No. 12 Creighton closed out nonconference play with a bang on Saturday night, bouncing back from a loss to UNLV in Henderson, Nevada, to take down Alabama in Omaha.
After the 85-82 win, Coach Greg McDermott called it a big win, both because of the respect he has for the Alabama program and because of the circumstances it included, mainly center Ryan Kalkbrenner missing most of the first half with an injury before returning to gut it out in the second half and lead the Jays to a win on a night when they weren’t shooting it well from 3.
“I thought Alabama was really a critical game for us to finish that off,” McDermott said. “They’re going to be a really good team, they’re going to win a lot of games in the SEC. They played a very difficult schedule; not many people do Purdue, Creighton and Arizona in the same week in December, and that’s what they’re about to embark on. I think it’s prepared us for things we’re going to see in the Big East.”
Veteran Baylor Scheierman echoed McDermott’s assessment, calling the win important if the Jays want to accomplish their goals.
“For every great team, especially to do things we want to do, especially later in the season, you have to be able to win games in different ways,” Scheierman said. “I don’t think we shot the ball necessarily great against Alabama and we were still able to come up with the victory. So that’s important for us, especially for down the road.”
Though Alabama is only 6-4, its sitting at No. 9 in KenPom — one spot ahead of Creighton. The Crimson Tide boast the best offense in the country and the four losses are all against top-30 teams. Alabama is the best win on Creighton’s résumé, with Nebraska on the road and Iowa at home also in the mix as top-50ish teams. The Bluejays head into Big East play at 9-2 and No. 9 in the NET.
“They’re all big games now,” McDermott said. “So you kind of wipe your nonconference schedule away and you hope you’ve done enough. Obviously our KenPom numbers, our NET is really good after the nonconference schedule and that’s where you hope to be. Obviously we stubbed our toe a few times, but we had two teams play really well against us on those nights when we didn’t have our a game.”
It’s all Big East from here on out, starting with Villanova in Omaha on Wednesday night. Creighton’s league is the fourth-ranked conference on KenPom but boasts three top-10 teams in No. 3 UConn and No. 6 Marquette in addition to the Bluejays.
“Now you see teams that know you inside and out,” McDermott said. “They know your personnel, they know your trick plays, you can’t get away with those as much, but you know them inside and out as well. So it’s who’s got the will to do it for 40 minutes, and that’s what we’ll find out on Wednesday.”
Villanova (7-4) heads into Wednesday night as the fourth-ranked team in the Big East according to Kenpom at No. 31 — 31st in adjusted offensive efficiency and 39th in adjusted defensive efficiency. They are third in the country in 3-point rate despite coming in at 215th in percentage (32.1%).
“Their metrics are really good,” McDermott said. “They’re a top 40 offensive and defensive team. People think we shoot a lot of 3s, they shoot more 3s than we do per their total shot count. So over 51%, I think, of their shots are 3-point shots. When they haven’t shot it, well, they’ve struggled; when they’ve shot it well, they have a 25-point lead against Memphis, they beat North Carolina, beat UCLA. So we have to get to the 3-point shooters but you also have to defend the rim. That sounds easy, but they grind you every possession. We’re going to defend for 25 seconds most every possession. They really try to control tempo, especially in this building, so we anticipate that as well.”
Villanova has three losses to other teams from Philadelphia (at Penn by four, to St. Joe’s by 13 and against Drexel by two at Wells Fargo Center) in addition to an overtime loss at Kansas State. But the Wildcats also have wins over Maryland, Texas Tech, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA.
Scheierman saw Villanova three times in his first season with the Bluejays a year ago, struggling a bit in the first two but falling one assist shy of a triple-double against the Wildcats in the Big East Tournament.
“It’s Villanova, so you know what to expect — a lot of bully-ball, shot fakes,” Scheierman said. “They’re tough on defense; they like to switch a lot of ball screens one through five. So obviously playing them last year, I kind of know what to expect.”
Villanova last played on Dec. 9, when it pulled off a 65-56 win at home without second-leading scorer Justin Moore. The 6-foot-4 senior is averaging 13.3 points but missed the game with a knee injury and remains day-to-day, though signs seem to point to him missing the game again on Wednesday.
“They’re going to be well rested,” McDermott said. “Will Justin Moore be back? That’s a question nobody really can answer. Obviously he’s really, really good, so if he plays it certainly changes. But across the board, they’ve got a lot of guys 6-3 to 6-6 that are physical guards with length and strength. They pound it on the offensive glass. It’s hard to get offensive rebounds. They don’t foul a lot. You really have to earn your baskets against Villanova because they’re not going to give you any.
“I’ve said it many times, when you played Villanova, it didn’t matter whether Jay [Wright] was coaching the team or Kyle [Neptune], you have to beat them because they’re not they’re not going to beat themselves. They just don’t do that.”
Senior big man Eric Dixon is leading the team in scoring (13.6 per game) and rebounding (7.0 per game) while shooting 36.1% on 3.3 3-point attempts per game. Transfers Tyler Burton (Richmond), TJ Bamba (Washington State) and Hakim Hart (Maryland) are all significant contributors, while junior guard Jordan Longino will likely step into the starting lineup again if Moore remains out.
Creighton has its own health situation to deal with. The ankle injury that knocked Kalkbrenner out in the first half “still isn’t great,” according to McDermott on Monday.
“I didn’t see the replay until late Saturday night,” McDermott said. “I mean, he really rolled that thing over. For him to come back the way it still looks today is really pretty amazing, that he was able to accomplish and be as effective as he was, but we’ll hold them out today and give it another day.”
One of the players who stepped up in Kalkbrenner’s absence to keep the Jays afloat is Trey Alexander, who had been mired in a shooting slump over the previous handful of games but found his rhythm from mid-range and put up a game-high 22 points on 8-of-15 from the field and 6-of-8 from the foul line against the Crimson Tide.
“He brings so much more than just scoring and he was definitely really hard on himself during that stretch where he wasn’t shooting the ball well,” Scheierman said. “But I felt like Saturday, he did a great job of just kind of letting the game come to him, really moving without the ball well, which kind of opened up some lanes for him to get some easier shots. Obviously, he’s a terrific player and when he’s playing like that, it’s definitely needed for us.”
Fans attending the game should plan to arrive early as Creighton will be retiring Doug McDermott’s No. 3 jersey prior to tipoff. The ceremony is slated for 7:40 p.m. CT with tipoff to follow at 8:10 p.m. on FS1 with Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery on the call.
