After giving up 81 points at Georgetown in a loss that dropped the Bluejays to 7-5 on the season, Creighton men’s basketball ranked 51st in adjusted defensive efficiency according to BartTorvik.com — well below the standard established in the program over the previous handful of seasons.
Since that loss, Creighton has won seven of its last eight, and defense has played a big part in the turnaround. During that eight-game stretch, the Jays rank 12th nationally in defensive efficiency.
“I think it’s just our grit defensively,” Jasen Green said of the improvement. “We’re so much more locked in defensively, and we’re playing a lot more as a team defensively as well. We’re scrambling a lot. There were a couple moments during the DePaul game where our defense kind of broke down, but we didn’t give up on the play. We kind of just kept scrambling around and helping each other out whenever we needed to be helped. So I feel like it’s just us just running around the court and just having a lot more grit recently.”
Coach Greg McDermott said that defensive grittiness trickles down from the team’s leaders, highlighting three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner in particular. But McDermott wasn’t talking about the rim protection he’s known for.
“You get guys getting on the floor — I think about Kalkbrenner laying out at three-quarter court at UConn, chasing with a point guard and he’s the first one to the floor,” McDermott said. “That sends a pretty big message to everybody else. If the ball’s on the floor and our 7-foot-1, 275-pound guy’s going to lay out, you better do it too. Ty Davis had one the other night — ball’s on the floor, he pounces on it right away, saves us possession. Those kinds of things as they happen, and the veterans do it on a consistent basis, it’s easier to get the rest of them to fall in line.”
That defense will be tested on Tuesday when a Xavier team featuring a balanced attack with quick-strike ability visits CHI Health Center Omaha. The Musketeers (13,8, 5-5 Big East, 46th in KenPom) have four players scoring in double figures in conference play and three more averaging 6.8 or more. As a team, Xavier ranks in the 95th percentile in transition scoring efficiency, making up just over a fifth of the team’s possessions.
“Their transition is as good as we’ve seen,” McDermott said. “They’re going to match you in waves, whether it’s a made shot, missed shot, turnover, they’re attacking and they’re not stopping until you stop them. It’s not like they’re going to get to the 3-point line and see that things are kind of put together and back it out. They’re going to try to put their head on the rim, and they’ve got shooters flanking both wings. [Dailyn] Swain can take it off the glass and lead a break, so you can get cross-matched some.
“That’s almost 25% of their offense, and they get about close to that from the free-throw line. So those are two areas of the game, if we expect to be successful, we’re going to have to take care of.”
Xavier ranks 20th nationally in 3-point percentage at 38.3%, fifth in assist rate (64.9%) and 44th in free-throw rate (39%) — all areas Creighton’s defense is designed to limit. The Musketeers struggle to score efficiently inside the arc when they don’t get a favorable whistle, shooting 49.7% on 2-pointers this season.
Zach Freemantle (6-foot-9, 227 pounds) is leading Xavier at 16.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game despite missing a handful of games in late December. Indiana State transfer Ryan Conwell (6-foot-4, 215 pounds) has brought some perimeter firepower, averaging 16.1 points while shooting 39.1% on 7.4 3-point attempts per game. Point guard Dayvion McKnight is 10.4 points and 4.8 assists while Swain, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound sophomore, is chipping in 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds while drawing NBA interest for his athleticism and defensively versatility.
Xavier faced a weak nonconference slate and dropped four of its first five Big East games, but the Musketeers have won four-of-five since including games against Villanova and UConn and at Marquette. The lone loss came at league-leading St. John’s in a game that saw the Red Storm rally from a double-digit deficit in the second half.
“Freemantle is back healthy; I think that certainly adds a big piece to their roster,” McDermott said. “But those new guys, [Dante] Maddox is playing more now, Conwell’s been playing at a pretty high level all year, but just like Jamiya [Neal], as the season goes on, those guys in the first year are going to be more comfortable. So the difference between our offense and their offense, they’ve probably played the toughest schedule in the league.”
McDermott believes Xavier should be an NCAA Tournament team — and one that can do some damage once it gets there — but the Musketeers still have work to do to earn a bid, and a win at Creighton would help that case significantly.
Conversely, the Jays (14-6, 7-2) need a win to remain in the thick of the Big East title race. Creighton took care of business against the bottom in the league with comfortable wins at DePaul and against Seton Hall, but the competition level rises significantly moving forward, starting with Tuesday’s game. Trips to Villanova and Providence await before Creighton faces the top of the league — Marquette, UConn and at St. John’s — in mid-February.
“February is a big month,” McDermott said. “We’ve got one left here in January that’s really important, and starting with this game, we’ve got a very difficult stretch with some of the teams we’re playing and where we’re playing them. This is an important week for us. I hope our fans understand how important tomorrow night is. This place needs to be electric tomorrow night, because it’s going to be a heck of a game.”
Tipoff Tuesday is set for 7 p.m. CT on FS1 with Connor Onion and Nick Bahe on the call.
