Creighton men’s basketball bounced back from a tough road loss at Georgetown to beat Villanova 86-79 in its Big East home opener on Saturday.
The Bluejays (8-5, 1-1 Big East) won a shootout against one of the best offenses in the country as the teams combined to shoot 52.5% from the field and 48.9% from 3. Three different Bluejays scored at least 20 points to offset a big night from Villanova star Eric Dixon.
“High level shot-making game, I think for both teams; we just made a few more,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “Not sure either team really had an answer for the other team offensively. In watching Villanova … their offense, in the last seven or eight games, is one of the top offenses in the country … It was a good win for us. It’s the Big East. You’re going to have some clunkers once in a while, and then you’re going to have some games where you play pretty well, and you can’t get lost in either one of those.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Super Seniors Show Out
Dixon has been a Creighton killer for much of his career, and Saturday was no different. He opted to return to Villanova for a fifth season of eligibility (and sixth year overall after redshirting in 2019-20) and is making the most of it, leading the country in scoring at over 25 points per game this season.
He finished with 27 points, his sixth straight game against the Jays with 20 or more (two of which were over 30). The 6-foot-8 forward shot 10-of-17 from the field including 4-of-7 from 3, hitting a number of contested shots and jumpers off the dribble.
Dixon is a career 50% shooter from 3 against the Jays in addition to his ability score inside, so McDermott shook up his lineup to make life as difficult as possible on him. Jasen Green started in place of Mason Miller and took the Dixon assignment, and while the star Wildcat still got his, it allowed Creighton to defend the rest of the team a little differently. Green played the entire second half and logged a career-high 35 minutes in all, contributing eight points, six rebounds and three assists.
“I thought he was really good,” McDermott said of Green. “Early in the game, he made his touches hard, and that just that wears into you over time. But you don’t phase Eric Dixon, you don’t speed him up. He’s not going to let one play impact him. I’ve always had great respect for him and thought he was a heck of a player. I’m not sure I ever thought he was an NBA player until this year. He just added so much to his game.
“A couple of those shots he hit with Jasen hanging all over him. He’s become an unbelievable shot maker, and analytically, I think he was shooting 72% on pick-and-pop 3s in the year. That is ridiculous. When you make a mistake, you pay for it, and we made him work for 27, but I thought Jasen was ready.”
Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) speaks with Villanova’s Eric Dixon (43). The two combined for 50 points in the Creighton win. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
While Dixon led all scorers, Creighton got a big game from its own fifth-year big man in Ryan Kalkbrenner. After his coach shared disappointment in the 7-footer’s energy and activity in the loss to Georgetown, Kalkbrenner responded in a big way, making his presence felt early and often in a variety of ways.
“I just think it was having a lot of energy coming into the game,” Kalkbrenner said. “I think Georgetown, I didn’t do a great job of preparing myself to be ready to start the game, and that’s on me to fix that. I did a better job of that because, as Mac was telling me, leading up to this one, a lot of people look to me; if I have good energy, the rest team has good energy because they’re looking at me as a leader. So I think just having that mindset shift, and having a good attitude coming into this game, which leads all that, being more aggressive and all that.”
Kalkbrenner finished with 23 points on 10-of-15 from the field (1-of-2 from 3) and 2-of-4 from the free-throw line, five rebounds and two blocks. He had six dunks including two off the dribble, and Creighton did a much better job of getting him touches all over the floor than in previous games.
“Dixon and I have been playing against each other for five years now, and it’s always battle, every time,” Kalkbrenner said. “He’s a great player, so you look forward to those kinds of matchups. I’m sure he’d say the same thing. It’s just really good bigs playing against each other, and as a competitor, you love to have those kinds of matchups.”
Kalkbrenner got plenty of support from his fellow super senior as Steven Ashworth finished with 20 points and 11 assists, a new career high in dimes for his first double-double. He shot 6-of-11 from the field (3-of-5 from 3) and 5-of-5 from the line. Five of his assists went to Kalkbrenner (three for dunks) and another five led to 3-pointers.
“He’s been terrific all year, and we won’t realize — and I’ve said this with some other guys that have played for us — until he’s gone, you don’t realize the impact he has,” McDermott said. “Or just go back and watch San Diego State game and you realize what’s missing when he’s not out there. He’s an incredible leader and never allows what’s happening with him personally to impact his ability to lead his teammates.”
Contrast of Styles
Fans of offense received a treat on Saturday afternoon with a high level of shot-making on display in the first half.
However, the two teams scored their points in completely different ways.
In the first half, Villanova (8-5, 1-1) went mismatch hunting, playing in isolation most of their possessions and converting contested mid-range shots at a high rate. The Wildcats recorded assists on just three of their 17 field goals yet only scored 12 points in the paint.
Creighton, on the other hand, looked like a vintage Bluejay offense. The ball was flying around and the Jays were letting it fly. Creighton hit its first six 3s and eight of its first nine before finishing 9-of-13 overall in the first half, with all five starters hitting at least one. The Jays assisted 13 of their 15 buckets.
There was a stretch where Creighton turned the ball over four times in a three-minutes pan, but they gave it away only three more times in the other 37 to finish with seven for the game, which only led to six points on the other end.
“I think the first thing is we only turned it over seven times, which helps a lot,” Kalkbrenner said. “When we don’t turn the ball over and move offensively, we just have a lot of things open up for us, because we’ve got really good shooters and really good passers all around. So I think that’s mostly what was, just taking care of the ball.”
In the second half, Villanova cooled off slightly, enough to allow Creighton to pull away as the Jays continued to score at a high clip. A 7-0 run with two Kalkbrenner dunks sandwiching a Jamiya Neal 3-pointer was the spark Creighton needed to take control.
The first-half shooting loosened up the defense and allowed Creighton to get the ball inside more to build a 14-point lead midway through the half. Villanova made a couple runs, but Creighton held on to earn the victory.
Villanova shot 50% from the field and 40% from 3 while only turning the ball over once in 40 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Creighton. They Wildcats assisted eight of their 32 field goals.
The Bluejays shot 55.4% from the field, including 56% from 3, and recorded assists on 22 of their 31 field goals. They hit a season-high 14 3-pointers with all five starters hitting at least one.
“The assist count, obviously we didn’t force any turnovers, and they’re a hard team to force into turnovers because they’re very ball control oriented,” McDermott said. “They do a good job, their spacing is incredible, so we didn’t want them to make easy plays, one more passes. Even when we doubled Dixon, we wanted to try to fly around to make him make an extra pass.
“That 22 assists to eight assists, the offenses were operating differently, and they both can be successful, especially when you have Eric Dixon on the other side, because he can make plays with the ball without an assist. But we created a lot of offense with our ball movement tonight.”
Neal led the Creighton barrage with a career-high six 3-pointers on seven attempts, finishing with 20 points, six assists, four rebounds and no turnovers. Freshman Jackson McAndrew shot 3-of-5 from deep and finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
Fedor is Free
The biggest story of the day leading into the game was that Fedor Žugić had been granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA, clearing the Montenegrin wing to make his debut against the Wildcats.
He was on the floor for a total of 2:42 and didn’t attempt a shot, corralling two rebounds and committing a foul. While he didn’t make a significant impact on the game, he was grateful to set foot on the court for the first time and received a big round of applause when public address announcer Jake Ryan introduced him for the first time.
Fedor Žugić made his Creighton debut against Villanova. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
“It was great,” Žugic said. “I haven’t played a basketball game in seven months, I think. So it was just great being out there and hearing the fans and everything. So I’m just grateful … It’s a different kind of motivation. I’m going to work on my stuff with Coach Mac, slowly get into a rhythm and hopefully make them happy.”
Žugić said he first received the news during practice, but Creighton didn’t get the final clearance until Saturday morning. It came as a surprise to everyone involved.
“If he looked unprepared to play, he should have looked unprepared to play, because he has not spent one second preparing to play with the top team,” McDermott said. “Obviously we’re excited to have him and we’ve got practice tomorrow and then four practices before St John’s, and hopefully we can get him up to speed.”
Žugić backed out of a contract with a Spanish club overseas to enroll at Creighton without the guarantee that he’d be cleared to play this season. He spent the first month and a half working on the scout team and watching in street clothes on game day, which wasn’t easy, especially so far from home.
“It was tough, not seeing my family and being in that kind of a situation,” Žugić said. “I was never alone. I have a great group of guys and coaches around me, so I was never lonely, but it was a hard situation to be in. Now it’s over, so I don’t really want to go back on it and think about it. I’m just happy to be free.”
His teammates are happy he’s free as well.
“We’ve been itching to get him out there,” Kalkbrenner said. “We see him practice every day; we know how good of a player he is. So we’re just super happy for him. He was a little frustrated with the whole process. He’s a basketball player, he loves to play, so we wanted to get out there. So more than anything, we were just happy for him that he could get out there and play.”
McDermott credited Creighton’s compliance office for working hard to get Žugić his eligibility, and assistant coach Ryan Miller was heavily involved as well as the head man focused on getting his team ready to play each week. McDermott compared the situation to what former Bluejay Alex O’Connell went through after transferring in from Duke during the season when transfers became immediately eligible mid-year.
“Fedor’s training, that’s been different,” McDermott said. “He’s been lifting with Jeremy [Anderson] four days a week versus two like the rest of the guys. It’s all scout team stuff. He’s not really been held accountable to learn our offense because, as Fedor said, we didn’t think this day was coming this year … His teammates, when I told them today, they were incredibly excited for him. They know it’s been a long, drawn-out process for him and frustrating when you’re half a world away from your family and you’re dealing with bad news after bad news after bad news. It was good to see him smile today.”
Creighton doesn’t play again until Dec. 31, when St. John’s visits Omaha. The break includes a chance for players to return home for Christmas, but Žugić will still have plenty of time to get more accustomed with playing with his teammates and running Creighton’s stuff.
“Now we’ve got to ramp it up and try to catch him up and get him in game shape,” McDermott said. “Fortunately, we have the 10-day break where he’s going to be able to do some conditioning and get in shape. We play a couple of games, and then we have another eight-day break where we have four or five practices where hopefully we can catch him up and he can be an important contributor and rotational guy for us, because he can handle it, he can pass it, he can shoot it. He’s just got to learn what the heck’s going on, and that’s going to going to take a little time.”
