Creighton junior guard Isaiah Zierden has been asked many times over the last month and a half to describe his approach and his appreciation for the game in his return from multiple injuries to his right knee. Every time he says the same thing, he’s glad to be back, doesn’t take anything for granted, and knows every game or possession could be his last. So far he’s walked the walk, and he did again on Tuesday night in a big way.
The fourth-year sharpshooter went 5-of-10 from beyond the arc and 7-for-13 from the field overall as he poured in a career-high 24 points in just 23 minutes on the floor in Creighton’s 103-78 win over Texas-San Antonio.
“It’s a blessing every day to be able to wake and be in the position that I’m in,” Zierden said. “I know a lot of people would love to be here, and I was thinking about it this morning before the game just walking up steps, that’s a big, big deal, and I don’t take any little thing for granted now. I want to play every game like it’s my last, every possession like it’s the last possession I ever play, so I want people to remember it as a good one.”
Zierden scored 12 points in each half, and sat out the final 9:47 as the Roadrunners never got closer than 17 points after the six-minute mark of the first half. He added three rebounds and four assists to his point total, and also tied his career-high with five 3-point field goals and three steals.
“I’m proud of him. I’m really proud of him,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said of Zierden’s perseverance. “Overcoming the mental part of having the same injury twice is probably even more difficult than the physical rehabilitation that he had to go through, and that wasn’t easy for him. I think he would tell you that in early September and right up until the first of October when we started practice there was still some doubts in his mind on can I trust it? We had a close intersquad scrimmage I think the week before we went to Missouri, and he got tangled up with [senior center Geoffrey Groselle] and the knee kind of got tweaked. In some ways it was blessing that happened, because it showed him that the knee could take a little bit of a jolt and still be fine.
“I don’t think he’s thinking about it as much as he was, and knock on wood the kid really deserves an injury-free season, because he’s put a lot of work into it, and he’s been really committed to his rehabilitation.”
With starting point guard Maurice Watson Jr. in early foul trouble, Zierden and junior forward Cole Huff got Creighton off to a quick start that Texas-San Antonio never recovered from. With 15:11 left in the first half, Huff nailed a jumper to put Creighton up 16-6 and it was a double-digit lead the rest of the way for the Bluejays. They shot 65.6% from the field in the first half to take a 61-37 lead at the break. The 61 points tied a CenturyLink Center Omaha record for most points scored by any team in a half.
Huff, playing in his second game after transferring from Nevada, finished second behind Zierden in the scoring column with 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field.
The two juniors led another balanced effort for the Bluejays as senior guard James Milliken pitched in 12 points, while junior point guard Maurice Watson Jr., junior center Zach Hanson, and sophomore forward Toby Hegner each finished with 10 points to round out the rest of the double-figure scorers on the night. In both regular season games so far the Bluejays have had at least five players in double figures, with Zierden, Watson, and Huff doing so in each of the two contests.
“I think our roster is really talented from top to bottom,” Huff said. “We have 11 or 12 guys that can play on any given night. Our practices are really intense, we really push each other to get the best out of each other, and those carry over to the game so far. It’s kind of a relief to get out there on the court and know that you’ve been prepared by your teammates at practice, and the coaches really pushing you. So far so good.”
That balance — which has been there each time Creighton has faced an opponent either in a scrimmage, an exhibition, or a regular season game — is going to be the key to success offensively this season according to sixth-year head coach Greg McDermott.
“It’s been pretty consistent through the two regular season games, the exhibition, and the scrimmage,” McDermott said of the team’s balanced scoring effort up to this point.
“We’ve had five guys in double figures each game, we had six tonight. We’re getting contributions from different places, and I think that’s who we need to be. I’m not sure we’ve got a guy that’s going to get us 20 every night, but I think we’ve got several guys that can get us 15 or 18 on any given night. We just have to find out who that is on that particular night, and fortunately we have a point guard that understands when somebody gets it going we have to find him and get him the basketball. Cole obviously got us off to a nice start in the first half. Isaiah had a great stretch in the second half. We have to be a team with some spurtability offensively, and we’ve shown that to this point. Obviously we’re going to need that on Thursday.”
Thursday night is Creighton’s first big test of the season. After two blowout wins in the their two home games, the Bluejays will play their first true road game of the season when the travel to Bloomington, Indiana to take on the 14th-ranked Hoosiers from Assembly Hall. This game is part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games which pairs member of the Big East and Big Ten Conference against each other.
The match-up between Greg McDermott’s Bluejays and Tom Crean’s Hoosiers has the potential to be one of the more entertaining games of the non-conference portion of the college basketball season, especially for those who have been critical of the plodding, low-scoring affairs of recent years. Creighton will enter the game averaging an even 98.0 points per game. While the Indiana will bring a 95.0 scoring average to the court when the two teams tip off at 6:00 p.m. (CST) on the Big Ten Network. Each team has played two games, both breaking the century mark in their second contest.
“I have not [been to Assembly Hall], this will be my first trip,” the Bluejay head coach said. “Obviously an unbelievable tradition. I obviously grew up watching Coach Knight’s teams and the fundamental way in which they played the game. Not many of his teams play as fast as Coach Crean’s team plays. They fly this thing up and down; a very dangerous basketball team. Last night they were 16-of-25 I think from the three-point line. If they shoot it like that I’m not sure the Lakers are going to go in there and win. We’ve got to find a way to force them to tap the brakes a little, but we’re not going to change the way we play. I think it will be a very entertaining game, because you’ll have two teams that really want to force the tempo.”
Listen to the postgame press conference
Bluejays turn focus to consistency on defense
Groselle can create some troubles in the middle for opponents (Streur/WBR) CLICK TO BUY
When you’re averaging just south of 100 points per game, shooting the daylights out of the ball, and winning games by an average of 24 points, it’s hard to be critical of your performance. However, the results on the defensive end of the floor have been mixed through two games for Creighton.
After Texas Southern and Texas-San Antonio averaged 74 points per game while shooting 47.3% from the field and 42.5% from behind the three-point line, they have left some things for the Bluejays to clean up heading into Thursday night’s big show down with the Hoosiers.
“Everything needs to change,” junior guard Malik Albert said. “We have to be together defensively. We have to lock in 100% in film, and be ready to guard. They have one of the best guards in the country in Yogi Farrell. He’s small, but he’s aggressive, and really strong.”
The match-up with the Hoosiers aside, the bigger picture for the Bluejays on the defensive end isn’t so much about the statistics as it is about the consistency. Finishing out possessions strong on that end of the floor and stringing multiple stops together are going to be points of emphasis going forward.
“We played a lot of 20 seconds, 25 seconds of the shot clock for the most part,” Cole Huff said of what hurt the Bluejays on Tuesday night. “The last five seconds they’d find a post entry or we’d lose our man off ball and they’d get a tricky shot to go in, and against some of the better teams that just can’t happen. But we defended for most of the shot clock, we just have to finish off possessions now.”
The Bluejays actually have shown a bit of bite defensively in the first two games, averaging nine steals per contest and forcing a total of 38 turnovers that they have turned into points on the other end. But there are still some things that need to be cleaned up, especially as the competition gets tougher.
“We forced some turnovers again which is good, we turned those over into points which was good. But it felt to me like we were half a click off tonight,” McDermott said. “Khyri was just half a step slow, and he’s going to have games like that. He’s a freshman and we’re asking him to exert a lot of energy. There were a few communication mistakes we have to clean up, a few rotational mistakes we have to clean up. In transition defense I feel like we’re getting back, but I don’t know that there’s a lot of urgency to get our defense set once we get back, and Thursday night in Bloomington that’s key to the game. They are coming at you as fast as anybody in the country, and you have to be back and you have to be ready, or you’re going to pay for it.”
Malik Albert picks up energy, team in first half
Malik Albert got things going when Mo Watson got into early foul trouble (Spomer/WBR) CLICK TO BUY
When Maurice Watson Jr. picked up a technical foul with 15:28 still to go in the first half, Malik Albert was rushed into duty quicker than he anticipated. It wasn’t smooth sailing from the start for Albert as he turned the ball over twice in his first two minutes of action, prompting a little pick me up from his head coach.
“Mac pulled me to the side and he said a couple words to me,’ Albert told reporters after the game. “I can’t tell you what he said, but he said a couple words to me to get me going. After that point that’s when I picked up my energy, and it kept me going for the rest of the game.”
It certainly did as the junior college transfer from Detroit, Mich., didn’t turn the ball over the rest of the game and dished out a career-high 10 assists, eight of which came in the first half with Watson on the bench.
“I thought Malik’s first run I thought he was really tentative,” McDermott said. “I think his two turnovers were maybe in the first four possessions he was in. When he came back I just said you have to be more aggressive. Just be on the attack, get your head up. You can get into seams, and you can find your teammates. To his credit he did that.”
It was a big confidence boost for the transfer from Mott Community College. After two games, he leads the team with 13 assists despite only scoring a team-low six total points in the first two games. In two days, he’ll get to play in front of some family members at historic Assembly Hall when the Bluejays play Indiana as it’s one of the closest venues to his home in Detroit that Creighton will play at this season.
“Indiana is probably four or five hours, that’s probably one of the closest games to our house besides DePaul I think,” Albert said. “I have a lot of family coming, some supporters. This will be a big win for us. This game will see where we’re at as a team, as a unit. If we come out with a W in this game, we’ll pretty much be in good shape to beat any team in the country.”
Listen to the full interview with Malik Albert
Bounce back effort for Zach Hanson
Zach Hanson bounced back against UTSA (Streur/WBR) CLICK TO BUY
After the Texas Southern game where his junior center Zach Hanson fouled out and didn’t score a point in eight minutes of action, Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said he wasn’t concerned.
Hanson didn’t make his coach look foolish in that regard as he had a very productive bounce back effort in the win over the Roadrunners on Tuesday night. In ten minutes of action, he finished with 10 points, one rebound, and one steal, going 4-for-4 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the free throw line. Both trips to the charity stripe finished off three-point plays for Hanson. The first extended Creighton’s lead to 21-6 to cap off their hot start to the game. The second came with just under five minutes remaining in the opening half and it pushed the lead out to 42-21.
“I thought he just relaxed and played tonight,” McDermott said. “He got a couple cheap calls the other night and then there were a couple foolish ones to go with it from a foul standpoint, and I think he lost his aggression. Tonight I thought he was under control, had good pace, stepped to the free throw line and knocked those down on a couple three-point plays. He tweaked his ankle again, so we’ll see what they tell us tomorrow in terms of that.”
Hanson said he felt a couple of pops in his foot, part of the ongoing injury he’s been playing through since around the middle of October.
“I stepped back and planted a guy’s foot, and it just kind of inverted and I felt a couple pops in my foot area,’ Hanson said. “That’s been happening, but as long as it doesn’t swell up I think I’ll be all right.”
Listen to the full postgame interview with Zach Hanson