13 games into the Big East slate, Creighton is already done with four teams, earning splits with Seton Hall, Georgetown and Marquette while sweeping Xavier — and in a quirk of the schedule has yet to play DePaul at all. That changes on Wednesday when the Jays get their first look at the Blue Demons, who’ve already won as many league games (four) as they did all of last year. They’re in a four-way tie for seventh place in a down year for the Big East, so have they really improved or have they just taken advantage of the situation?
“They’re much better,” Greg McDermott weighed in. “This is this is the best DePaul team we’ve played in quite some time. They’ve only lost at home in conference play to UConn and St. John’s, kind of like everybody else has.”
Their defensive numbers would tend to agree. Almost across the board, they’ve made huge strides defensively, with their Adjusted Defensive Efficiency improving by nearly four points per 100 possessions (101.7, 54th in D1) over a year ago. Their opponents have a 48.9% effective field goal percentage (75th nationally), down from 51.6% a year ago (220th), and opponents have made just 47.0% of their two-pointers (34th).
“They’re so physical at the point of the screen,” McDermott said. “You know, we have to get out in transition and and try to hit them before the defense gets set because they’re very sound on the defensive end of the floor. They’re very physical. We have to play through that physicality.”
With that said, they were 12-8 overall and 4-5 in the league on January 28 after knocking off Seton Hall. They’ve lost four straight since then.
Creighton expects Austin Swartz to play, as he’s practiced the last two days after missing the Seton Hall game due to injury. Josh Dix will also travel with the team and be on the floor, and then his status the rest of the week will be up in the air. His mom’s wake will be late Thursday afternoon in Council Bluffs and the funeral will be on Friday, and he will be away from the team as you’d expect. McDermott said they pushed back their practice time on Friday to later in the afternoon than usual on the off chance Dix needs a mental break and wants to get on the floor.
“If he decides he wants to come, that’s great,” McDermott said. “If not, that’s understandable as well.”
Dix is likely to draw the defensive assignment on the 6’7” CJ Gunn, who leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game. He’s their top perimeter scorer (43-of-125, 34.4%) but is also able to put the ball on the floor and score inside (33-of-60 on shots at the rim). He scored 39 points in three games against Creighton a year ago, though he made just 4-of-15 from three point range. In their near-upset of the Jays in the Big East Tournament, he scored 14 with six steals. One of his biggest weaknesses is that he’s foul prone, averaging 3.9 fouls per 40 minutes. He’s fouled out in four of 24 games, and had four fouls in four more. He fouled out of that game against the Jays in NYC last March, too.
6’9” senior NJ Benson anchors the middle, and averages 10.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. He plays at the rim on both ends; 58 of his 166 two-point attempts have been dunks, and 83% of his shot attempts have come at or near the rim. According to CBBAnalytics.com, DePaul leads all of college hoops with 43 alley-oops this season, and Benson has been the primary beneficiary. He’s also cleaned up on the glass, grabbing an offensive rebound on 11.6% of their missed shots and a defensive board on 22.5% of their opponents misses. And he’s blocked 3.5% of opponent’s shot attempts.
In the backcourt, 6’2” junior Layden Blocker averages 11.8 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. He torched the Jays for 25 points in the Big East Tourney a year ago, making 5-of-7 from three point range (though he was just 3-of-12 inside the arc). Interestingly, he scored 11 and 15 in the two regular season games, going 0-of-4 from three. He takes about 1/3 his shots from behind the arc (25-of-76, 32.9%), and most of his twos have come at the rim where he’s made 43-of-87 (49.4%).
RJ Smith — yes, they really have a CJ, an RJ and an NJ in their starting five — averages 7.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Smith is second on the team in three-point shooting (33-of-97, 34.0%), and though he’ll occasionally shoot inside the arc, firing up threes in his strength.
Off the bench, Brandon Maclin averages 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He’s been a valuable sixth-man, averaging about 25 minutes per game with an ability to score from all three levels.
Creighton has won 23 consecutive games against DePaul, and has not lost to them in Chicago since joining the Big East. Chris Holtmann and the Blue Demons have real momentum for the first time in a generation, though, and at some point (probably soon) that streak is going to end. McDermott attributed that to the Jays having really good teams that have found ways to win close games when DePaul has threatened an upset.
“They should have ended our Big East Tournament early last year, and a lot of those guys are back out on the floor,” McDermott said. “So, you know, Coach Holtmann’s done a great job in a short short period of time of creating the culture he wants. They’ve been extremely competitive and they’re still going to win a lot of games before the season’s over.”
Tip: 8:00pm
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DePaul opened the season as one of the nation’s best at getting to the free throw line. Through the month of November, the Blue Demons averaged 24.9 free throw attempts per game, good for fourth in the Big East. Since then, that number has gone down significantly — the Blue Demons are averaging just 16.3 attempts per game in conference action.
DePaul is among the nation’s leaders in assist rate, assisting on 61.3 percent of the team’s made field goals which is 21st nationally. As a team, DePaul is averaging 15.3 assists per game, which ranks top-110 nationally. Layden Blocker has a team high 3.5 assists per game, which ranks top-10 in the Big East.
After opening league play with lopsided wins by 41 and 21 points, each of Creighton’s last five league victories have come by four points or less. It’s the first time Creighton has had five league wins in a row, all by four points or less. Creighton’s five league wins by four points or less ties a single-season program record, something also done in 1980-81, 1990-91 and 2021-22.
Nik Graves leads Creighton in scoring (11.4 ppg.), assists (4.4 apg.) and field goal percentage (.556) in Creighton’s last five games. He’s also shooting 41.2% from three-point range in that time.
Fedor Zugic tied his career-high on Saturday with 13 points, with 11 of those coming in the final 6:37. He made two free throws with 6:37 left with CU trailing 57-49, then buried three free throws with 3:07 left after the Jays had fallen behind 63-53. With CU trailing 67-58 and hopes looking bleak, Zugic started the final push with a three-ball to cut Seton Hall’s lead to 67-61 with 1:26 left. He then buried a triple with 20.3 ticks left to make it a 67-66 game. Zugic also had nine points in the last 1:31 on Wednesday at Georgetown. For the week, Zugic scored 22 of his 24 points in the final seven minutes of CU’s two games, and was a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point range in the final three minutes of those contests.
Creighton has won 28 of the last 29 meetings (including 23 straight) with DePaul to take a 33-16 lead in the all-time series. Creighton is 26-1 in the series since joining the Big East, and 12-0 in the Chicago meetings since joining the league. Twenty-three of the last 26 meetings in the series have been decided by double-figures, but the last meeting was a double-overtime thriller inside Madison Square Garden. The Jays trailed by as many as 17 points and erased an 11-point deficit in the final two minutes to force overtime, then won in double-OT.
On February 11, 2004, Kellen Miliner scored a career-high 22 points off the bench in a 74-56 win over Bradley. Brody Deren had 16 points to lead the starters, as Creighton improved to 18-3 on the season and responded to a crushing 61-60 loss to SIU with a big win.
“I was a little concerned,” Creighton center Brody Deren said after the game. “A lot of our guys have quiet personalities, so it’s hard to get a read on them emotionally. We had a couple of good practices, but we might be the best practice team in America. We don’t always show what we can do to the public, but tonight, we had some guys step up.”
Deren led the way, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the game’s first 10 minutes, including the first five points of the game. Then their defense closed it; they held Bradley to 14 points on their last 22 possessions, helping turn a 44-42 lead into an 18-point victory.
Fun fact: Miliner is now a referee, primarily officiating in the MEAC and Big South, and is highly-thought of enough that he earned an assignment for one of the First Four games in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Creighton opened as 1.5 point favorites, but the line has since moved to DePaul by 1.5. ESPN’s BPI, however, gives CU a 57.2% chance of victory, while KenPom predicts a Bluejay win with 51% odds.
I think the Jays will get this one, but the gap between DePaul and the rest of the Big East (and Creighton) is shrinking.
Jays 74, DePaul 70