The reward for Creighton men’s basketball’s navigating a difficult stretch featuring three eastern road trips and games against each of the other top-four teams in a 15-day span was nearly an entire week off from competition.
Freshman Jackson McAndrew said the team is making the most of its six days between games to regroup for the stretch run.
“As a team, we want to get everyone back as healthy as we can,” McAndrew said. “There’s a lot of sickness going around pretty much through the whole team. So getting that taken care of, getting our bodies a little rest, but then also addressing a lot of things that we need to do better, locking in on those things. We have four practices here before the game to address all those things and to prep for Sunday.”
One of the things the team addressed after the loss at No. 10 St. John’s was the uncharacteristic number of fouls the Jays committed. The Red Storm drew 23 fouls and attempted 29 free throws (to just 15 attempts for Creighton on the other end). While there were some calls the Jays believe could have gone the other way, McAndrew said much of it was self-inflicted.
“We got a little handsy at times, and then we got in situations where, because of a few communication mistakes, we ended up in in space and in rotations, and now when you’re in rotations against a team as athletic as St. John’s and the pressure that they put on the rim from multiple positions, you’re asking for trouble,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “The physicality of the game, there were a lot of fouls on both sides, but we can’t be the one that loses that battle. We’re fortunate to be in that game when the free-throw disparity was as it was against St John’s.”
The Bluejays (18-8, 11-4 Big East) will return to the court on Sunday afternoon to face a Georgetown team that ran the Jays off the court in the second half of Creighton’s Big East opener in D.C. While the Bluejays found their stride after that loss, the Hoyas (16-10) have struggled to string together wins and sit in seventh place in the Big East with a 7-8 record.
Georgetown is 80th in KenPom — a respectable 37th in adjusted defensive efficiency but only 162nd on the other end of the floor. The Hoyas excel in forcing turnovers (35th) and in defending inside the arc (14th in opponent 2-point percentage).
“We certainly didn’t enjoy it much the last time we saw them,” McDermott said. “They’re a talented basketball team when they’re healthy. [Malik] Mack and [Jayden] Epps and [Micah] Peavy, those three guards, and then you’ve got one of the best young big kids in the country in [Thomas] Sorber, that’s quite a collection of talent. They just haven’t been healthy very often. When they’ve been healthy, they’ve been really good. Obviously, we didn’t play very well that game and made a lot of mistakes and allowed them to get out in transition and have easy opportunities, and we’re going to we have to clean that up on Sunday.”
McAndrew’s assessment of his team’s performance in the 81-57 loss that saw Creighton outscored 47-29 in the second half was a bit blunter than his coach’s. Creighton turned the ball over 16 times, many of which led to run-out buckets for the Hoyas.
“I felt like we got punked, everywhere from the boards to turnovers to how we were guarding to offensively — every aspect of that game I felt like they just punked us,” McAndrew said. “And I feel like now going into that one, we owe them one for sure. We know what we need to do, we know exactly what we need to do to make sure that doesn’t happen again. It’s just making sure we stay locked in during these next two prep days and getting ready for the game.”
Peavy, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound transfer from TCU, has emerged as Georgetown’s go-to player on both ends of the floor. He’s averaging a team-high 16.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.4 steals while shooting 35.1% from 3. Over his past five games, he’s upped those numbers to 23.8 points on 51% from the field (42.9% from 3), 6.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 3.4 steals per game. McDermott also said he played a big part in Creighton’s offensive struggles in the first meeting.
“Peavy, I think, is one of the elite defenders, not just in our conference, but in the country,” McDermott said. “He’s hard to screen. He just blows up screens because he’s so powerful, and his anticipation skills are really good, and you combine that with the fact that he absolutely plays his tail off. So that’s a that’s a recipe for a high-level defender, and he certainly changed the game defensively when we played the first time.”
“It starts at the defensive end, but he’s certainly added a lot to his offensive game,” McDermott continued. “He’s shooting the 3-point shot much better than he ever has at any point in his career, but his ability to get downhill and the physicality he has when he drives to the basket, you’re not going to stop him. He’s so powerful.”
Sorber, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound center, is the lead contender for Big East Freshman of the Year and is averaging 14.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 blocks. Creighton held him to eight points on 4-of-14 shooting in the first meeting. Mack (12.6 points and 4.6 assists per game) and Epps (12.2 points per game) are double-digit scorers as well. Epps hit five 3s and scored 21 points against the Jays back in December, but Mack did not play in that game.
The good news for Creighton is that Ryan Kalkbrenner has not missed any practice time after the injury scare he suffered against St. John’s. McDermott expects Creighton’s leading scorer and defensive anchor to be full-go on Sunday.
Creighton’s loss at St. John’s meant the second-place Jays no longer control their own destiny in the Big East title race. However, if the Johnnies were to stumble a couple times down the stretch, it opens the door for Creighton again, giving the Jays plenty to play for in the last five games of the regular season — starting with Sunday.
“Obviously, we need some help now,” McDermott said. “But the reality of it is you take every game one at a time, and it’s all you can control, is your preparation. You hope it’s good enough. So these five games are important for a lot of reasons, for Big East seeding in the conference tournament, obviously, and hopefully NCAA Tournament seeding as well. Everything we’d like to accomplish is still ahead of us. We’ve just got to make sure we have a good couple of weeks.”
Sunday’s game is set to tip at 3 p.m. CT and will be available on Peacock with Noah Reed and Nick Bahe on the call.
