With three scholarship players in Kelvin Jones, Davion Mintz and Damien Jefferson at various stages of rehabbing from injury, Creighton’s roster is in flux. Jones and Mintz are still working their way up to game shape. Jefferson practiced over the weekend and did not appear limited by the calf injury he sustained Friday night, as WBR’s Matt DeMarinis reported on Twitter.
Still, all three are probably game-time decisions for Oklahoma. Only one thing is certain when it comes to the roster: regardless of whether any of those three play, Creighton will have at least one more guy on Tuesday night against Oklahoma than they did for UTRGV.
Denzel Mahoney.
He left the team for six months during his redshirt 2018-19 season after transferring, which meant he had to sit out the first semester of this season to become eligible. But with finals complete, Mahoney is now part of the active roster, and over the weekend he officially traded in his scout team jersey for a blue one. It’s a great sight for Jays fans.
Arguably the strongest player on the team, Mahoney stands 6’5″ with a 6’11” wingspan. He ranked 22nd in the country in made free throws the last year he played at Southeast Missouri State, and ranked 52nd in number of fouls drawn per 40 minutes with 6.4. The last time Creighton had a player anywhere in top 100 of that category? Doug McDermott as a junior.
Those foul and free throw numbers illustrate how Mahoney will improve CU’s offense — on a roster of great jump shooters, Mahoney is built more in the Providence mold of big, strong players that drive straight at the defense in iso situations and dare you to either stop them or put them on the foul line. In games where Creighton needs a backup plan, where three-pointers aren’t falling and they aren’t able to run in transition as much as they want, getting the ball to Mahoney in the halfcourt and letting him force the issue will be a welcome addition to their toolbox.
Defensively, his length should allow him to play bigger than his size, so to speak. In games like Friday night, where Christian Bishop is in early foul trouble and Kelvin Jones is unavailable, either due to fouls or injury, Mahoney’s 6’11” wingspan will make him less out of position at the ‘5’ than Mitch Ballock was, for example.
Greg McDermott could barely contain his excitement about the impending addition to his roster, gushing about Mahoney’s length and athleticism in postgame remarks on 1620AM after Friday’s win against UTRGV. “He’ll add some things to our team for sure,” McDermott said matter-of-factly. “Our fans will enjoy watching him play.”
But he also pleaded for caution.
“I do think our fans are going to have to be patient, because he hasn’t played in a game in almost two years,” he said. “I think it will take him a little bit of time to get his sea legs. Especially at our pace.”
His teammates are just as happy to see him finally take the floor. McDermott said the players were “really excited for him when we got in the locker room (Friday). They all surrounded him and were cheering. They know it’s been a long process for him, to stay with it and continue to work.”
***
Mahoney’s debut comes at an important moment in CU’s season. They enter the final week of the non-conference schedule with a pair of games against power conference foes in Oklahoma and Arizona State, followed by a tuneup-slash-glorified-exhibition against NAIA Midland University out of Fremont. Then it’s off to Big East play.
First up is the Sooners, who will be coming to Omaha in an angry mood after blowing a lead late and ultimately losing at Wichita State on Saturday. It was just the second loss of the season for Lon Kruger’s club, so you can bet they’ll take the floor Tuesday night locked in.
Despite returning three starters, the Sooners are a relatively inexperienced team with nine newcomers — five freshmen, two JuCo transfers and two freshmen walk-ons. It’s the largest incoming class of Kruger’s 34-year coaching career, and one of the highest ranked, as it came in among the Top 20 nationally and second only to Kansas in the Big XII.
OU has size and length across the board, which is concerning for the Jays. Their top eight rotation players have logged all but 14 of the 1800 total minutes this season — and only one of those eight players (De’Vion Harmon) is shorter than 6’5″. It’s not quite San Diego State-type length, and they’re not nearly as ferocious defensively as the Aztecs, but they could pose similar disruption to the Jays’ timing.
Austin Reaves, a 6’5″ 200-pound junior transfer from Wichita State, leads the Sooners in scoring at 17.1 points per game. He’s a versatile scorer who can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, come off of ball screens to knock down jumpers, and initiate contact to draw fouls. He’s attempted 50 free throws so far this year, tops on the Sooners, and has made 80%. With that said, half of his shots so far this season have been threes (52 of his 114 shot attempts), and he’s only been a 30% shooter from long range (16-of-52). Take away one big game — he was 5-of-9 against Oregon State — and he’s been downright awful. In their other nine games, Reaves has made 11-of-43, or 25%. He was 1-of-8 from three-point range against UTSA, 2-of-6 against Stanford, 2-of-6 against North Texas, and 2-of-8 against Wichita State. Odds are he’s going to bust out at some point, though. In his last season in Wichita, he made 42.5% of his threes (54-of-127). As a freshman, he made 50% (28-of-55). Here’s hoping his early-season three-point struggles last until after they leave Omaha.
Right behind Reaves in the scoring column is Kristian Doolittle, a 6’7″ 230-pound senior who averages 16.8 points per game. He’ll score at the rim, and he’ll knock down the occasional three (he’s 10-of-15 from three this season), but his midrange jumper is where he kills you. 59% of his total shot attempts — 64 of the 109 shots he’s taken this year — have been two-point jumpers, and he’s made exactly half of them. His midrange jumper is tough to defend because you have to respect his dribble, and it will be especially tough for the Jays to defend because at 6’7″ they might not be able to consistently get a hand in his face. A year ago in Norman, CU had no answer — he was 4-of-6 on two point jump shots.
6’9″, 230-pound junior Brady Manek averages 14.0 points a game, and like Doolittle will be shooting over shorter defenders all night long. He fires up a lot of threes (50 of his 100 shot attempts, to be exact), and doesn’t need a lot of space to get a good look even against the biggest defenders; finding a way to contest his looks on the perimeter will probably be a team effort for the shorter Bluejays. He was a handful a year ago in Norman, scoring a team-high 18 points.
True freshman De’Vion Harmon has started all nine games, as the consensus Top 50 prospect has adjusted to the college game immediately. He’s averaging 9.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in nearly 29 minutes a night, and is shooting around 40% from both inside and outside the arc.
Jamal Bieniemy, a 6’5″ sophomore, is their fifth starter and fifth player averaging over 28 minutes of action per game. He averages 5.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, and leads the team with 27 assists.
In last year’s game in Norman, Oklahoma attempted 28 free throws, which was the second-most of any CU opponent all season. The Sooners have actually been a bit better at drawing fouls this year than they were a year ago — for an already thin Bluejay roster, that could spell trouble. Disciplined defense without fouling is imperative. Because not only can the Sooners affect opponents’ game plans by sending multiple players to the bench with foul trouble, they shoot 76% as a team from the foul line (and three of their five starters are better than 80%).
Oklahoma relies on its’ top players even more than Creighton does, with their starters logging 84% of the minutes in each of the last two games. They rank 308th in bench minutes, which is just slightly lower than Creighton at 306. Getting this game into a faster pace, early and often, could benefit Creighton down the stretch.
- Tip: 7:30pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery
- 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:
- Austin Reaves, Kristian Doolittle and Brady Manek have been one of the highest-scoring trios in the country so far this season. Reaves and Doolittle are one of just three duos from major conferences to both average at least 16 points, while the two plus Manek are one of just three major-conference trios to all produce at least 14 points per game.
- The Sooners are turning the ball over just 10.4 times per game, which ranks first in the Big 12, ninth among all Division I teams and fifth among schools from major conferences.
- Oklahoma had won four straight road non-conference games prior to losing at Wichita State over the weekend. Still, their four wins away from home this season (three neutral-site, one true road) are the most in the Big 12.
- Both Marcus Zegarowski and Ty-Shon Alexander have scored 20 or more points in each of the past two games. This marks the first time the same two Creighton teammates both scored 20+ points in consecutive games since Doug McDermott and Antoine Young did so on Feb. 21 and Feb. 25, 2012. The same two Creighton teammates have not each scored 20+ points in three consecutive games since Vernon Moore (!) and Benoit Benjamin (!!) from Jan. 17-23, 1985.
- Mitch Ballock did not make a three-pointer in Creighton’s season-opener, but has drained multiple trifectas in each of the nine games since then. With two or more treys vs. Oklahoma on Tuesday, Ballock can become Creighton’s first player with 10 straight games of two or more three-pointers since Ethan Wragge did it in 16 straight games from Nov. 28, 2013 – Jan. 4, 2014.
- Marcus Zegarowski has made a three-pointer in each of his last 19 games and stands one game shy of joining the list of the 10 longest streaks in program history with a three-pointer.
Oklahoma has won four of the six all-time meetings, although CU won the last game played in Omaha. The series began in 1921 with a 27-16 Creighton victory, followed by losses in 1973 (73-70 in Omaha) and 1986 (106-89 in Oklahoma City). In 2014, Creighton rallied from an 18-point deficit to win 65-63 in Omaha, but dropped a 87-74 rematch in 2015 and a 83-70 game in Norman last year.
Nine years and one day ago, Creighton fans saw the debut of the last player prior to Denzel Mahoney that became eligible mid-season.
Gregory Echenique made his Bluejay debut on December 18, 2010 against Idaho State, and re-reading the Primer brought back lots of memories about how off-the-rails the hype train was for that debut. Specifically, how people believed he was destined to become the next superstar of Creighton hoops, because no one yet knew the actual biggest superstar in the history of Creighton hoops (Doug McDermott) was already there.
We barely mentioned the visiting Bengals; all the talk was about Echenique. We weren’t alone; Creighton Athletics’ marketing department bought huge ads in the Omaha World-Herald that didn’t explicitly advertise the game as “Gregory Echenique’s Debut!”, but did feature a giant picture of the giant player. The text didn’t come right out and say it, but it didn’t need to with that huge photo. The point was obvious. Radio ads were more explicit, and touted it as the debut game for Echenique — so buy your tickets today! I’d forgotten those little details.
Ott’s postgame recap recalled similar details:
“Jays fans took in the first Saturday night game of the season by getting to the bars and restaurants early, decked out in the white and the blue, bantering about Echenique and how he’d do. I’m fairly certain, through no sort of scientific polling, that if I’d have asked 10 people wandering around the Hilton lobby bar what team Creighton hosted that night, fewer than half would have said the Bengals.”
The game itself was mostly forgettable, a 66-60 win where the Jays built a double-digit lead and nearly surrendered it to a feisty Idaho State team. But there was one indelible moment that I’ll never forget. Again, from Ott’s recap:
“The crowd wanted more of Echenique, and he delivered. Especially during one tantalizing series late in the game.
With the Jays up 9 but with the Bengals pushing the tempo, Echenique caught a nice pass from Antoine Young, spun, and finished a layup with his left hand. Fouled on the play, he made the free throw and then drew a foul the next trip down the court too. Two more made free throws, and he was on a roll. But his next play would become the signature memory many would take from Echenique’s debut.
With about 3 minutes to play in the game, with the Bluejays up 11 over the Bengals, Chase Grabau thought he could sneak a shot up over the 6-9 Echenique. The following photos don’t capture the ferocity with which Creighton’s newcomer blocked Grabau’s attempt; but his yell (second photo), as well as the thump the echoed from his hand swatting the ball, resonated well throughout the Qwest Center’s lower bowl.
Consider it a violent exhale after sitting, waiting, and waiting some more to resume a college basketball career. The block, and the resulting exasperation, seemed to voice the emotions and feelings bottled up in the big man for the past 12 months. It seemed a fitting exclamation point to a sure win.”
WBR’s Adam Streur captured the moment beautifully.
MY WORD, that ‘thump’ when Echenique swatted the ball away.
AND THE SCREAM. I’ll never forget it. I wrote about it back in 2010 like this:
“…midway through the second half, he set a ball screen that flattened the unfortunate defender who found himself in the way — it was like a pancake block in football. Absolutely ridiculous. And then he had an absurd block with three minutes remaining that was more volleyball spike than blocked shot; the sound of his palm hitting the ball was so loud it resonated throughout the arena, followed by a primal scream of satisfaction from the big man.
…
That ferocious second-half block might have been the most satisfying play of the last two years. Not only was it absolutely nuts how hard he hit it and how far it flew, but it came on a shot from Chase Grabau, who if you saw the game but aren’t hugely familiar with their roster, you may know better as #23. Grabau had been talking an inordinate amount of crap all night, showboating after made baskets and drawing attention to himself; his antics induced the normally mild-mannered Doug McDermott to respond with a little trash talk of his own after a second-half alley-oop. One of the guys sitting next to me at the game half-jokingly (I think) mentioned he wouldn’t mind seeing Grabau get laid out on a hard ball screen similar to the one Echenique had executed in the first half; following the block, we all decided that was a much more satisfying outcome, if nothing else than for the priceless look of shock on his face afterward.”
Billy Squier and the MTV Chorus from 1981! Hideous or rad? That’s for you to decide. Its no “The Stroke,” sure, but then, what is, really?
The Bottom Line:
KenPom gives Creighton the edge, 77-75, with a 58% chance of victory. ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton a 67.4% probability of winning. The Sooners’ size worries me, but I think the Jays’ speed and small-ball lineup worries the Sooners just as much. This feels like every bit of the toss-up that the computers think it is. With the advantage of home court, the Jays will eek out a close one.
Creighton 81, Oklahoma 77
