In the final year of the eight-year run of the Gavitt Games, one of the more obvious pairings has finally happened as Creighton and Iowa will square off. Separated by just 250 miles straight across I-80, the schools haven’t played since 2011 and have only met twice since the turn of the century. This one comes as the third game in an FS1 Gavitt Games triple-header; Wisconsin at Providence tips at 5:00pm Omaha time, #4 Marquette at #23 Illinois follows at approximately 7:00pm, with the Jays and Hawks as the nightcap.
Creighton and Iowa boast two of the best offenses in the country. The Jays’ adjusted offensive efficiency is 116.2, ranking 7th best in D1; Iowa is 115.3, ranking 11th. Two games is a small sample size, but their numbers were similar a year ago, too, with CU finishing at 115.0 (23rd) and Iowa at 120.0 (4th). Both teams want to run fast, shoot quick, and play high-possession games.
Where they differ is on the defensive end. Creighton’s defense ranks 20th, with an adjusted defensive efficiency of 92.3, while Iowa is quite a bit worse at 99.4 (103rd). A year ago, CU finished 14th (93.2) and Iowa finished a whopping 11 points worse per 100 possessions — their adjusted defensive efficiency was 104.6, ranking 168th.
It’s become a hallmark of Fran McCaffery’s teams in Iowa City: high-octane offense and mediocre defense, often leaving them reliant on outscoring opponents to win. It’s a fun brand of basketball that has won a lot of games in the regular season, and even won a Big Ten Tourney title two years ago. It’s also a brand of basketball that has mostly fallen flat in March Madness; in seven NCAA Tourney trips over his first 13 years as head coach, McCaffery has a 4-3 record in first round games, and an 0-4 mark in the Round of 32. And in spite of a generational college talent in Luka Garza who shattered the school’s record book, zero trips to the second weekend or beyond have Hawkeye fans restless. Garza’s final team earned a two-seed and were upset in the second round by Oregon in a game where they scored 80 points — getting 36 from Garza in what should have been a legendary performance — but they surrendered 95 on defense.
It sounds similar to Creighton under Greg McDermott before the Bluejay defense became as fearsome as their offense, doesn’t it? Over the last three years, McDermott has changed the conversation in Omaha with an offense and defense that both rank inside the top 30. It’s perhaps no coincidence that CU has advanced to a Sweet 16 and an Elite Eight, and taken eventual national champ Kansas to the wire, over that span.
McCaffery heaped praise on McDermott and his program in his weekly press conference on Monday.
“(Greg McDermott) obviously knows what he’s doing and he’s really good,” McCaffery said. “He’s been good for a long time. The fan base is engaged. They get 17,000 every night. They’re in a great league. A very competitive basketball league with great interest, a great TV package. And he’s got a terrific staff. His culture is exactly what you want if you’re in a place that aspires to be great like Creighton.”
McDermott did the same.
“Today was a 67-possession game. I’m not very smart, I don’t know much, but I know Tuesday night will not be a 67-possession game. It might be a 67-possession half,” McDermott said on his postgame radio show after Saturday’s win. “I mean, it is going to be an up-and-down game. Fran has done a great job. He loses guys and loses guys and loses guys, and just keeps coming up with other guys who can really play and who understand how to flourish in his system.”
And so it’s against that backdrop that Iowa comes to Omaha for the first time 1999. As McDermott alluded to, the Hawkeyes lost 46 points and 20 rebounds per game from a year ago between Kris Murray, Filip Rebraca, Connor McCaffery and Ahron Ulis. But they replaced them by hitting the transfer portal hard; the biggest get, literally and figuratively, was 6’9″ Ben Krikke, who led the Missouri Valley in scoring a year ago at Valpo (19.4 points per game). Also big: Even Brauns, another 6’9″ forward from the MVC, joins the Hawks from Belmont after averaging 7.0 points and 5.3 rebounds a year ago.
It’s the third year in a row they’ve been tasked with replacing a 20-point scorer (with Kris Murray preceded by his brother Keegan Murray, and Garza before them.) They’ve succeeded the past two years, and with a veteran scorer like Krikke on board, appear poised to do so again. Krikke scored 18 points with six boards in their win over North Dakota, making 7-of-12 inside the arc. He had 13 against Alabama State, and might have had more if not for five missed free throws.
With that said, it’s been other players that have led the Hawkeyes in scoring through two games. 6’7″ sophomore Payton Sandfort had 21 in the season opening win over North Dakota, scoring from everywhere — he was 4-of-6 inside the arc, 3-of-7 outside of it, and 4-of-4 from the line. With nine rebounds, two assists, and two steals, Sandfort stuffed the stat sheet. Then on Friday against Alabama State, he followed it up by scoring 17 points with 12 rebounds (five offensive). His shooting was a lot less efficient (1-of-3 on twos and 4-of-10 on threes) but if the first week is any indication, Sandfort is Iowa’s go-to shooter at this point of the season. It’s no surprise, as he ended last season by making at least three 3-pointers in seven of the final 18 games, shooting 43% over that stretch.
6’9″ fifth-year senior Patrick McCaffery might have something to say about that. After missing time last year to deal with his mental health, he seems to be in a better place. He had 11 points and five boards in the season opener, and then had 22 against Alabama State by dominating in the paint (5-of-7 on two-pointers, 6-of-6 on free throws).
6’4″ senior Tony Perkins has also scored in double figures in both games so far, making the most of being their fourth scoring option. His shot selection can be a bit unpredictable, though; against North Dakota he took the second-most shots despite making just 3-of-11 (and a ghastly 2-of-9 on two-pointers).
Those four veterans will be huge for Iowa in the early part of the season, because four of the 10 players in their rotation are true freshmen. Tuesday night will be the first collegiate road game for that group. Of the freshmen, 6’10” big man Owen Freeman has stood out the most through two games. He scored 14 points in 15 minutes against North Dakota, thanks to a perfect 7-of-7 shooting night.
- Tip: Approx. 9:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe
- 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
- Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 83 and on the SiriusXM app
- Iowa has 50 assists to 13 turnovers in the first two games of the season. The team has assisted on 68.5 percent of its field goals. A big surprise in that department? Freshman guard Brock Harding has 14 assists in 25 minutes.
- The Hawkeyes led the Big Ten and were 18th nationally in scoring offense (80.1) a year ago. Iowa has led the league in scoring in seven of the last 11 seasons, including six straight years. They’ve had 110 and 98 points in their first two games this year.
- McCaffery is nine wins away from becoming the winningest coach in Iowa basketball history, currently trailing only the legendary Dr. Tom Davis’ 271 victories as Iowa’s head coach.
- Trey Alexander did a little bit of everything on Saturday vs. North Dakota State, finishing with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and a career-high five steals. No Bluejay has had numbers that big in all four categories in the same game since Rodney Buford had 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and seven steals vs. Southwest Missouri State on Jan. 21, 1998.
- There were 53 head coaches hired nationwide prior to the 2010-11 season, including Creighton’s Greg McDermott and Iowa’s Fran McCaffery. Only 11 of those men still remain in their current role. Among the remaining coaches, McDermott is first on that list in NCAA trips (8), and second on that list in wins (302). He trails only his predecessor at Creighton, Dana Altman, who’s won 320 games and gone to 7 NCAA Tournaments. McCaffery is tied for second with seven NCAA trips, and is sixth in wins with 263.
- Since McDermott and McCaffery took over their programs, Creighton ranks tied for ninth nationally with 24 games of 100 points or more. Iowa is tied for 12th with 23 such games. Among teams from the “Power 6”, only North Carolina (34) has more than those two teams.
Iowa leads 14-11, but Creighton has won five of the previous seven meetings. Greg McDermott is 6-4 all-time against Iowa, mostly from his days at UNI and Iowa State, and has only faced Fran McCaffrey once.
That one time came in 2011, in a neutral site game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Creighton dismantled the Hawkeyes that day, winning 82-59 — and leading 80-48 at the under-four timeout when McDermott emptied his bench. The Jays dominated across the board. Doug McDermott had 25 points and 9 rebounds, with 17 points in the first half when the game was still in doubt; he might have scored 40 if not for easing up in the second half. Gregory Echenique added 15 points, 9 rebounds and two blocks. And Grant Gibbs had six assists, eight rebounds, and two steals.
The last time Iowa ventured west to play CU in Omaha, it was the return game of a home-and-home series Tom Davis had initiated. First-year coach Steve Alford — fresh off his previous gig at Southwest Missouri State where he’d become the Villain of the Valley for his antics on and off the court — brought his Hawks to the Civic Auditorium, where Dana Altman did what he did to Alford so many times in the MVC. Namely, he coached circles around him.
The Hawks were coming off of a shocking upset of defending national champion, and #1 ranked, UCONN at MSG in Alford’s first game as coach, and brought a #23 ranking into Omaha on November 27, 1999. The Hawkeyes being in town resulted in a sell-out crowd at the Civic — at 9,374 patrons, it was the fourth-largest ever at that time for a CU home game, the largest since 1974, and the first in excess of 9,000 since 1985 — and thanks to a large, rowdy contingent of Hawkeye fans from western Iowa, Creighton’s fans had to be a little bit louder than they might ordinarily have been to keep their home-court advantage.
Ryan Sears and Ben Walker had 19 points apiece to lead the Jays; Sears added nine assists and six rebounds, plus one clutch play after another, in a sublime performance.
On November 14, 1998, Creighton jumped out to a 20-2 lead in the early moments and rolled to a 93-48 season-opening win over Towson State. The Jays had looked lethargic in two exhibition games, including a nail-biting three-point win over Team Pella, and were “rewarded” with marathon four-hour practices in the days leading up to the season opener. Whatever Dana Altman did in those practices worked. He noted in the World-Herald the next day, “I was really, really pleased with the energy and the passion with which we played tonight. We were diving after loose balls, taking passes away and running the floor hard.”
Senior Rodney Buford scored 24 points on 10-14 shooting, and scored 19 points in the first half alone, as the Jays opened led 48-19 at the break. They never really let up, holding leads of 54-26, 63-28, and 81-40 throughout the second half, and wound up with their largest margin of victory in seven years.
Doug Swenson had 12 points and 14 rebounds in 19 minutes, while Nerijus Karlikanovas and Donnie Johnson scored 15 and 13, respectively, in their Bluejay debuts.
The Bottom Line:
KenPom favors Creighton by nine, and (at publish time) Vegas had the Jays as 8.5 point favorites. ESPN’s BPI gives CU a 79.7% chance of victory.
It’ll be a high-scoring affair but Creighton’s defense will be the difference.
Bluejays 88, Hawkeyes 75