Creighton men’s basketball went on the road Tuesday and blew out DePaul, 73-49.
Coach Greg McDermott improved to 24-1 in his career against the Blue Demons (10-10) as the Jays have won the last 21 meetings. Creighton improved to 13-6 on the season with its fourth straight victory.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Taking Care of Business
Coming off the team’s biggest win of the season at UConn and hitting the road again to visit lowly DePaul, a let-down would have been understandable for the Bluejays.
When shots weren’t falling and offense wasn’t coming easily at the start of the game, frustration could have mounted.
But that didn’t happen. Creighton weathered the storm and took a 12-point lead into halftime thanks to a gritty effort, then the Jays put their foot on DePaul’s throat to open the second half, scoring on 12 of their first 16 possessions to stretch the lead out to 27 and crush the Blue Demons’ spirits.
“We got out in transition and we made some things happen in transition,” McDermott said. “Guys ran the floor, and your pace is not really going to pay off in the first half. It’s going to pay off as the game wears on.”
Creighton only attempted four 3-pointers in the second half, instead pounding the ball inside in various ways. The Jays made 12 of their first 13 2-point attempts in the second half before the starters sat down for good.
DePaul may be 1-8 in conference play, but this has been a different kind of team under first-year head coach Chris Holtmann. Three of the Blue Demons’ conference losses have come in overtime, including one against a top-10 team in Marquette. DePaul was just outside of the top-100 in KenPom at tipoff — 200 spots higher than it ended last season.
This season’s DePaul team hasn’t been the auto-win Creighton fans have become accustomed two — but the Jays made them look like it Tuesday night. Creighton held the Blue Demons to season-lows in points, 3-pointers and field goal percentage.
The Bluejays essentially abandoned shooting 3s in the first half and still ended up doubling the Blue Demons in made 3s as DePaul — 37.6% from deep heading into the game — finished 3-of-23. Creighton’s adjusted defensive efficiency ranking on KenPom jumped 17 spots after the game, up to 27th.
“I liked pretty much everything,” McDermott said of his team’s defensive effort. “They’re really two different teams when [David] Skogman is in the game versus the backups in terms of our ball screen coverage, and we executed some switching on Skogman and made his looks pretty tough, I thought. We were really active defensively. I thought in that first half, they got eight points on second chance, and they got four runouts; our first-shot defense had seven points. I was worried about our focus. It’s been a big week for us, and the guys were pretty locked in.”
Creighton now stands at 6-2 in Big East play, a half-game back of Marquette and St. John’s atop the league standings. The Bluejays have already played each of the other top-five teams in the conference and won three of those games, with the only loss coming in Milwaukee.
“Four of the last five have been on the road, and in this league, the road’s a bear, like most leagues,” McDermott said. “We found a way to win four out of five of those, and we had chances at Marquette in the last five minutes, so we did what we had to do, and we’ve got ourselves in a position where we’re at least in the conversation and chasing a Big East Championship, which is what we’re trying to do here. We have an important home game on Saturday for the Pink Out and we need that place rocking. Every one of these games from here on out is very important as we chase the Big East championship and hopefully an NCAA tournament bid.”
After a rough stretch, many of Creighton’s goals appear back on the table. The Jays are firmly in the Big East title race and have put themselves back on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Everybody Eats
One benefit of taking care of business is less mileage on the team’s star players. Jamiya Neal led the team at 29 minutes. Steven Ashworth only played 27, while Ryan Kalkbrenner logged 25. That’s huge in a quick turnaround during a road swing.
Neal led Creighton with 14 points. Kalkbrenner exited with 13 points, eight boards and four blocks. Ashworth chipped in nine points and four assists, ending his double-figure scoring streak at 22 games dating back to last season.
McDermott turned to his bench early and often, with Fedor Žugić — a DNP-CD at UConn — checking in three minutes into the game and Ty Davis seeing first-half minutes as well. That was another sign of McDermott’s trust in his team’s maturity.
“We went to the bench a little bit earlier than I usually do,” McDermott said. “We had some guys that obviously have played some big minutes. It’s been a rough stretch with four out of the last five on the road. So the guys that came in really did a good job and it was awesome to see those guys off the bench come in and contribute such a positive way.”
McDermott emptied his bench entirely by the end of the game with all 13 players impacting the scoring column. Eleven different players scored, and the two that didn’t (Mason Miller and Shane Thomas) combined for four assists between them. The Bluejays recorded assists on 19 of their 25 field goals with 10 different players notching at least one helper.
Žugić played 15 minutes (after logging 25 minutes in his first five appearances combined) and totaled eight points on a layup, a 3-pointer and three free throws plus two rebounds and two assists.
“I thought he made some great reads and great passes,” McDermott said. “It’s nice to see him knock down a couple shots, and he gets to the rim. Defensively, he’s gradually getting there. Compared to where he was two weeks ago, he’s lightyears ahead of where he was. That’s been really encouraging to see, and hopefully he can build on that. A game like tonight, for him, for Ty Davis, Shane Thomas that got out there and got some important minutes is really going to be important as we move into the next set of games.”
Perhaps the highlight of the game was the three minutes Illinois native Sami Osmani logged back in his home state. He found Žugić for a 3 then got his own bucket later for his first points of the season, 15 miles away from his high school. The senior walk-on redshirted last season because of an injury but has been a valued member of the scout team throughout his time in Omaha.
Josh Townley-Thomas, a redshirt sophomore forward who graduated from Omaha Creighton Prep and spent a year at North Platte Community College before joining the program as a walk-on, also saw two minutes and scored his first points with an effective post move.
“We love those guys … We were screaming our lungs out,” Fredrick King said. “They really deserve it.”
King said Osmani, in his fifth year at Creighton, is like an older brother to everyone on the team and a great person.
Neal Does it Again
For the second straight game, Creighton’s offense was stuck in the mud early. After an opening possession 3 from Ashworth, Creighton missed 10 of its next 12 shots, sitting on eight points after eight minutes of play.
Then Neal took over once again, scoring eight straight Creighton points on a pair of 3s and a layup in a two-minute span to get the offense going.
He led the team in scoring for the second straight game, shooting 5-of-10 from the field including 2-of-5 from 3. Neal, who shot 26.9% from 3 in his three seasons at Arizona State, is up to 43.2% (16-of-37) through eight league games.
After a 4-for-23 start from deep through Creighton’s first seven games that had Jays fans begging him to abandon shooting 3s entirely, he’s made 21 of his last 50 over the past 12 games. He’s still a little streaky, but the ability to knock down perimeter shots in addition to everything else he does for Creighton has made him possibly the most noteworthy pleasant surprise in a season filled with setbacks.
“I told him after the game, I just thought he had a great week, and not just offensively,” McDermott said. “He’s doing some great things defensively. He’s understanding our schemes, our different plans from opponent to opponent, and that’s a lot to learn for a new guy. He’s doing a lot of things. He’s all in on this team and he’s been a lot of fun to coach.”
