louisiana Tech wants to play as fast as Creighton does. That doesn’t always work out for opponents, but with LaTech’s deeper bench and veteran cast, it could keep them in this one longer than Creighton would like. KenPom predicts a 77-67 win. I think the score is higher but the margin is about right.
Creighton 87, LaTech 77