Ethan Wragge is a dagger from three (Streur/WBR) Click to Buy
As Ethan Wragge hit his 7th three-pointer in the first half, Bill Raftery commented on the FS1 broadcast, “That’s a joke, I mean it’s absolutely comical. Sheesh!” But it wasn’t a joke. At that point, Creighton had taken a 27-7 lead in the first six minutes of the first half and it was almost over early. Although the Bluejays got out to a huge lead early, Villanova came back to cut the lead to 13 by halftime.
Creighton hit 9-of-9 from three point range to start the game and you could hear the sarcastic cheers and jeers from Villanova fans when the Bluejays finally missed a three pointer. But it was Wragge who was amazing the crowd with his stellar shooting, making everyone almost forget about Doug McDermott. But that didn’t mean that Doug McDermott didn’t play a heck of a game too.
McDermott had a pedestrian first half with 10 points and a couple of three pointers of his own, but it was his play in the second half that helped the Bluejays extend their lead quickly and almost make the game against the #4 team in the nation the part that was comical. With Villanova so worried about Wragge, it was the rest of the team that started nailing three-pointers. McDermott was 3-of-4, Jahenns Manigat went 2-of-2 and Austin Chatman went 1-of-1. The Bluejays led by as many as 40 points with just under 8 minutes to go and had all but broken the school and Big East record of 21 made three pointers.
Chatman finished the game with 10 assists with only 2 turnovers. Manigat score 19 points and had 5 assists of his own. McDermott finished with 23 points with one shot less than Wragge. You couldn’t have set up a better rebound game after the tough performance at Providence on Saturday night.
It is almost fitting though that Wragge has been gaining more and more of the spotlight over the past couple of weeks. The Twitter world has been on fire with Wragge’s shooting while trying to get glimpses of McDermott. The “Lumberjack” moniker sort of took off like wildfire thanks to basketball writer Rob Dauster along with the #Wraggebomb hashtag created by Creighton fans. However, all of it is well deserved.
The fifth year senior has been been there– from the last gasp of the Altman era and sitting out for most of the first season of the Greg McDermott era. He watched Doug McDermott step in as a freshman due to his injury and become the biggest story ever in Creighton hoops history. Unphased by the change of events with the foot injury that lead to Wragge’s medical redshirt year during his sophomore season, Wragge didn’t waver in his commitment to Creighton. Over the past three seasons Wragge has been more and more dominant thanks to head coach Greg McDermott rotating him in the post– the best opportunity to play Doug and Ethan together. Head coach Greg McDermott was on to something. Starting both of them together since the Wooden Legacy was the best thing to do. The result of that pairing was on full showcase Monday night.
Don’t get me wrong, I am amazed every time we get to watch Doug McDermott on the court. As fans we are pretty spoiled to have been able to watch him this season after thinking the regular season ending game against Wichita State last year would be the last time at the CenturyLink Center. We will never see a player like this again in our lifetime in a Bluejay uniform. Others will come through, but they will all be compared to McDermott from here on out. The fans know what to expect from McDermott. It almost has been expected this season. It is a great story with Wragge emerging to amaze us with his NBA+ shooting range. The fascination now is to see how far out Wragge will shoot. McDermott and Wragge sharing the ball together is magic in a bottle that opposing teams have a tough time matching up against.
Monday night’s game was the first I remember from this season where the court had both the college and NBA three point lines on them. Watching the previous games this season, it has been amazing to see the accuracy from how far out he is shooting, but nothing on the court to really get a sense from how far out it actually is. As this game against the Wildcats started I wondered how many Wragge would shoot from behind the NBA line. Turns out, all of his makes were from behind the NBA line or well behind it. After seeing that, I am even more awed at Wragge’s shooting ability and how he can literally drain it from anywhere. For the season, Wragge is hitting at exactly 50% from three-point land (74-of-148)
As the season continues on, it will be interesting to see how far the defense starts extending out, which will in turn give McDermott and the rest of the Bluejays more touches farther in with a higher percentage of scoring. At this point I think all of the Bluejays are shooting three-pointers like they are free throws. They have Ethan Wragge to thank for that. Wragge was chopping down trees tonight. The victim was Villanova.