With the non-conference schedule complete, Creighton owns a 7-4 record heading into Big East play. Close losses to KenPom #18 Texas A&M and #8 Alabama loom as missed opportunities; it’s the double-digit losses to #54 Nebraska and #43 San Diego State that are the anchors on their metrics (and on the psyche of their fanbase). After starting the season with a KenPom ranking of #10, they now sit at #40. Their NET ranking takes a less charitable view of their body of work, slotting them in at #69. Regardless of the ranking, they’re fifth in the Big East in both metrics. It’s far too early to take any Bracketology projections seriously, but in a league projected to get three or four bids…being fifth is not where you want to be.
“We’ve just got to keep building,” Greg McDermott said after the loss to Alabama. “I think we’re a better team now than we were on November 14th, and our challenge is to make sure we’re a better team on January 14th.”
The 20-game Big East gauntlet begins tonight in the nation’s capital against an 8-2 Georgetown team that is off to its best start since Patrick Ewing’s first season as head coach in 2017-18. The second edition of the Ed Cooley-coached Hoyas are led by 6’10” freshman center Thomas Sorber and junior guard Jayden Epps, who share the team lead in scoring at 15.5 points per game.
In their win over rival Syracuse over the weekend, Epps had 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including four 3-pointers. He made all seven of his shots after halftime,
Epps was brilliant against Syracuse, hitting 11 of 15 shots, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, on his way to scoring 27 points. He showed off his ability to score in traffic and hit clutch shots with these back-to-back buckets late in the game — the first, a behind-the-back bank shot in the paint, gave Georgetown the lead 70-69:
The second extended their lead and used the glass to avoid a pair of would-be shot blockers.
But after the win, Cooley was more interested in talking about Epps’ defense than his scoring. “His development defensively, it’s almost like he’s a new player,” Cooley said.
Cooley’s best Providence teams were built on toughness and a defense-first mentality, and his second Hoya team is starting to show how he plans to bring that philosophy to Georgetown. Last year Georgetown ranked 318th nationally while allowing 77.9 points per contest, but they’ve trimmed a full 13 points off that average this year by allowing just 64.9 points per game (42nd best). Impressively, they’ve done that despite playing a slightly faster tempo — they’ve averaged 69 possessions per game this year, after averaging 66 last season.
They rank second in the Big East and 29th nationally in steals per game (9.7), and have a steal on an absurd 13.9% of opponent’s possessions (14th most). They’ve forced opponents to commit 15.60 turnovers per game, or on nearly a quarter of possessions (22.3%, 21st most).
Their perimeter defense has been OK, as opponents have made 34.0% of their threes (205th in D1; the average is 33.3%) — but their interior defense has been stifling. Opponents have shot just 43.8% on two-pointers, 23rd best in D1, in large part because the Hoyas have blocked 11.6% of shot attempts and altered countless others.
6’8” forward Micah Peavy has been the catalyst of a lot of that defensive pressure; he leads the Big East and is eighth nationally in steals, averaging 3.0 per game, while also averaging one block per game. The TCU transfer had 12 points with nine rebounds (five offensive) and four assists in the win over Syracuse, and has played all 40 minutes in each of the last two games.
Peavy is part of a giant frontline that includes the 6’10” Thomas Sorber and 6’11” Drew Fielder, who all three start for the Hoyas. 6’9” Jordan Burks also plays significant minutes off the bench. Eight of the 17 Hoyas on the roster are over 6’8”, with the average height on the team being 78.6” per player (6’6”). All of that size could present a problem for Creighton — the Jays have struggled on the glass all year, and have committed too many turnovers. Georgetown is built to exploit both areas. Saturday night, Alabama had 17 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots, and turned those into 14 second-chance points. Combined with turning 13 Bluejay turnovers into 16 points, the Crimson Tide had 30 “extra possession” points. If Georgetown pulls off the upset, this is the likeliest recipe.
Sorber leads the squad on the glass grabbing 8.2 boards per game to rank second in the league, and also leads them in blocks with 1.7 per game. He’s shooting 56.6% from the floor, and has scored 20 or more points three times through 10 games. No wonder he’s been named the Big East Freshman of the Week three times.
Fielder is second in rebounds at 5.6 per game, and is averaging 7.2 points per game on 50.0% shooting. Meanwhile, Burks has averaged 6.0 points on 59.5% shooting to go along with 3.2 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.5 blocks in 17.1 minutes per game all off the bench.
Alongside Epps in the backcourt is Harvard transfer Malik Mack, who’s averaging 12.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game while playing nearly 34 minutes a night. A year ago, Mack scored in double figures 21 times, including eight games with 20+ points. As the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and an eight-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, he led Harvard in points, minutes, assists, and steals per game. He stuffed the stat sheet against Syracuse, logging nine points, eight assists, six rebounds, and three steals while committing zero turnovers in 39 minutes as the primary ball-handler.
- Tip: 5:30pm
- Venue: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
- TV: CBSSN
- Announcers: Tom McCarthy, Steve Lappas and Roy Hibbert
- In Omaha: Cox channel 1234
- Outside Omaha: CBSSN Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 221; Dish Network channel 158
- Streaming info
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
The Hoyas have outrebounded their opponents in seven out of their first 10 matchups of the season, and own a season-long advantage of 372-335.
In three of its last four games, GU made its presence felt in the paint, outscoring Syracuse 48-34, Great Danes 58-22 and the Retrievers 52-36 on points in the paint. For the season, they’ve outscored opponents 376-254 in the paint.
Creighton has lost its Big East opener each of the last two years (losing 69-58 at Marquette in 2022, and 68-66 in overtime to Villanova last December). Their last win in a Big East opener came on December 17, 2021, a 79-59 win over Villanova.
Creighton’s first 11 years in the Big East have featured 24 games against Georgetown decided by an average of 14.63 points. Only the games vs. DePaul (17.29 point margin of victory) have been more lopsided.
Freshman Jackson McAndrew tied his season-high with 16 points in just 19 minutes at No. 7 Alabama on Saturday night, the latest sign of his emergence. Since 2004-05, McAndrew is Creighton’s third true freshman to score 16+ points in 19 minutes or less in a game, joining Ethan Wragge (twice in 2009-10) and Khyri Thomas (2015-16). In three games against Top 25 competition this winter, McAndrew is averaging 11.7 points per game and the Wayzata, Minn., product has made 9-of-21 three-pointers (.429).
Creighton is 16-9 all-time against Georgetown and has won 13 of the last 16 meetings in the series. Creighton is 6-5 in Washington, D.C., against the Hoyas all-time, including four straight double-figure victories. Each of the last nine Bluejay wins, and each of the last eight series meetings regardless of victor, have been decided by double-digits.
Greg McDermott is 12-13 in his career against Ed Cooley, including a 2-0 mark since Cooley was hired at Georgetown.
In 25 all-time meetings against the Hoyas, Creighton is 14-2 when scoring 74 points or more against Georgetown, but 2-7 when scoring 73 points or less. The Bluejays average 82.82 points in the 16 wins, but 61.11 points per game in the nine losses.
The most recent meeting was a 94-72 Bluejay win last February, as Baylor Scheierman had a triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
On December 18, 2010 (FOURTEEN years ago, already, if you can believe that!) Gregory Echenique made his long-awaited debut in a Bluejay uniform after sitting out the first semester because of a mid-season transfer from Rutgers the year before. Echenique was the 15th-rated overall prospect in the 2009 class by virtually every publication, and the #2 rated center. He was dominant as a freshman in the “old” Big East, and had a monster game against Providence at the tail end of the 2008-09 season — 14 points, 16 rebounds, 7 blocks, and 5 steals. Understandably, the game against Idaho State was almost a sideshow to the debut of one of the highest-profile newcomers for the Jays in years. Creighton’s marketing team ran huge ads in the Omaha World-Herald the entire week before the game that, while not explicitly promoting “Gregory Echenique’s Debut!”, did feature a giant picture of the giant player. The story was Echenique, not the opponent, as Ott wrote on WBR the next day.
Here’s our (rather primitive) Highlight Reel from that game — this was one of the very first ones WBR produced, and the TV broadcast was a KMTV production which needs no further explanation — and though it’s a little clunky, it’s fun to watch!
The Bottom Line:
Creighton’s favored by 3.5 according to Las Vegas oddsmakers, and by three on KenPom. ESPN’s BPI gives them 74.0% odds of victory. To do it, they’ll need to do a better job rebounding the ball and avoiding turnovers than they did on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. I think they will.
Creighton 77, Georgetown 71