Usually by the time you see a team for a third game in the conference tourney, there’s no secrets and developing a gameplan is relatively straightforward. Creighton’s quarterfinal matchup with Providence is not the usual conference tourney match.
When these teams first met nine weeks ago on New Years Eve — a 19-point Creighton win — CU got 13 points and 8 rebounds in 26 minutes from Martin Krampelj. Providence didn’t get much of anything from Kyron Cartwright, who re-injured his ankle midway through the first half and was ineffective when he returned; he scored two points. With Krampelj now out, and Cartwright barely playing in that game, both teams look vastly different today than they did on that Sunday afternoon. It’s almost like it happened in a different season.
In the late-January rematch — a 14-point Providence win — Creighton was playing their first game without Krampelj, did not yet have Jacob Epperson on the court, and both Mitch Ballock and Ty-Shon Alexander were still mired in their freshman midseason slumps. In short, the Bluejays from that game were not the same team they were in the first game, but also don’t resemble the current Bluejays very much. That’s an unusual circumstance, and it sets up an unusual meeting in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Both Providence and Creighton come into the Big East Tournament banged up. CU has been without Ronnie Harrell the last three games with a foot infection; he dressed for the regular season finale at Marquette but did not play, and though he practiced at least somewhat this week, his status is up in the air (officially). Ditto for Epperson, who saw his surgically-repaired knee flare up in the Marquette game and sat out most of the second half. He’s also reportedly practiced, but CU’s coaching staff has been cagey — with good reason — on the injury front so we won’t really know the status of Harrell and Epperson until closer to tipoff.
As for the Friars, honorable mention All-Big East pick Kyron Cartwright is dealing with a hamstring issue, and key reserve Kalif Young tweaked his ankle. Coach Ed Cooley rightly commented that “Everyone this time of year is going to have an ache or pain,” when discussing it at PC’s media scrum Tuesday, and with the stakes this high I’d expect all four to play.
Rodney Bullock, as he has all year, leads Providence in scoring at 14.1 points per game. The 6’8″, 225-pound senior has been a tough matchup for the Bluejays this year; he had 15 points and 10 rebounds in Omaha, and 10 points, six boards and two blocks in Providence. Especially in the second meeting, he wreaked havoc at the rim defensively; Creighton missed 15 layups, with countless shots altered by the threat of Bullock blocking them.
Alpha Diallo, their 6’7″, 211-pound sophomore guard, leads them in rebounding at 6.4 boards per game and is their second-leading scorer with 12.3 points a game. Much like Bullock, his size has proved tough for the Jays to contend with. Diallo had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in Omaha, and 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals in the rematch.
Cartwright and Jalen Lindsey lead the way in the backcourt, scoring 11.4 and 9.1 points per game, respectively. One of them will be guarded by Big East Defensive Player of the Year Khyri Thomas and will probably have a long day; it’s up to Thomas’ teammates to keep the other one from scoring enough to make up the difference.
So where does that leave us heading into Thursday’s Big East Quarterfinal meeting? The same place it usually does when Creighton and Providence meet: at the glass, where this game is likely to be decided.
The Friars would like to play a bit slower pace than the Jays would (they’re averaging less than 70 possessions a game, while the Bluejays average nearly 75). For CU to get as many opportunities to score in transition as possible, they’ll need to get stops — and then rebound the Friar misses. In Omaha, CU rebounded a remarkable 33 of the Friars’ 43 missed shots (field goals and free throws), and used that to create easier baskets before the defense was set. But in Providence, they grabbed just 20 of the 38 Friar misses, weren’t able to run nearly as much, and had to take contested shots in the half court more often. It’s no coincidence that the game in Omaha, a Creighton win, was a 75-possession game and the game in Providence, a PC win, was 71 (and on pace to be lower than that until late).
- Tip: 1:30pm (or 30 minutes after conclusion of first game)
- Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Justin Kutcher, Jim Jackson, Lisa Byington (Sideline reporter)
- 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
- Satellite Radio: SiriusXM channel 83 (Internet channel 83)
- Westwood One national broadcast
- For Cord Cutters:
- Providence was picked fourth in the Preseason Big East Coaches’ Poll. The Friars finished tied for third with Seton Hall and Creighton. Seton Hall held the tiebreaker with the two other teams to earn the No. 3 seed. The Creighton held the tiebreaker over the Friars with a 3-1 record in the mini conference of the three teams, making the Bluejays the four seed and the Friars the five seed.
- The Friars have posted a 62-59 mark all-time at Madison Square Garden. The Friars have won two NIT Titles (1961 and 1963) and two Big East titles (1994 and 2014) at the world’s most famous arena. Providence is 2-0 this season at Madison Square Garden with wins over Washington (77-70) and Saint Louis (90-63) to capture the 2K Classic on November 16-17.
- Senior guard Kyron Cartwright leads the Big East in assists at 5.8 apg. It marks the sixth time in the last seven years that a Friar has led the league in assists (the others? Kris Dunn, Bryce Cotton, and Vincent Council).
- Creighton has won at least one conference tournament in six of Greg McDermott’s first seven seasons, including three of his first four seasons in the Big East. They’ve advanced to the championship game in four of his seven previous seasons.
- How’s this for a wild stat? Creighton has won its last 12 conference tournament games decided by four points or less.
- Creighton is 6-6 all-time in seven previous appearances as a fourth seed at a conference tournament, going 3-0 with a tournament title in 2000, 2-1 in 1984, 1-1 in 2008 and 0-1 in 1979, 2004, 2006 and 2010. All of those games happened when the Bluejays were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Providence leads the all-time series 14-8, and has won eight of 12 since the Jays joined the Big East. They’ve split two prior games in the Big East Tournament, with PC winning in the 2014 title game and the Jays winning last March in a quarterfinal battle.
In the last game, Providence won 85-71 on January 20th in Friartown. Creighton trailed by four with just over three minutes left when Toby Hegner missed a lay-up, and Providence answered with a three pointer to end the comeback hopes.
The Friars are looking to make their fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, something they’ve never done before. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the previous four seasons (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), and is on the bubble for a bid this March.
Joe Lunardi of ESPN has them as an 11 seed in the “First Four”, while Jerry Palm of CBS has them as an 11, but not in the first four. Both talked to GoLocalProv.com about the Friars chances, and indicated their odds are good of sneaking in even without a win Thursday.
Meanwhile, Creighton is an 8 seed according to both Lunardi and Palm, and they appear in all 100+ brackets tracked by BracketMatrix.com. Interestingly, they’re lower than a 9 seed in just six of those brackets, and one of them is our longtime colleague (and Bluejay Banter publisher) Tim Krueger, who has them as a 10. He’s taken a bit of heat from Bluejay fans for that, but the difference between those seeds is splitting hairs if we’re being honest.
Creighton’s in, and will almost certainly be seeded somewhere between 7-10 — meaning the first matchup will come from the same pool of 16-ish teams regardless of which line they end up on, and likewise, their path to the second weekend will go through a #1 or #2 seed.
Not all matchups are created equal, and hoping for team(s) they can thrive against is more important than which line they’re seeded on.
On March 8, 2003 Creighton began a three-day run through the Missouri Valley Conference tourney with a 57-56 win over Indiana State. After the 10th seeded Sycamores used their best sustained stretch of basketball of the entire season to build a first-half lead, CU rallied. But with ISU Blue determined not to go away, a back-and-forth battle ensued. From our Bluejay Rewind of this game last summer (which I highly recommend you check out):
“A barrage of threes from Lamar Grimes and Marcus Howard gave the Sycamores a 45-44 lead; Kyle Korver pushed the Jays back out in front by five, 51-46, with a pair of jumpers; five unanswered points by ISU gave them back the lead 52-51 with just under seven minutes to play.
It looked like the type of game where someone — Korver? Bowden? House? McKinney? Deren? — would need to take over to put the underdogs away. Instead, it was Mike Grimes.
Grimes scored buckets on three straight possessions, and with 4:52 to go the Jays were finally pulling away. The last one was a virtually uncontested drive to the rim, despite scoring on the previous two possessions, because ISU’s defense was still preoccupied with stopping Korver. That basket put the Jays up 57-52.
They would not score again, however. CU missed their last five shot attempts, missed their last four free throw attempts, and turned it over in the backcourt with 29 seconds left to give Indiana State a final shot at victory. ISU’s Catrel Green pulled up for a 15-foot would-be game winner with three seconds left, but it rattled off the iron and Grimes secured the rebound — and the win — for the Jays.”
A year ago when Creighton and Providence met in the Quarterfinals, I went looking for a fun video to link here. This is what YouTube suggested to me; I had no idea why it would do that to me a year ago, and I still don’t know today.
But the Jays won, and here we are again, listening to Joe Esposito’s one and only hit.
The Bottom Line:
KenPom predicts a five-point Bluejay win. Vegas favors the Jays by four. Sounds good to me.
Creighton 79, Providence 74