The campus site half of the 19th Annual Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational means two games in three days for the Jays — Cal Poly and North Florida will shuttle between Omaha and Iowa City this weekend, taking turns playing both the Bluejays and the Hawkeyes before everyone heads to Vegas next week. First up for the Jays is California Polytechnic State, better known as simply Cal Poly.
Playing in the Big West Conference, the Mustangs of Cal Poly are the only sub-300 RPI team on CU’s slate and a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2013. They’re 1-3 so far this year, and were smoked 79-48 at #18 Saint Mary’s on Sunday. After jumping out to a 10-2 lead early on in that game, they found themselves on the wrong end of a 36-4 run to end the first half — begging the question, is it even a run at that point? 36-4 over nearly 10 minutes is not a run, it’s just getting boat raced for a significant portion of the game.
Junior Ballard, a 6’3″ sophomore guard, leads the Mustangs in scoring at 10.8 points per game. His freshman season ended after just 15 games due to injury, and his second year has started pretty well — he scored 17 points in a loss at Santa Clara and 20 in a loss at North Dakota State. Almost all of his shots (36 of 43) have been inside the arc, as Ballard primarily looks to drive. Of those shots, he’s been equally likely through four games of either pulling up for a short jumper or taking the ball to the rim.
Grad transfer Jamal Smith comes to Cal Poly by way of Cal State Fullerton, and has averaged 9.8 points through four contests. He’s made 16-of-28 shots, and like Ballard he’ll try to put the ball on the floor and drive into the paint. Smith has made 5-of-9 from three point range, so if his driving lanes are cut off he’s shown the ability to knock down longer-range shots.
Their leading shooter, at least in terms of percentage, is 6’10” 240-pound sophomore center Tuukka Jaakkola. In clips I’ve seen of him on YouTube, Jaakkola has decent footwork and has shown the ability to score in the paint without getting too sped up and making poor decisions — a trait that shows up on the box score, too, as the big man had just 16 turnovers a year ago. A native of Helsinki, Finland, Jaakkola has shot 61% from the floor this year. He’s not among the very best post players CU will see this year, but he is a very big guy who will be playing against a Creighton team without much size. If nothing else, his presence will provide Kelvin Jones and Christian Bishop with more game speed reps against the type of post player they can’t simulate in practice.
Cal Poly does like to defend the perimeter aggressively, and is willing to extend past the three-point line and to double-team the ball. They’d rather let teams drive on them and take their chances with Jaakkola being able to protect the rim than to allow teams to shoot semi-open threes. While their defense has not forced a lot of turnovers, it has succeeded in stopping opponents from taking threes — their four opponents have combined to take just 34% of their total shots from long range, and score just 23% of their total points from three, which are both among the lowest in the country.
On the other end, Cal Poly doesn’t shoot many threes themselves. 22.9% of their shots this year have been threes; just two teams in D1 have taken fewer. 64% of their points have come in the paint, the 10th best rate in the country. And they don’t share the ball very well; they’ve had an assist on 39.4% of their made baskets, ranking 312th out of 351 teams. So CU has to be fundamentally sound at cutting off drives and preventing the Mustang guards from getting downhill.
After playing a Cal Poly team who shoots fewer threes than all but two teams in America, CU will turn around and play the team who shoots more threes than anyone else. Talk about a contrast in styles: 52.0% of North Florida’s shots this year have been threes (fifth most in D1) and 54.1% of their points have come via the three (most in D1). They shoot 40.2% from behind the arc, ranking 32nd. And they shoot just 32.2% from anywhere else, ranking dead last. At least within the small sample size of four games, North Florida is quite literally the definition of a “live by the three, die by the three” team. Best in the country at making threes, worst in the country at making twos. It’s nuts.
They will bring a 4-2 record into Omaha, albeit with two wins over non-D1 teams. Their two D1 wins came against Georgia Southern and Southern Miss, they hung around against a good Florida team in Gainesville most of the night before losing 74-59, and they trailed Iowa by only four at halftime before losing 83-68. The Ospreys made the NCAA Tournament as a 16 seed in 2015 and the NIT as a 7 seed in 2016, both under current head coach Matthew Driscoll, so they’ve enjoyed successful seasons in recent years. After a couple of rebuilding years they were picked second in the preseason ASUN poll this fall.
J.T. Escobar, a 6’2″ senior guard, leads the Ospreys in scoring at 15.0 points per game. Primarily a spot-up shooter, a year ago Escobar took 75% of his shots from three-point range — with a whopping 89.7% of them assisted by a teammate. The percentages are similar this year through five games with 77% of his shots being threes, and 90.5% of them created via assist. He doesn’t create his own shot, and doesn’t score off the dribble, but if you let him catch it and shoot cleanly from three he can burn you. He made 37% of his threes last year and made at least one in 31 of their 33 games. He’s already made 21 threes this year, third most in D1. Stopping North Florida begins with knowing where Escobar is.
Joining him in the backcourt is senior point guard Ivan Gandia-Rosa, a stat-stuffer who’s averaging 12.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 6.4 assists after a junior campaign where he averaged 10.5 points and 6.4 assists. His 192 total assists were 16th most in D1, and he had five or more assists in 24 of 33 games.
Forward Carter Hendricksen is second on the Ospreys in scoring at 14.8 points per game, and leads them in rebounds at 8.6. At 6’7″, 220 pounds Hendricksen will be an interesting matchup for the Jays because about three-fourths of the time he plays alongside 6’7″, 210-pound senior Garrett Sams (14.7 points, 5.3 rebounds) and 6’7″ 200 pound senior Wajid Aminu (9.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, the 2018 ASUN Defensive Player of the Year). Hendricksen and Sams are stretch-four-types who are more comfortable shooting jumpers than banging in the post; 42% of Hendricksen’s shots this year have been threes (and he’s made 40% of them) while 75% of Sams’ shots have been threes, making 43%. Aminu operates under the rim most of the time (62% of his shots come at or near the rim, with just 9% of his shots behind the arc), and to the extent they have a “center” position he’s the guy. Sams has missed the last couple of weeks due to injury and did not play Thursday at Iowa, but it’s reported he could be back on Sunday.
Creighton’s favored to win both games by 20+ points, but these are likely to be two completely different games because of the drastically different styles the two opponents employ.
Friday night vs Cal Poly
- Tip: 8:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: Adam Alexander 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 Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
Sunday afternoon vs North Florida
- Tip: 1:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: TBD
- 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 Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Creighton had 37 different individual scoring performances of 17 points or more last season, but never had the same player score 17+ points in three consecutive games. This season, both Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski have scored 17 in all three contests. Before Alexander and Zegarowski, the last time Creighton had teammates that each scored 17+ points in three straight games was February 10-17, 1997, when Rodney Buford and Randall Crutcher did it. No Bluejay teammates have each scored 17+ points in four games in a row since Bob Harstad and Chad Gallagher over four straight contests from Dec. 17-29, 1990.
- Greg McDermott is currently 209-110 in his 10th year on the Bluejay sideline. Among men’s basketball coaches in program history, only Dana Altman (327-176) has finished their CU career with 100+ more wins than losses. McDermott is well ahead of the where Altman was at during the same point in his Creighton tenure. When Altman was three overall games into his 10th (2003-04) season, he owned a mark of 178-100 at Creighton.
- Creighton has won every Friday home game it’s played since Dec. 12, 1975, back when Greg McDermott was 11 years old, and more than 24 years before current Bluejay freshmen Jalen Windham, Shereef Mitchell and Nic Zeil were born. The Cal Poly contest is Creighton’s first of two regular-season Friday home game this season, joining a game vs. UTRGV on Dec. 13.
Creighton won the only previous meeting against Cal Poly, 65-51 on Dec. 19, 1956, in Omaha. CU was led in that game with 18 points each by Bob Gibson (no introduction needed) and Jim Berry (future coach of Greg McDermott at UNI in the mid-1980s).
Creighton and North Florida have never met.
This weekend in 2012 (November 23 and 24), Creighton knocked off Wisconsin and Arizona State on consecutive days in the Las Vegas Invitational — the same tournament they’re playing in this Thanksgiving. Ott recapped the win over the Badgers thusly:
“Creighton’s hard fought win over the Wisconsin Badgers Friday night at the Las Vegas Invitational had all the trappings of an NCAA Tournament game. It took 18 lead changes and 10 ties, but the Jays found a way to pull away from Bucky and take advantage of the opportunity to post what will surely become a signature win come March.
In the second half, Creighton outscored Wisconsin 46-35 behind 62% shooting from the field. Ethan Wragge hit all 3 of this three-point attempts in the second half, pacing the Jays to 83% shooting from behind the arc during the final 20 minutes. And CU hit 15 of 17 free throw attempts, including 15 in a row until Jahenns Manigat missed his two attempts with 45 seconds to play and the Jays up 11.
When the full 40 minutes were up, Doug McDermott once again showed the nation why he’s an All American. Knowing full well that Wisconsin would need to at least contain his output and make the rest of the Bluejays beat them, McDermott instead scored a game-high 30 points while calmly converting 9 of his 10 free throw chances — he shot a perfect 9 of 9 from the line in the second half.”
Meanwhile, the title game against ASU was characterized by chippiness. Again from Ott’s recap:
“Uneven officiating limited the teams’ ability to establish any sort of flow, and action was choppy for most of the game. The two teams combined for 47 personal fouls and 53 free throw attempts. ASU’s Eric Jacobsen fouled out in just 11 minutes, while Bluejays Gregory Echenique fouled out in 12 minutes and Austin Chatman was disqualified after 28 minutes. Grant Gibbs gave up his body for a play near his own bench, and the Bluejay senior’s reward for a fine effort and a great line (8 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal) was a violent collision with the cement behind the Creighton subs. And Doug McDermott was once again relentless while dealing with hounding pressure from the opposing defense.
There might not be a player in the country who has to work harder for what he takes on the offensive end. Constantly scoring against double and triple teams, McDermott managed to follow his 30-point effort against Wisconsin with 29 points against ASU. He added 9 rebounds, falling just one board short of another double-double. He’s still struggling (compared to last season) from outside the arc, but near the paint he remains nearly unstoppable. And unlike his freshman season, McDermott’s not shying away from contact. He’s attempted 8 or more free throws in four of CU’s six games this season, and he shot 10 against the Badgers and 11 against the Sun Devils. McDermott’s making 88% of his shots at the charity stripe. For his efforts in Vegas McDermott earned the tournament’s MVP honor, and shortly thereafter national pundit and folk hero among hoops junkies Dick Vitale named Doug his national player of the week.”
Based on my social media feed, half the people I know in Omaha saw Wilco at their concert Wednesday night. So this one’s for them.
The Bottom Line:
Creighton picks up two wins this weekend — a 88-57 thrashing of Cal Poly on Friday night, and a much closer 80-68 win over North Florida.