Creighton men’s basketball suffered a big blow on Friday with the news of Pop Isaacs’ impending season-ending surgery, but the Jays bounced back on Saturday to hand UNLV payback for last season’s loss in Henderson.
Five Bluejays scored in double figures as Creighton ran by the Rebels for an 83-65 win. Mason Miller slid into the starting five in Isaacs’ place and Creighton got 33 points off its bench. The Bluejays (7-3) have now won three straight after losing three in a row in late November.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Eleven Minutes of Domination
Coming out of the under-8 timeout in the first half, Creighton trailed 22-21. Up to that point, the Runnin’ Rebels were 9-of-15 from the field (2-of-4 from 3) and 2-of-4 from the foul line with two turnovers.
I’m not sure what Coach Greg McDermott said to his team during that timeout, but the game completely flipped when play resumed. The Bluejays closed the half on an 18-5 run then scored the first 10 points of the second half as well. The 28-5 run spanning just under 11 minutes of game time turned the one-point deficit into a 22-point lead.
The biggest difference was Creighton’s defensive execution — and UNLV’s inability to make shots. During the run, the Rebels shot 2-of-18 from the field, misfiring on all seven 3-point attempts and only earning one trip to the line, splitting the shots.
“Just making some adjustments on the defensive end, talking a little more, and I think we just had a little bit of grit tonight to play some defense,” Jamiya Neal said. “Everybody was like ‘OK, I’m going to guard my yard and guard my man.’ When we take that approach and we lock in and we play as a team and we guard our man and we help each other out, we look good on defense.”
The Bluejays struggled a bit with ball security during the stretch, but when they got a shot up it usually went in. They went 9-for-13, including 4-for-6 from 3, and 6-for-6 from the line during the run.
The Runnin’ Rebels finally found their offense again in the second half, but it didn’t matter as the Bluejays just kept scoring. They hit 10 straight shots at one point as the lead peaked at 23 a couple times. Ten second-half turnovers prevented the game from becoming a total blowout, but Creighton shot 19-of-26 from the field after halftime.
“Until the end … I thought our ball security was better,” McDermott said of the Isaacs-less offense. “I thought we moved it. We had a good balance of inside and out. They came with the doubles, [Ryan Kalkbrenner] made some good decisions out of there and Isaac [Traudt] and Jasen [Green] made them pay. It was good. I’ve got to evaluate it on film, but we shot 73% in the second half; we’ve just got to get a few more shots. It’s a hard way to live when they’re shooting 64 shots and you shoot 49 because you turn it over so much. We kept them off the free-throw line, we owned the glass, and those are critical components for us.”
The Bluejays finished at 63.3% shooting for the game including 10-of-20 from 3 and 11-of-12 from the free-throw line, but they turned the ball over 16 times, leading to 18 points on the other end, and gave up 12 second-chance points on just eight offensive rebounds.
Next Man Up
Isaacs was second on the team in scoring (16.3 points per game), assists (3.9 per game) and 3-pointers (2.9 per game on a 38.3% clip). That’s a lot of production the Jays will have to replace moving forward.
Steven Ashworth was already shouldering a heavy load (15.8 points, 5.6 assists and 3.4 3-pointers per game) while playing on a bad ankle. Asking even more of him while teams undoubtedly circle him near the top of the scouting report would be a bit much. For the team to be successful without Isaacs, it will fall on Jamiya Neal to pick up much of the playmaking slack.
On Saturday, the Arizona State transfer did something no other high-major player has done in regulation since 2005-06. He put up 19 points, nine rebounds, nine assists and four blocks — all team-highs. He shot 7-of-10 from the field and 5-of-6 from the foul line and added a steal in 37 minutes.
Foul trouble limited Neal to four points, four rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes against No. 1 Kansas on Wednesday, but he put up a career-high 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists in the win over Notre Dame last week when the flu limited Isaacs’ playing time and effectiveness and Kalkbrenner missed the game entirely.
“It’s huge,” McDermott said of Neal’s recent play. “We’d be dead without him. That’s just a reality. Defensively he gives us some versatility to guard some different guys, and then he fits well in our transition game. He got to the rim today and showed some patience when he got to the rim, which is something he hadn’t done very consistently, and the fact that he finished a lot of plays, I think, is going to be great for him as well.”
Neal’s nine assists on Saturday led to 22 points from five different teammates, creating four 3-pointers, four layups and a dunk. Most of his assists came on plays where he didn’t have the ball in his hands for long as he made quick reads and got the ball right where it needed to go.
Ashworth added 16 points on 6-of-10 from the field (3-of-7 from 3) and 2-of-2 from the line, seven assists and four rebounds in 34 minutes. His role shifts somewhat without Isaacs alongside him in the backcourt, but Ashworth said Neal’s dynamism in transition is something he’s focusing on maximizing.
“I’m a little bit more involved with some of the different actions that we were running today with the capability of being on and off the ball, and really just trying to find Jamiya early in transition because he’s so lethal at that,” Ashworth said. “He was able to get out and run and make plays for us early on, and then when he does that, it’s amazing how the defense responds to him any time he gets to the paint, and then he was able to kick out and find shooters and find Kalk. It was definitely different, but it still felt really, really natural, and that’s the blessing of having really talented teammates all around.”
Neal scored 11 of his points via transition with two dunks, an and-one layup and two more trips to the foul line. He added two mid-range pull-ups and an interior bucket in isolation and also attacked the rim out of a spot-up catch for another bucket.
All four of Neal’s blocks were on the ball; he swatted his own man in the halfcourt twice and erased two transition layups off Creighton turnovers by retreating and protecting the rim. He even beat Kalkbrenner, who also elevated on the play, to one of those blocks. Eight of his nine rebounds came on the defensive end as well.
He did turn the ball over four times, but three of them came late after the Jays already had the game well in hand.
“Sometimes Jamiya needs to rein it in just a little bit,” McDermott said. “There’s some crazy stuff that he does, but that’s what makes him who he is, too. You don’t want to take that out of his game, because as Steven said, he’s really electric in transition. He’s got a lot of different finishes in transition. He’s so fast and so explosive that he can get to the rim and draw help and then find some teammates as well. We have to find a balance of when that is to our advantage and when it puts him in a terrible situation.
“He’s learning a new system as well and, as we’ve said in the past, if you look back at our guys who have transferred in here, it’s taken time to get adjusted to the system. Some of the games he’s had this last week when we really needed him, those are big-time games for a guy that’s new to our program.”
Homegrown Hoopers Get Hot
It’s no surprise to see Ashworth, Neal and Kalkbrenner (12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and six rebounds in 26 minutes) score in double figures, but the reason Creighton won so handily is the bench, and more specifically, the two Nebraska natives.
Freshman Jackson McAndrew, who has started the last five games, injured his ankle less than five minutes into the game and didn’t play the rest of the first half. He eventually returned but only logged 11 total minutes and scored two points.
Traudt, the 6-foot-10 sophomore from Grand Island, stepped up with his best performance of the season. He tied his career high with five made 3s on seven attempts, scoring 15 points and grabbing five rebounds in a career-high 28 minutes. He hit two 3s off movement, two with his feet set and one off the dribble, and some of them came at critical junctures in the game. He also recorded one assist, swinging the ball to his former AAU teammate in Green for a wing 3.
Green, the 6-foot-8 Millard North product, made a significant impact as well. He scored a career-high 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including a pair of 3s. Green had only converted one of his five attempts from the arc heading into the game but showed no hesitation when the ball swung to him on the perimeter. The Jays also got him the ball inside, twice in the post and once in transition. He added four rebounds and an assist that saw him hit the deck to secure a loose ball before dishing it off to Neal for his and-one.
Green’s offensive performance against UNLV followed strong defensive contributions down the stretch against Kansas as McDermott went with him for the final 7:34 of the game as a defensive spark after he didn’t play in the first half.
“From a mentality standpoint and the confidence that seeing Isaac drill shots, Jasen make plays and drill shots, it gives the point guard in me confidence that ‘OK, we’ve got guys that are feeling it; if Jamiya and I are able to find them in the pick-and-roll, they’re going to be able to make plays,’” Ashworth said. “It was huge to have them step up in the way that they did, not only for them but for the entire team, because we celebrate everybody’s victories together and it was a lot of fun to see them be successful.”
The coaches raved about the work Traudt and Green put in on their bodies and their games during the offseason, but the improvement they spoke of hadn’t revealed itself in live action just yet. Saturday was big from that standpoint.
“The proof’s in the pudding, and the proof’s in the work, and those guys have been consistent with their work,” McDermott said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys who are in there every day getting extra work and working after practice or before practice to try to get better. They were both in new roles. Jasen started some and I didn’t really like how it was going. Isaac started some and I didn’t think he was terribly comfortable in that role. So we went with Jackson, and then today I really liked the way we ended the half, so we rolled with it the second half.
“I think a game like today gives them confidence that I can play in big moments when my team really needs me and just relax. Every time you have a game like that, it makes the next game that much easier, but you’ve got to get to that point first where you can perform like that. Today was very encouraging and they’re going to be really motivated this week to keep doing what they’re doing, because it’s paying off.”
With Isaacs’ 3-point shooting and rebounding out of the lineup, Creighton will need more from Traudt and Green in those areas moving forward. Perhaps Saturday was a big step in the right direction after a slow start to the season for both.
