The 2017-18 college basketball season has entered it’s final week of the regular season, if you can believe that, and a lot remains unsettled for your Creighton Bluejays. From their seed in next week’s Big East Tournament (they could be slotted anywhere from third to seventh, and can avoid the Wednesday night play-in round with a win tonight) to their seed in the NCAA Tournament (their win over Villanova likely sealed their bid, and every win the rest of the way improves their seed/matchup), there’s a helluva lot to play for.
It begins tonight, in the final regular season home game for Marcus Foster, Toby Hegner, Manny Suarez and Tyler Clement. The opponent is a surprisingly frisky DePaul Blue Demons squad who very nearly beat the Jays in Chicago, and proved to be a bad matchup for CU.
In particular, 6’11” center Marin Maric was just about unstoppable at various points in the game. Toby Hegner struggled to guard him without fouling, and Jacob Epperson struggled to guard him at all. At one point in the second half, Maric scored four consecutive baskets, all layups. Manny Suarez turned in perhaps his biggest performance as a Bluejay, playing 10 second-half minutes and used his big frame to his advantage — he didn’t totally stop Maric, but he made him work a lot harder for everything, and that paid off down the stretch. Over a six minute portion that proved to be the key sequence in the game, Suarez combined with Tyler Clement to double-team the post (Clement coming in from the weak side) and hold Maric scoreless.
The Blue Demons are one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country, securing a board on 33.4% of their missed shots. It’s a team-wide effort; of the 12 offensive rebounds they grabbed against Creighton earlier this month, Brandon Cyrus and Paul Reed had three, Maric had two, Max Strus and Jaylen Butz had one, and two were credited to “team.” As we’ve seen with other teams who crash the offensive glass, that not only gives DePaul opportunities for second-chance points against a scrambling defense, it stops Creighton from running in transition and cranking up the pace of the game. The opposite is also true, though — because DePaul crashes the glass, when Creighton does get a defensive rebound they’re able to get numbers in transition. They scored 20 points in transition in the first meeting, and if that happens again tonight CU will probably like the score a lot at the end of the night.
DePaul has also been known to play zone from time to time, including some in that first meeting. While WBR’s Matt DeMarinis disproved the theory that Creighton always struggles against zone defenses, they could be without a key piece to their zone-busting ability. Ronnie Harrell is a gametime decision with the foot infection that caused him to miss the Villanova game, and if he can’t go, that robs them of a player who had a huge game the first time around. He had 10 points, eight rebounds, and five assists, hit a pair of threes, blocked a shot, and was a key ingredient in busting their zone.
Both Davion Mintz and Ty-Shon Alexander struggled defensively in the first meeting, and neither did a great job of running the offense, either, which is why Clement saw so much playing time. The senior walk-on thrives against teams like DePaul who aren’t overly aggressive in forcing turnovers and play a more deliberate style. But Mitch Ballock’s performance on Saturday puts an interesting wrinkle into the “point guard” discussion — he was outstanding as an initiator of the offense from the forward spot, much like Grant Gibbs used to do, and it will be fascinating to see if that can continue tonight. He led the team in assists Saturday, and if he’s able to do that consistently, the ceiling for this team entering March is much higher.
DePaul’s leading scorer, Max Strus, found life difficult in the first meeting as he was blanketed by Khyri Thomas. Strus scored 11 points on 3-11 shooting, including 1-6 from behind the arc, in 37 minutes of play, and two of his three made baskets came late in the first half when Thomas headed to the bench with two fouls. He’d been averaging over 17 a game before he got a taste of Khryifense; he enters tonight’s game averaging 17.1 with a team-high 75 three-pointers.
Though the Blue Demons are 11-17 overall and 4-12 in the Big East, they’re one of the worst matchups in the league this year for the Bluejays, and it showed in the first meeting. The Jays escaped Chicago with a win largely because Marcus Foster scored 29 points — 19 of them in a brilliant second half where he was 7-11 from the floor and 4-5 on three pointers — and hit the game-winning three with 14 seconds to play. But they got huge contributions from all of their seniors that night, much like they have all year long. Suarez played perhaps his best game, slowing down Maric on offense, and logging three points, three assists, four rebounds, and a block. Clement hit a pair of massive three-pointers in the second half, ran the offense efficiently, and played excellent help-side defense. Hegner only scored two points, but had five boards and made three plays in the final minute that were essential to the win. He grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds on Bluejay misses in that final minute to set up additional opportunities to win the game, and on their third try, he came out to set the screen that freed Foster up to take (and make) the game-winning three.
- Tip: 8:07pm
- Venue: CenturyLink Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Brandon Gaudin and Doug Gottlieb
- 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 Nick Bahe
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- For Cord Cutters:
- DePaul is 4-12 in the Big East, but three of their league wins have come on the road — they’ve won at St. John’s, Georgetown, and Providence.
- Four Blue Demons score in double—figures. Strus leads the way at 17.1 points per game, but scored just 11 in the first meeting thanks to Khyri Thomas’ defense. Maric averages 13.9, but scored 23 in that game (10-16 from the floor, 3-4 from the line). Eli Cain averages 11.7, and had 18 points largely due to making 4-5 from three-point range in the first game. And Tre’Darius McCallum averages 10.5 points, though he logged just four in the first game.
- Creighton has won on Senior Night 20 of the last 22 years, and is looking to win their 10th league game for the 19th time in the last 21 seasons. A win would also wrap up the home schedule this year with a 16-2 record.
- Creighton has won 10 of 11 meetings with DePaul since the schools became league rivals in the Big East. Not coincidentally, Creighton’s 80.6 points per game against the Blue Demons are its most against any Big East team since joining the league.
- Entering the final week, Creighton owns an RPI of 32 while facing the nation’s 40th-most difficult schedule. They’re ranked 21st in the BPI, 36th in the KPI, 23rd in SOR and 18th in the Sagarin rankings. CU owns quadrant one wins over Villanova and Seton Hall and seven wins against teams from the top two quadrants. And they’ve avoided a bad loss, going a combined 12-0 against teams in quadrant 3 and 4. All of that has led to them being listed in all 83 brackets tracked by BracketMatrix.com — with an average seed of 7.5.
Creighton finally took the lead in this long-running series earlier this month when they defeated DePaul in Chicago. The Jays now have a 17-16 overall edge, thanks to winning 12 of the last 13 meetings — it’s the first time they’ve had the series lead since a 4-3 edge following the 1976-77 season. Creighton is 10-1 in the series since joining the Big East, including seven straight victories.
They won 76-75 on February 7 thanks to Marcus Foster’s game-winning shot.
Students: the first $10 at the concession stand tonight is on Coach Mac!
Meanwhile, Creighton’s seniors talked to the media yesterday about their final game:
On February 27, 2013, Creighton defeated Bradley 80-62 in Peoria to set up a one game, winner-take-all Championship Saturday in Omaha against Wichita State for the MVC regular season crown. From the Morning After:
“Doug McDermott has had big games before, but the one he came up with on Wednesday — when his team desperately needed it — might have been one of his best. He scored 32 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, went 12-17 from the floor and a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. From the outset, he had a look of fire and determination in his eyes that seemed to tell his teammates he was not going to allow them to lose this game; and the very first play he made showed he meant it — after missing a three-pointer, he followed his shot, grabbed the rebound, and made a layup. He’d score Creighton’s first eight points of the game, and 16 of their 32 in the first half…
Bradley tied it at 35 just two minutes into the half, and then Creighton — like the Jays of November and December — took offense to the Braves foolish belief that they might actually be able to win. Over the next eight minutes, the Jays outscored Bradley 26-7, forcing the Braves into bad shots while setting up great shots for themselves. The decisive stretch, which saw the 35-35 tie at the 17:58 mark grow to a 61-42 lead with 9:59 to play, turned what many expected to be a close game into a blowout.”
Meanwhile Ott looked toward that Saturday Showdown:
“Creighton will host Wichita State Saturday afternoon for the MVC regular season championship. Winner takes all. No ties. Playing for an outright regular season championship in front of a sold-out crowd and a national television audience via ESPN2. If there is a better road team in the Valley during the past few seasons than the Jays, it is Gregg Marshall’s Shockers. Wichita State is 10-4 in road/neutral games this season after going 12-5 in such games last year.
The Bluejays haven’t beaten the Shox in Omaha since Dana Altman’s final year on the Hilltop. Getting dominated by WSU last season in Omaha cost Creighton any real chance at winning the regular season title. But right now those games don’t matter. “White Outs for Wichita” don’t matter. BracketBusters disappointments don’t matter. Bubble status doesn’t matter. The Big East (!) doesn’t matter.
All that matters is hanging a banner.”
The Bottom Line:
Tonight is the final home game for those four, and potentially for Khyri Thomas, who may find the siren song of becoming a lottery pick in the NBA Draft too enticing to turn down. While DePaul has proven to be a tough out for a lot of teams, there’s zero chance Creighton’s four seniors (plus Thomas) allow a slow start like the one they chased all night in Chicago — and there’s no conceivable way Marcus Foster loses his final home game as a Creighton Bluejay. None.
Bluejays 88, Blue Demons 76