Creighton hosts NAIA Midland University on Saturday in their last non-conference game before Big East action begins. The Warriors hail from nearby Fremont, Nebraska (for those of our readers not totally familiar with the area, Fremont is roughly an hour northwest of Omaha) and hope to keep things more competitive than the first in-state battle the Jays had this year. Ahem.
That doesn’t seem likely. Midland isn’t just an NAIA team, they’re a not particularly good NAIA team. They bring a 3-8 record into the game, and their only other contest against a D1 opponent ended badly — a 72-53 exhibition loss at Nebraska-Omaha on Nov. 7th. And in six all-time games against D1 opponents, that 19-point loss is the most competitive they’ve had.
So why play this game? It counts towards Creighton’s win/loss record, and all statistics will count just like any other regular-season game for the Bluejays. But it will not count in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) or NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), which does not include results against non-Division I opponents — as far as the computers are concerned, this game never happens. That’s important given how the Jays are still acclimating a pretty important piece of their roster to the lineup. In fact, Denzel Mahoney might be the biggest reason this game is a thing.
When he became eligible, tough games against Oklahoma and Arizona State were the focus — of their gameplans, of their practice time, of their film study. And Big East play begins Wednesday night in earnest when Marquette visits. Putting Midland on the schedule allows the Jays to spend practice time leading up to a game on ways to get Mahoney integrated into their lineup, because they don’t have to spend as much time scouting a terribly overmatched opponent. Likewise, they have carte blance to experiment in-game, all while not doing any damage to their strength of schedule or to a NET ranking now in the mid-20s thanks to their resume so far.
There’s only so much you can do in practice, as Greg McDermott told the media this week. A live game, even against an overmatched opponent, is different.
Midland will play a ton of guys, as 11 different players average 10 or more minutes a game. Their roster lists 30 (!) players, because much like high school they field a JV team whose players are part of the overall roster though they can’t suit up for games.
Of the 12 players likely to see action Saturday night, 5’10” junior Laurence Merritt leads the way with 17.9 points per game. His 28 three-pointers and 50.9% shooting from three-point range also lead the team. 6’3” sophomore Bowen Sandquist also averages in double figures at 11.6 points per game, and has the second-most made threes (27). 6’3” freshman Kylan Smallwood averages 10.9 points, is their best rebounder (6.5 boards per game) and prefers to shoot near the basket — he’s 33-69 on two-pointers and 8-22 on threes.
Now that 6’8” forward Ryan Williams is no longer on the active roster, taking his 14.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and nearly 29 minutes per game away, it leaves a pair of 6’6” freshmen as the tallest players on the roster. Samuel Mailloux averages just over 10 minutes per game, along with 2.6 points and 1.9 boards, and will likely get the start Saturday; he’s taken over for Williams, at least initially. Hunter Mengel is the other, averaging 7.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 13 minutes a game all off the bench.
- Tip: 5:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Wayne Randazzo 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
- Streaming on FoxSportsGO
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Josh Dotzler
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- For Cord Cutters
- The Warriors average 77.7 points per game and allow 84.9 points per contest, and have won the board battle by 6.7 rebounds per contest.
- In their last game, Midland’s porous perimeter defense allowed Northwestern (Iowa) to make 10-of-17 from three-point range in the first half, and they fell 99-86.
- Creighton was 56 in the initial NET rankings released on Dec. 16, and that figure has surged to 24 after wins over Oklahoma and Texas Tech since then. After meeting Midland, CU will play 16 of its final 18 regular-season games against teams that currently own a top-51 NET rating.
- Creighton is currently 5-0 in the month of December. With a victory on Saturday vs. Midland, CU will own its first unbeaten December since the 2012-13 team. Each of CU’s last two teams (2008-09 and 2012-13) to go unbeaten in December also won their regular-season league title.
- Creighton owns four regular-season non-conference wins this winter from teams that are in the Big Ten, Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 12 or Pac-12 Conferences. It’s just the third time since CU dropped its independent status in 1977 that the Bluejays have picked up four “major conference” wins in the same winter. The 2016-17 club had six such wins, while the 2012-13 squad also had four.
Creighton is 3-0 all-time against Midland, with all three meetings taking place more than 90 years ago.
Creighton won 43-17 and 59-14 on back-to-back days in December of 1921 before claiming a 63-6 decision on Dec. 12, 1925 in the most recent meeting. That 57-point margin of victory remains the most in school history.
WBR’s Matt DeMarinis published a feature on the Jays’ efforts to integrate Denzel Mahoney into their rotation. There’s a lot of good stuff in this piece, but this quote stuck out to me.
“I just think I’m trying to get used to playing college basketball again,” Mahoney said. “I’m coming into a situation where these guys are 8-2 without me and I’m trying to find my way in. It’s been hard. Sometimes I’ve been over aggressive, but Mac and the guys are helping me.”
That right there is why a game with Midland is on the schedule.
On December 28, 2008, Creighton opened MVC play with a 68-56 win over Wichita State in Omaha. The largest crowd to see a basketball game in the state of Nebraska at that time — 17,954 — saw the Bluejays win their 16th straight win over the Shockers in Omaha.
Trailing by two with just under two minutes to play in the first half, sophomore Kenton Walker scored at the rim to tie the game. Then the Jays’ defense forced turnovers on three consecutive possessions, leading to a transition three from Booker Woodfox and a fast break layup from Josh Dotzler for a five-point CU lead.
“They made three plays, and we didn’t; we kind of helped them make them with freshman mistakes,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said after the game. “All of a sudden it’s a five-point game, and they methodically built it (the lead) after that. They have a lot of weapons. They got guys that can beat you on the bounce and kick to open shooters. They have a ton of shooters, and their young post players are coming along. They have Woodfox, who’s been on fire, and Stinnett, the guy everyone was talking about going into the season. They just have a lot of weapons that they can hurt you with.”
CU rode that momentum into the second half, where they held the Shox to 36.7 percent shooting, won the rebounding battle 19-17 after getting out rebounded by eight in the first, and finally got hot from outside. The Bluejays made 5 of 10 three-point shots in the second half after going 1 of 6 in the first half.
The Bottom Line:
Blowout city.
Creighton 105, Midland 68