After a week off following their loss at Marquette, three of the Jays’ next four games will also come on the road. They took the week to work on themselves before turning their attention to their next opponent, and specifically to get Fedor Žugić time running with the starting unit instead of the scout team.
“Anybody that has watched us play can see from a ball handling perspective that we’re one guy short,” Greg McDermott said this week. “We have to get Fedor a little bit more comfortable in what we’re doing, and this week hopefully will help in that regard. St. John’s and Marquette as your first two games is not an ideal situation, and hopefully this week in practice we can nudge him a little bit more forward and he can give us a little bit more of that ball handling that we need.”
Butler comes into Saturday’s game on an eight-game losing streak. It’s their longest since 1989-90, during Barry Collier’s first season as head coach; that team eventually lost 11 straight en route to a 6-22 record.
This year’s squad began the season 7-1 with two solid wins (81-70 over an SMU team ranked #52 in KenPom, and 71-69 over #52 Northwestern) and one head-turner — an 87-77 win over #16 Mississippi State, their only loss so far in a 14-1 start. Butler’s schedule has been relentless, ranking 15th toughest nationally by KenPom, and their eight-game skid includes losses to #3 Houston, #12 Marquette, #20 St. John’s, #21 Wisconsin, and #25 UConn.
“They’ve been right there in most of those games,” Greg McDermott said this week. “Some of the games they lost have been very similar to ours, where we’re right there and we just can’t figure out our way to finish it. We’re going to play a desperate team on Saturday.”
Indeed, with the exception of a blowout loss to Houston (79-51) to start the skid and the 19-point loss at Providence in their most recent loss, the six in between were there for the taking. Five of them were single-digit losses. And against Villanova, they led by 14 with six minutes to go before surrendering a 22-1 run to end the game that turned a win into a 73-65 loss.
Butler is a solid defensive team, generally preferring to run opponents off the perimeter and stay in front of shooters while not taking aggressive chances at steals. They don’t turn opponents over (just 11.6% of possessions, 3rd lowest rate in D1) and don’t get many steals (on just 5.3% of possessions, also 3rd lowest). For comparison, Creighton is the 4th lowest in both categories.
Providence went 10-of-24 from three-point range Wednesday night against Butler, and their 41.7% mark was the third-best by a Butler opponent this season. Last weekend, the Bulldogs’ defense limited St. John’s to 1-of-21 shooting from three-point range (5%), and Butler has eight games this season where they’ve held their opponent to less than 30% shooting from behind the arc. Their opponents have only gotten 29.0% of their points on three-pointers this year. The Jays have taken over half of their shots from three-point range, and get 39.7% of their total points on 3’s. If Butler makes those shots tough, it will be imperative for the Jays to get the ball to Ryan Kalkbrenner early and often. Butler doesn’t have great rim protection outside of Andre Screen, and has been susceptible to giving up points in the paint.
But the biggest key might be this: the Bulldogs have gotten 24.8% of their points at the free throw line through 16 games, the 14th highest rate in the country. They average just under 18 made free throws per game (26th most nationally) and attempt 24.0 free throws per game (32nd). Meanwhile, Creighton is whistled for fewer fouls than any team in the country, literally (10.8 fouls per game, fewest in D1, with eight games where they’ve had 10 or fewer). Jays opponents have gotten just 12.2% of their points from the free throw line, ranking 363rd out of 364 teams in D1. If CU can do the same to Butler, the Bulldogs will need to find 10-12 points from somewhere else to make up the difference.
They’ve played the last six games without starting center Augusto Cassia, who’s out with a knee injury. Without him, an already-thin rotation has been stretched further. 60% of their points have come from just three players: Jahmyl Telfort (15.9 ppg.), Pierre Brooks (14.9 ppg.) and Patrick McCaffrey (12.8 ppg.). Those three have also made 62% of Butler’s two-pointers, 71% of their threes, and taken 60% of their shots. And they’ve ridden them hard: all three rank among the top seven in the Big East in minutes played.
In the loss to Providence, Telfort and Brooks scored 34 of their 65 points and combined to shoot 12-of-25; the rest of the team was 12-of-32. It’s been a repeated theme, and as good as those two (and McCaffery) have been, they haven’t been able to carry the team by themselves.
Telfort is a 6’7” fifth-year senior who’s scored in double figures in 10 of their 16 games, and has had two double-doubles (25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists against Villanova; 16 points, 10 rebounds at Marquette). He had 24 in the win over Mississippi State with four made 3-pointers; he’s shooting 40.7% from three-point range this season. Telfort also leads the Big East in free throws made (74) and is second in attempts (94). Jays fans remember all too well how he hung 26 points on them in Omaha last February on 10-of-14 shooting inside the arc and 2-of-3 outside. In the rematch, armed with a better scouting report, they held him to four points on 2-of-12 shooting. In both games, he didn’t attempt a single free throw.
The 6’6” Brooks ranks 11th in the Big East in scoring, and has shot 46% from three-point range in nine home games so far (up from his overall average of 39%). He’s scored in double-figures in all but two games so far, including a big 22 point, nine rebound game against Mississippi State. He also scored 23 against Wisconsin, making 5-of-6 inside the arc and 7-of-8 from the line. Brooks struggled mightily against the Jays a year ago; in Omaha he had 14 inefficient points on 5-of-15 shooting (including just 3-of-10 inside the arc) while making 2-of-5 from the line. In the rematch he had two points on 1-of-6 shooting and did not attempt a free throw.
McCaffery, in his sixth year of college hoops after five years playing for his father Fran at Iowa, joins his brother Connor who is now an assistant at Butler. He’s having the best season of his career, shooting 41.2% from three-point range (well above his career mark of 34.3%) and his 40 made threes are already a career high just halfway through the season. He’s made multiple threes in 12 of their 16 games, and made five twice. Remarkably, his still-gaudy numbers were significantly better two weeks ago: he was 1-of-10 from three-point range against Villanova, 3-of-8 against St. John’s and 2-of-6 against Providence to drop his percentage to “only” 41.2%. McCaffery played against CU with the Hawkeyes a year ago, and scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting inside the arc with three assists, two blocks and two steals. He attempted just one 3-pointer and missed it.
In the middle, 7’1” senior Andre Screen gets the bulk of the minutes, averaging 6.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. He doesn’t stray far from the rim on either end; 77 of his 79 shot attempts have been two-pointers. Screen’s best game this year came against UConn, where he had 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. He’s had eight or more rebounds seven times. He played sparingly against CU a year ago, logging just 20 minutes played across two games, scoring four points with six boards.
- Tip: 11:0am
- Venue: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
- TV: FOX
- Announcers: Jason Benetti and Robbie Hummel
- In Omaha: Cox channel 10 (SD), 1010 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 42 (SD), 1042 (HD); DirecTV 42; Dish Network 42 or 5203
- Outside Omaha: Your local FOX affiliate
- Streaming on FoxSports.com
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 382 as well as on the SiriusXM App
- Other key contributors include Finley Bizjack, who averages 6.1 points and 3.0 rebounds a game, and Kolby King who averages 6.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and the second-most assists on the team (2.2 per game). Bizjack has made 34% of his threes this year, and is remembered by Jays fans for making 3-of-3 from deep in Omaha a year ago — including a half-court heave at the first half buzzer to cut into CU’s lead. He’d been the starter all year before King took over last week against St. John’s, sliding Bizjack into a sixth-man role.
- The Bulldogs committed only six turnovers Wednesday night at Providence. Butler has single-digit turnover outputs in five of the last seven games.
- Butler’s 4-for-16 performance from three-point range (25%) at Providence was the team’s worst mark from behind the arc this season. Butler is 43rd nationally, averaging 37.6-percent accuracy from three-point range on the season.
- In its last two trips to Hinkle Fieldhouse, Creighton defeated Butler 73-52 on Jan. 17, 2023, then took down the Bulldogs 79-57 on Feb. 17, 2024 last season. It’s just the third time that Creighton has beaten the same team by 20+ points on the road in back-to-back seasons. The most recent time it happened came against South Dakota in the 1963-64 season (CU won 75-54 on Dec. 28, 1963), as well as the 1964-65 campaign (CU won 88-68 on Feb. 2).
- After not having a double-double in the first 143 games of his career, Steven Ashworth has had two points/assists double-doubles in his last three games. He’s one of just five Bluejay men to have multiple points/assists double-doubles in a season since 1992-93. The others? Maurice Watson, Jr. (who did it in two straight seasons), Edward St. Fleur (1995-96), Marcus Zegarowski (2020-21) and Trey Alexander (2023-24).
- Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 2,010 career points after passing the 2,000 point milestone on Jan. 3 at Marquette. He is the fourth player to surpass 2,000 career points for Creighton, joining Doug McDermott (3,150), Rodney Buford (2,116) and Bob Harstad (2,110). McDermott reached 2,000 points in 101 games, Buford needed 111 games, Harstad required 121 contests to reach 2,000 points, and Kalkbrenner did it in 148 games.
Creighton is 18-12 all-time vs. Butler. The home team has won 11 of the last 14 meetings not played on a neutral site. Butler is 9-5 all-time in Indianapolis against the Bluejays, including a 7-4 mark since the schools became Big East rivals. However, Creighton has won each of its last two trips to Hinkle by more than 20 points.
This is the fifth time in the last seven years that Creighton will play a matinee versus Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler won afternoon games against the Jays in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before CU turned the tide in a 79-57 win last February that tipped off at 12:30 local time.
On January 11, 2020 the Jays beat Xavier in Cincinnati.
Holding a 47-43 lead, Marcus Zegarowski missed a three-pointer. Butler cleared the board, and got in transition for what looked to be an easy layup. But Mitch Ballock met Zach Freemantle at the rim and came up with a clean block reminiscent of the one he had in 2018 against Nebraska.
This one resulted in a four-point swing, as Denzel Mahoney answered with a bucket for the Jays to turn what might have been a 47-45 edge into a 49-43 lead. They couldn’t pull away, though, as Marshall scored five straight for Xavier. Creighton came out of a timeout with counter-adjustments — they ran Bishop off of high ball screens on two straight possessions, slipping him to the basket for easy layups. That forced Xavier to defend more or less straight up, and then the Jays closed. Ahead 51-48, they sealed the win with a 14-5 run that featured six consecutive made baskets.
Ballock made several clutch shots to build the Jays’ initial lead, and then his fellow junior guard took over where he’d left off. Ty-Shon Alexander scored 11 of his 18 points in the game’s decisive minutes, including back-to-back jumpers that pushed the lead back into double-digits at 58-48.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton has 61.5% odds of victory according to ESPN’s BPI, and KenPom favors them to win by two.
Creighton 76, Butler 69