In winning four of their last six games, Creighton’s defense has stiffened significantly. They’ve held five of those opponents under 38.5% shooting, matching their best six-game defensive stretch (from February 1-17, where they won five of six) from last year’s team who finished 19th in adjusted defensive efficiency. And in so doing, this year’s team has climbed to 21st in adjusted defensive efficiency.
That it coincides with the return of Ryan Kalkbrenner is not an accident. The reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year has looked more and more like his old self every game since returning from mono. Using Bart Torvik’s sortable stat tables, you can see that since Kalkbrenner’s return on December 22 the Jays have been the best overall team in the Big East — their offense ranks third, and their defense is two points better than anyone else.
After a much-needed eight-day break, Creighton returns to the floor tonight for the start of a huge week. First place Xavier awaits on Saturday, with the annual pink-out game televised on network CBS in an 11am timeslot. It will be an opportunity for the Jays to reassert themselves as factors in the Big East title race, with home games against both Marquette and UConn still to come.
But first, St. John’s.
It’s year four of the Mike Anderson Era, which means if they aren’t in put-up-or-shut-up territory, they’re very close. The Red Storm have had a winning record in each of his first three seasons, and seem headed to a fourth, but much like those first three they seem likely to once again miss out on postseason play barring some sort of late-season renaissance. And there’s a groundswell of angst among their fanbase — through 3-1/2 seasons, the defining characteristic of Anderson’s tenure seems to be piling up wins against bad teams and only occasionally beating good ones.
They’re a tease, in other words.
This season has been more of the same. The Red Storm went 10-1 against one of the worst non-conference schedules in the country, with the only loss coming to the only team on the slate likely to play in the NCAA Tourney (Iowa State). In conference play, they’re 3-6 with two of the wins coming by double-digits at home against teams in the bottom-third (Butler and DePaul), bookending a five-game losing streak against the top half of the league.
But that third win? A rousing 85-74 road win at UConn where they dominated the Huskies and got their fanbase fired up that the Red Storm were turning a corner. And why not? UConn, present slump aside, is a fantastic team bound for a high seed in March Madness and built to make a run. To thoroughly beat that team in Hartford is a bold-type, statement win.
Unfortunately, they followed it up with a 57-49 loss to Villanova that the New York Post described as a “buzzkill”, with columnist Mike Vaccaro adding adjectives like “ugly,” “inexplicable,” and “inexcusable” in a piece that no doubt echoes the frustration their fans feel. After all, nearly 14,000 Johnnies fans had flocked to Madison Square Garden for the Nova game, their best home crowd of the year, and were rewarded with a flat performance in a game they should have won. St. John’s led 44-38 with eight minutes to play, and scored just five more points; Villanova ended the game on a 19-5 run.
Joel Soriano is their all-everything player, with the 6’11”, 260-pound big man averaging 16.4 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. He’s enormously improved from the player CU saw a year ago, and Kalkbrenner will have his hands full defending him. Soriano has been remarkably consistent, logging a double-double in 17 of their 20 games — those 17 double-doubles lead the entire country. His 245 total rebounds are second-most in D1.
He’s had massive games against their stiffest competition, too. Soriano had 19 points and 13 boards against UConn, on 7-of-10 shooting. He had 22 points and 13 boards (eight offensive) against Marquette. In the loss to Villanova, he had 14 points and 16 rebounds (seven offensive).
Junior guard Posh Alexander is the key to their fastbreak, leading the team and the entire Big East with 2.3 steals per game (16th most in all of D1). He’s been overshadowed by Soriano somewhat, but has continued to anchor their backcourt — Alexander averages 9.4 points and 4.1 assists per game.
Combined with Dylan Addae-Wusu and Illinois transfer Andrew Curbelo, who average 2.0 steals per game each, the Johnnies’ backcourt can be downright hostile. Addae-Wusu has started the last six games and averaged 9.3 points since taking on a larger role; he’s also averaged 3.0 steals in the past four games including a career-high five steals at Providence and four steals at UConn. Curbelo, playing in a sixth-man role, has been huge with 10.3 points and 4.9 assists to go with his steals, and he’s scored in double figures in four of the last five games.
6’6” freshman AJ Storr was the Big East Freshman of the Week on January 16 after averaging 13.0 points on 56.3% shooting (9-16 FG) from the field and 42.9% (3-of-7 3FG) from distance in wins against Butler and UConn. By percentage, he leads the Big East in three-point shooting (47.6%, 10-of-21) in league games.
There’s been moments, and even games, where St. John’s resembles the style of play Anderson is famous for. At UConn, their defense forced 21 turnovers and hounded the Huskies, using their pressure to ratchet up the speed of the game to pace where UConn was uncomfortable in their own building. It was a 77-possession game, 10 more than UConn’s average. The problem is they don’t play that way every night. Following the UConn win with a clunky, slow-footed mess of a game at home against Villanova is just the latest example.
The Johnnies currently rank 12th in Division I with 16.0 fastbreak points per game while playing at the third-fastest tempo in the nation — they’re averaging 73.8 possessions per game. When they’re on, they’re able to dictate tempo because they average just a shade under 40 rebounds per game (39.8, 16th most in D1) and 9.2 steals (24th most).
Which version will the Jays’ see? If it’s the one who flew around to the ball and beat UConn handily, CU will have a battle on their hands. If it’s the team who looked lethargic and often bent at the waist for loose balls instead of hitting the deck against Villanova, the 10-point Vegas spread will end up being too low.
- Tip: 8:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: CBSSN
- Announcers: Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas
- In Omaha: Cox channel 234 (SD), 1234 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 643 (SD), 1643 (HD)
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 221; Dish Network channel 158
- Streaming info
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Ravi Lulla
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Satellite Radio: SiriusXM channel 380 and on SXM app channel 970
- 6’8” sophomore O’Mar Stanley rounds out the starting five, averaging 4.1 points and 2.7 boards per game. Interestingly, he’s shot a team-high 66.7 percent from the field (albeit on just 49 shot attempts).
- DePaul transfer David Jones has come off the bench the last three games as the Johnnies have tried out different lineup combinations. For the season, he’s averaging 12.6 points and 6.7 boards per game. He’s scored in double digits in 14 of 20 games with three 20-point efforts — but he’s been almost invisible since losing his starting role. In three games he’s scored a combined 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting with 10 total rebounds.
- Posh Alexander surpassed St. John’s great Mark Jackson (1983-87) by moving into ninth on the program’s all-time steals list after recording two against Villanova on Friday to bump his career total to 176.
- As a team, St. John’s is second in the Big East and 24th in Division I averaging 9.2 steals per game. The Red Storm has recorded 10 or more steals eight times this season and boasts a 7-1 record in such games. The Red Storm also tallied a pair of 14-steal games, first against Merrimack in the season opener (Nov. 7) and versus Temple (Nov. 21) in the Empire Classic. Dating back to the 2020-21 campaign, St. John’s has tallied 10 or more steals 28 different times, holding a 21-7 record in those contests.
- Ryan Nembhard had his first points/rebounds double-double at Butler when he finished with 12 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. It was the second double-double of his career, as he had 15 points and 10 assists in his Bluejay debut in November of 2021. Though Creighton’s never had a traditional points/rebounds/assists triple-double, Nembhard is the first Creighton player with (different) games of 10+ points, 10+ rebounds and 10+ assists in his CU career since Austin Chatman in his career from 2011-15.
- The Bluejays posted a 73-52 road win at Butler last week. It was Creighton’s seventh road win of 21 points or larger under Greg McDermott, and fourth-biggest in Big East play. The 52 points surrendered were also the fifth-fewest in a road game under McDermott, and second-least allowed in a Big East road game.
- Ryan Kalkbrenner is one of 50 players nationally to be named to the Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List, the United States Basketball Writers Association announced. He is just the second different Creighton player in head coach Greg McDermott’s 13 seasons to make the Midseason Watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, joining Doug McDermott in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. McDermott became the lone Creighton recipient ever to win the Oscar Robertson Trophy when he was recognized following the 2013-14 campaign.
Creighton is 10-1 all-time against St. John’s in Omaha, and 15-10 all-time at all sites. They’ve won four straight in the series overall.
Last year, the Jays swept the season series with an 87-64 win in Omaha and a 81-78 win in NYC.
On January 25, 2012, Creighton beat Drake 77-69 in Des Moines following a familiar gameplan — getting an unexpected game from one of their native Iowans. Pierce Hibma was the patron saint of that, torching the Bulldogs two straight years in 2006 and 2007, but in the ’12 game, it was Will Artino. From WBR’s recap:
“The surprise of the night was the play of Waukee, Iowa native Will Artino against the Bulldogs. The freshman played 16 big minutes as Gregory Echenique was saddled with foul trouble. Artino’s line of 6 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists may not seem like much, but it was instrumental down the stretch opening the floor a little more for McDermott to go on a streak scoring 12 of 13 points from the 5:59 mark until 52 seconds left in the game.”
Here’s the highlights from that win, edited from the Drake coaches’ film of a game that wasn’t televised. 2012 wasn’t that long ago. The MVC era doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, either. But look at these clips — which we all were GIDDY to watch because it was the only way to see the plays T. Scott Marr had described on the radio — compared to a decade later and the high-def broadcasts we watch every single night.
It’s wild.
The Bottom Line:
ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton an 85.9% chance of victory, while KenPom predicts a nine-point win and Vegas favors the Jays by 10.5. Again, some of it depends on which St. John’s team shows up — but as long as the Bluejays don’t roll out one of their poor three-point shooting nights, they should get the win regardless.
Creighton 82, St. John’s 71