Creighton’s 83-61 loss on Saturday at Xavier was the Jays’ third loss in five games. While the other two losses were frustrating in their own ways — blowing a double-digit lead at home to UConn and giving up 38 to Liam McNeeley, and coming up short on the road at St. John’s — a 22-point loss in Cincinnati where the Jays were uncompetitive for large stretches of the day was undoubtedly their low point since the calendar flipped to 2025.
“It’s one game and it was against a really, really good team that played really well together,” Greg McDermott said afterward. “So we’re not going to overreact to this loss whatsoever. I won’t allow that to happen with my staff or with my team. We’re going to stay process oriented. We’re going to learn from it.”
Creighton has suffered similar losses at similar points in the season in each of the past five years, and in seven of the last eight:
- 2/25/2024: 16-point loss at St. John’s
- 3/10/2023: 22-point blowout vs Xavier
- 2/26/2022: 21-point loss at Providence
- 3/13/2021: 25-point loss to Georgetown
- 3/1/2020: 20-point loss at St. John’s
- 2/18/2018: 23-point loss at Butler
- 2/25/2017: 16-point loss at Villanova
But decisive losses in late February and early March are forgettable when you make NCAA Tournament runs immediately afterward. Does anyone remember much about that 91-71 loss at St. John’s on March 1, 2020? Probably not, because six days later they won the Big East regular season title in spite of it. The Big East title game blowout to Georgetown hurt, but when they advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in the modern era a week later, it was no longer worth dwelling on. Ditto for the semifinal blowout to Xavier two years later, because less than two weeks later they were in the Elite 8 and within a point of the Final Four.
That’s the challenge the 2024-25 Bluejays now face: taking advantage of two games in the final week where they will be heavily favored, and getting themselves right for March Madness, where a tourney run cures all. For better or worse, Creighton planned ahead of time to stay out east in between games on this road trip, leaving them to prepare for the next game in unfamiliar venues.
“It is what you make it,” McDermott said, “and as I told the team before I left the locker room after the game, you know, we can make this a grind of two or three days where we don’t feel like going to practice — obviously it’s late in the season and guys are banged up — or we can make it an amazing three days where we really come together as a group and we really try to gain as much focus as we possibly can.”
They have a lot to work on.
Their shooting, especially from three-point range, has gone into a slump — and they weren’t great to begin with. For the season, CU has made 33.5% of their threes, ranking 198th in D1. Greg McDermott has only had one team in 15 years at Creighton shoot worse from three (the 2021-22 squad who made just 30.8%). Dana Altman had just one team in 16 years that was worse (his second CU team in 1995-96, which made 31.4% from three).
Over the last five games, Creighton has made more than 30% of their threes just once — against last-place DePaul, where they made 9-of-27 (33.3%). In the other four? They were 7-of-24 (29.2%) against UConn, 8-of-30 (26.7%) at St. John’s, 10-of-37 (27.0%) against Georgetown and 6-of-24 (25.0%) against Xavier. Yikes.
It’s coincided with Steven Ashworth going ice cold. Other than DePaul, where he made 4-of-7 from three, Ashworth has endured four rough games — he was 0-of-5 against UConn, 4-of-12 against St. John’s, 3-of-11 against Georgetown and 3-of-8 at Xavier. Obviously, he’s continued to make huge contributions in other areas, and is averaging 16.2 points and 7.2 assists over that span in spite of the three-point struggles.
The bigger concern? Creighton’s defense has begun to struggle as well. Xavier’s 83 points were just the third time this year that an opponent has scored 80 or more — joining Georgetown in an 81-57 loss on December 18, and UTRGV in a 99-86 Bluejay win on opening night. Tempo-free stats tell an even bleaker story. Xavier’s 1.26 points per possession were the highest for any opponent since Villanova’s 1.27 on December 21; that’s the only other game all season where an opponent has registered 1.2 points per possession or more.
Tuesday’s opponent, Seton Hall, comes in at 7-22 overall and 2-16 in the Big East. Creighton beat them 79-54 six weeks ago in Omaha, but leading scorer Isaiah Coleman (15.4 points, 5.4 rebounds per game) did not play in that one. Coleman has scored 20 or more points nine times this season, has been in double figures in 18 of the last 21, and ranks fifth in scoring during conference play at 17.4 points per game. His 6.0 rebounds per game in Big East action are 12th most. Coleman, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Georgetown’s Micah Peavy and St. John’s RJ Luis are the only Big East players averaging at least 17 points and six rebounds in conference play.
The Pirates led 28-20 early on by grinding the pace to a halt and using a tough, physical defense to knock CU out of rhythm. The Jays started 1-of-9 from three, and then made 10-of-17 the rest of the game with Ashworth, Isaac Traudt and Fedor Zugic all getting hot; they ended the first half on an 18-6 run and began the second on a 9-0 burst. And after their defense had a chance to reset and adjust to Coleman’s absence, they locked the Pirates down — SHU scored 1.2 points per possession in the first half, and .645 in the second.
In the last month, they’ve gotten smoked by 30 by Butler at home, lost by 17 at DePaul, and gotten blown out by Marquette by 24. But they also beat UConn the same week the Huskies beat Creighton in Omaha, and made Xavier, Villanova and St. John’s play a full 40 to beat them. The wins haven’t begun to pile up, but the Pirates are a better team than they were six weeks ago when CU last saw them.
“You have to try to win the games you’re supposed to win,” McDermott said. “They’re gonna get our full attention.”
Coleman’s return looms large, obviously. But freshman center Godswill Erheriene is also a much better player than the one CU saw in the last meeting. He had his first career double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) in the overtime win over UConn on Feb. 15, and is averaging 6.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 24.2 minutes over the last five games. Erheriene had two points on 1-of-4 shooting with three rebounds in the first meeting, and played just 15 minutes because of foul trouble. He was unable to defend Kalkbrenner, who finished with 23 points on 9-of-9 shooting.
Dylan Addae-Wusu had 18 points, seven assists and four steals at St. John’s on Saturday, and is averaging 12.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.4 rebounds in 12 games against Big East teams. He played 15 minutes off the bench in the first meeting, scoring five points.
Seton Hall’s defense has shown steady improvement, too. The Pirates have held four of its last six opponents under 70 points and they’ve crept back into the top 100 of KenPom’s defensive efficiency ranking at No. 83. They’ve forced 14 or more turnovers in eight of its last 12 games thanks in large part to its diamond full court press. They rank third in the league in 39th nationally by forcing 14.3 turnovers per game, and 16th nationally in non-steal turnover percentage.
They forced St. John’s into 16 turnovers on Saturday (or one on 23.2% of possessions, a huge increase over their average of 15.8%). Villanova had a turnover on 23.0% of possessions in the game before, Xavier had one on 25.4% of possessions in a win last week, and even in a blowout win on Feb. 18 Marquette had a turnover on 21.9% of possessions. All of those were well above their season averages. That has to be concerning for a Bluejay team that really only has one ballhandler, and ranks among the bottom 1/3 of D1 in turnover percentage.
Getting Zugic back after missing the Xavier game with the flu would certainly help; there was no word at press time on his status, though McDermott noted over the weekend that Zugic had been steadily feeling better, so he was hopeful for a return.
- Tip: 6:00pm
- Venue: Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Alex Faust and Donny Marshall
- 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
- Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
- Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 385 as well as on the SiriusXM App
Junior forward Prince Aligbe averages 7.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 45.9% from the floor. He scored 12 in the first meeting on 6-of-8 shooting. Garwey Dual rounds out the starting five and averages 5.1 points and 2.9 assists per game; he scored 10 in the first game against CU, one of just three times he’s scored in double figures this season.
According to KenPom, the Pirates rank 12th in Div. I in bench minutes (41.9 pct.) Among the players who typically see big minutes are 6’7” Scotty Middleton (5.7 points, 2.3 rebounds), 6’10” grad transfer Yacine Toumi (4.0 points, 2.8 rebounds) and 6’5” freshman Jahseem Felton (4.0 points, 1.3 rebounds).
Greg McDermott is 18-1 at CU in games following a 20-point loss. Since Jan. 1, 2002, Creighton has followed a 20-point loss with a victory in its next game 21 of the last 23 times it has happened. The only losses? In January 2009, Dana Altman’s final Bluejay team lost 86-64 to Illinois State, and then dropped a 69-66 game to UNI three days later. And in January 2022, they followed a 75-41 loss to Villanova with a 80-73 loss to Xavier.
Steven Ashworth owns 469 points and 192 assists this season and can make history by becoming the first player in Creighton history with at least 500 points and 200 assists in the same season. Only 12 Big East players have combined to compile the 16 different 500/200 seasons in league history. Most recently it was accomplished by UConn’s Tristen Newton (2023-24), and two Providence Friars: Kris Dunn in both 2014-15 and 2015-16, and Bryce Cotton in 2013-14.
Ashworth’s 192 assists so far this season rank sixth-most in Creighton history, trailing only Antoine Young (195 in 2010-11), Randy Eccker (205 in 1976-77), Grant Gibbs (210 in 2012-13), Mo Watson (229 in 2015-16) and Ralph Bobik (252 in 1973-74).
Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Creighton 16-15, but Creighton has won nine of the last 11 meetings, including the past five. Creighton is 7-10 all-time at Seton Hall and 6-5 since joining the Big East, which includes last season’s 97-94 triple-overtime Bluejay victory in Newark. The Jays won 79-54 in Omaha in the first meeting this year.
On March 4, Creighton has won three MVC Tournament titles, two against Southern Illinois and one against Illinois State. The first came on March 4, 2002, a 84-76 victory over SIU in which Terrell Taylor led the way with 20 points. Junior Kyle Korver added 18 along with nine rebounds and five assists. Trailing 36-33 at halftime, Creighton opened the second half on an 11-2 run to take a 44-38 lead. Over the second half’s first 12 minutes, the Bluejays shot 60% (12-for-20), while Southern Illinois mustered only 26%, missing 14 of 19 shots in falling behind 64-53. During that stretch, the Salukis had seven turnovers.
Then on March 4, 2007, the Jays toppled top-seeded and 11th ranked SIU 67-61 in front of 22,612 fans at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Their seniors led the way, as tournament most outstanding player Nate Funk scored 19 points, while Anthony Tolliver recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Nick Porter had 15 points and a team-best six assists. The Bluejays snapped an eight-game losing streak to SIU, topping the Salukis for the first time since the 2003 MVC Championship game. They controlled the game throughout, owning a 32-28 halftime lead and pushing ahead by as many as 14 in the second half.
Most recently, they defeated the Redbirds on March 4, 2012, 83-79 in overtime to capture the first MVC Tournament title of the Greg McDermott Era. Doug McDermott scored 33 points, and senior Antoine Young had 14 — including eight in an overtime period where he literally put the team on his back.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton is favored by 9.5 in Las Vegas, and by 10 on KenPom. ESPN’s BPI gives them 85.1 odds of victory. My guess is this one will be too close for comfort for most of the night, with CU pulling away late.
Creighton 74, Seton Hall 66