Somewhat surprisingly, Creighton opens Big East Tournament play on Thursday against 10th seed DePaul after the Blue Demons pulled off an upset win over Georgetown on Wednesday. It’s just their third win in the Big East Tourney since the league realigned in 2013-14. And despite a big early lead they almost didn’t get this one.
DePaul led by 15 in the first half behind a 19-2 run, blew the lead in less than eight minutes and trailed 40-38 at half, fell behind by as many as seven in the second, then rallied to re-take the lead…and held on to win by the skin of their teeth. Leading 70-67 with 11 seconds left, their point guard, Isaiah Rivera, fouled out to keep the Hoyas from attempting a game-tying three — a questionable strategy made worse by losing the orchestrator of your offense in the process. But after the front end of a one-and-one was airballed by Jayden Epps, they escaped.
NJ Benson led DePaul with 18 points, making 7-of-8 from the field, adding four free throws after drawing five fouls. The 6’8” transfer from Missouri State played sparingly in the first meeting against Creighton in Chicago, scoring four points with four rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench. He missed most of the last month due to a hand injury, including the rematch in Omaha.
Layden Blocker added 16 points, six assists and a pair of steals, and made four three-pointers. Blocker had 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting in their loss to the Jays in Chicago, and 11 on 5-of-11 shooting in the rematch.
Against the Hoyas, 32 of their 71 points came in the paint, with 26 of them coming inside the restricted area as they repeatedly pummeled Georgetown’s bigs at the rim. They were 9-of-24 from three (37.5%), but with the odds of scoring as well at the rim against Creighton somewhere near zero, and the likelihood of drawing 16 fouls and attempting 16 free throws also doubtful, they’ll need to find more points from somewhere.
Newly-minted four time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner will make shooting 13-of-17 at the rim — as DePaul did against Georgetown — awfully tough. By winning the award for the fourth time, he joined Patrick Ewing as the only Big East players to ever do so.
“That’s crazy, because you know, I wouldn’t think of myself in the same conversation as Patrick Ewing, at least not yet,” Kalkbrenner said on Monday. “So it’s definitely a huge honor to get that award and to tie Ewing in that way.”
One of the facets of his game that remains hard to grasp even after all these years is how he blocks and alters shots without fouling. Kalkbrenner told the media on Monday that the key is trying NOT to block the shot, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.
“When a guy comes at the rim as a shot blocker, you just want to go get it and send it into the fourth row,” he said. “But sometimes you just got to make it a tough shot instead. I could get a really cool blocked shot but I’m also going to foul people three times before I get that blocked shot. Or I can just make five shots difficult instead.”
“(Kalbrenner’s) career has been incredible,” Greg McDermott said. “You know what, the numbers and what he’s accomplished pale in comparison to what he’s meant to the program outside the numbers. He’s ushered us through one of the best eras in Creighton basketball history and it was built around him. It’s been a heck of a ride for me to be part of it and watch him grow on a daily basis, and it’s nice to see that the other coaches around the league feel the same way about him that I do.”
Noting that Kalkbrenner enrolled at CU weighing 227 pounds with a 29-inch vertical leap, McDermott said he’s put on nearly 50 pounds in five years and added five inches (to 34”) to his vertical jump.
“Obviously Jeremy Anderson, our strength coach, had a big hand in that,” McDermott said. “But Ryan’s got to do the work and he has. And he’s made himself into one heck of a basketball player.”
Creighton won the first game in Chicago handily, 73-49, behind one of their better defensive performances of the season. DePaul has taken nearly half of their shots from three-point range (46.5%) this season, and was just 3-of-23 in that one. They were a little better in the rematch, a 75-65 Bluejay win, shooting about at their season average (8-of-22, 36.4%). But it was their scoring elsewhere that was of bigger concern to the Jays — they were 16-of-40 (40%) inside the arc in Chicago, and 17-of-34 (50%) in the rematch. The blocked shots tell an interesting story in the two games, both because of the blocks themselves and because they indicate how disruptive Kalkbrenner was (or wasn’t) on other shots. He had four blocks in the game in Chicago, and just one in Omaha.
“I’m happy as heck that we won, but our standard has to be a little higher than this,” an audibly irritated Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show after the game. “Like, some of the sloppy decisions we made on the defensive end, and the times we were a little late with our communication, we’ve got to be better than that.”
Contrast that with McDermott’s initial thoughts after the win in Chicago.
“I thought our first-shot defense the first half was maybe as good as we’ve had all year,” he said on the postgame radio show that night. “They had eight second chance points, and they had two baskets on runouts off turnovers. That’s 12 of their 19 (first half) points, so they only scored seven points against our first-shot defense. Our guys were really locked in.”
The fact that second game was just two weeks ago, and fresh in the minds of the Bluejays, will no doubt provide all the motivation they need to lock in defensively and perform closer to the team we saw in Chicago — sound in their communication, solid in executing the gameplan, with something closer to an ‘A’ game from Kalkbrenner.
One of the knocks on Creighton at the Big East Tourney has been that their bench hadn’t been deep enough to sustain winning three games in three days. They’ve played in four title games in 10 tournaments, winning zero. If they fall short this year, it won’t be because of depth. The Jays rank middle of the pack — fifth — in the league for most bench minutes.
- Seton Hall 40.9%
- DePaul 39.0%
- Providence 33.0%
- UConn 30.3%
- CREIGHTON 28.2%
- Georgetown 26.7%
- St. John’s 26.3%
- Marquette 26.2%
- Butler 25.6%
- Xavier 24.4%
- Villanova 20.3%
They got just 19.2% of their minutes from the bench a year ago, 19.7% in 2022-23, 23.7% in 2021-22, 23.4% in 2020-21, and 19.4% in 2019-20 — so the sense that they’re getting more from their bench is more than just a sense. It’s real. The last time a McDermott team got this much production from their bench was 2017-18, when freshmen Mitch Ballock and Ty-Shon Alexander along with Ronnie Harrell and Toby Hegner gave the Jays a formidable second unit.
“It’s hard to get to the championship game, I mean, let’s be honest,” McDermott said this week. “We’ve played in the championship game several times, and while one of them was during Covid with not a lot of people in the stands, a couple of them have been against Villanova and one of them was against Providence so you’re playing a road game. To win you know you have to make shots, you have to defend, and you have to have enough left in your tank. I think our depth is a little better this year than it was last year, which lends itself to being a little fresher playing three games in three days.”
Kalkbrenner was measured in his response when asked about his goals for this week.
“We’ve never won a Big East regular season or tournament title in my time here, and you know, that’s something I’d really really love to do, to get on top of that mountain and you know get it done,” he said. “When you’re going into that tournament, you’re playing three really good teams in three days and it’s hard. It’s not like we haven’t been good enough in past years to win, it just hasn’t happened. I think staying true to what our strengths are as a team this year, you know our biggest strength I think is our togetherness and unity. Staying true to that is going to give us the best chance. So as long as we do that for the three days we’re in New York we’ll be fine.”
Freshman Jackson McAndrew, meanwhile, was less measured. His goal is simple.
“To win it,” McAndrew said matter-of-factly. “Yeah, there’s always the expectation to win it. I mean that’s been our goal as a team and my goal personally: to go out there, work hard, play how we know how to play, and go win the whole thing.”
As for the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, the freshman isn’t nervous — he’s excited. “Obviously we got a little glimpse of it with St. John’s last month, you know, they packed that place out. That was a lot of fun. But it’s going to be even more crazy for the tournament I’ve heard. Just the environment as a whole, it’s going to be a whole other level which I’m very excited for.”
- Tip: 6:00pm
- Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery and Kristina Pink
- 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 as well as on the SiriusXM App
Point guard Isaiah Rivera scored 18 last month in Omaha, making 5-of-9 from two-point range and 5-of-7 at the line. 6’7” forward CJ Gunn added 14 with a pair of threes, while Troy D’Amico also hit a pair of threes for the Blue Demons. Both of them scored 11 points in last night’s win over Georgetown.
Last night’s win marks the first time DePaul has beaten the same opponent three times in a season since 1999-00 against Charlotte.
DePaul now has 502 assists on the season, their most since the 2018-19 season and 10th most in program history. Their 17 assists as a team tied the program record for a Big East Tournament game.
Creighton is 10-10 all-time as it enters its 11th appearance at the Big East Tournament, which includes trips to the finals in 2014, 2017, 2021 and 2022. That doesn’t include the 2020 trip that was halted at halftime of the quarterfinal round game vs. St. John’s at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since joining the Big East, Creighton is 1-0 in the opening round, 5-5 in the quarterfinals, 4-1 in the semifinals and 0-4 in championship games.
Creighton seniors Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth earned All-Big East honors and Jackson McAndrew landed a spot on the All-Freshman Team. Kalkbrenner was a unanimous selection to the First Team, while Ashworth was a Second Team honoree. It’s the sixth time in the last nine seasons that Creighton has had at least one honoree on both the First and Second Teams.
Creighton’s 15 league wins set a program record for most conference wins in any of its 12 seasons in the Big East. It’s the third straight season CU has won 14 league games or more, something only Villanova (2013-14 to 2017-18) and Connecticut (1993-94 to 1995-96) have done in Big East history.
Creighton has won 27 of the last 28 meetings (including 22 straight) with DePaul to take a 32-16 lead in the all-time series. Creighton is 25-1 in the series since joining the Big East, including 2-0 in the Big East Tournament. 24 of the last 26 meetings in the series have been decided by double-figures.
January 21, 2025: Creighton 73, DePaul 49
February 26, 2025: Creighton 75, DePaul 65
On March 13, 2014 Creighton won their first-ever Big East Tournament game, coincidentally against DePaul. Doug McDermott torched them for 35 points on 14-of-22 shooting (including 7-of-10 from three) in a 84-62 rout. Just eight of the points came in the second half; had it been a more competitive game, he likely would have had 40+.
As I wrote in the Morning After the next day, it was the play of one of their other seniors that may have been the real key to victory.
“Jahenns Manigat hit his first three attempts from three-point range, stretching DePaul’s defense like a rubber band — with him firing away, they briefly tried to switch to a zone to throw Creighton off, except McDermott read it like a book and hit back-to-back threes in a 60 second span to run Creighton’s lead out to 20-8. DePaul would make a few runs here and there the rest of the way, cutting the deficit to as few as 10 on a couple of occasions, but for all intents and purposes that was the game.”
The Bottom Line:
Creighton is 12.5 point favorites in Las Vegas, and 10 point favorites on KenPom. Stranger things have happened in the Big East Tournament, but CU should win this one and move on to play the winner of UConn and Villanova.
Creighton 77, DePaul 64