A nine-day break coming off a loss is never ideal for a team wanting to get back on the court as soon as possible, but that’s the situation No. 22 Creighton finds itself in, and the Jays have made the most of it.
After a few days off to celebrate the holidays with their families, the Jays returned to the practice court earlier this week ready to work.
“A break every now and then is pretty good,” Francisco Farabello said. “It gives us time to prepare for Marquette, a really good team that won the regular season and the conference tournament last year. They got like, what, 90, 95% of their roster back? So they’re a good team and we’re lucky we got this time to prepare.”
Farabello said one of the major areas of focus coming out of the loss to Villanova was ball security. The Bluejays turned it over a season-high 16 times against a team that is only middle-of-the-pack in forcing turnovers. On Saturday, Creighton will face one of the best in that category as No. 10 Marquette is ranked 12th in opponent turnover rate.
“Their anticipation skills are off the charts and they have they have a lot of length,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “[Oso] Ighodaro, he’s an elite shot-blocker and protects the rim back there so it’s hard to get easy stuff there. But one through three especially, they’re kind of interchangeable, so they can switch a lot of things and not really get themselves into a bad matchup because of their ability to switch and stay in front. So you’ve just got to be careful. Passes on the move and passes that are 50/50 passes, against Marquette they’re probably going the other way, so we have to be really disciplined with our decisions.”
Marquette (10-3, 1-1 Big East) is 13th in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom, and the Golden Eagles are also 27th in adjusted offensive efficiency. They’re top-50 nationally in effective field goal percentage (including 15th in 20-point percentage at 58%) and turnover rate with reigning Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek leading the way.
“In my evaluation, I think they have, if not the best passing point guard in the country, he’s certainly in the conversation,” McDermott said. “And I know they have the best passing center in the country in Ighodaro. So when you put those two together it’s a problem because they just don’t make mistakes with the basketball. Whatever defensive scheme you try to come up with to try to slow down their flow and their pace, they have two of the best in the country that are their decision-makers.”
Saturday will be a test of strength on strength. Creighton (9-3, 0-1 Big East) is one of the best in the country at forcing teams to take mid-range jumpers with its drop defense featuring two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner waiting at the rim and perimeter players trained to chase shooters off the arc. Meanwhile, Marquette has attempted just nine 2-point jump shots all season according to Synergy Sports (making one), with hook shots and runners making up the majority of their non-rim 2s (they’re very effective at both).
“It’s tricky because they take less mid-range shots — they’ll take some in the lane, some floaters maybe, but in terms of 2-point shots outside the paint, they are as hard a team in the country to get them to take those shots, and that’s what our defense is designed to do,” McDermott said. “So our ability to try to protect the rim a little bit better than we did when we played them last year is going to be critical and then understanding personnel, like who can you not give a 3-point shot to and then who are the guys that maybe you could live with?”
Marquette went 2-0 against Creighton last year, though the first match-up was without Kalkbrenner. The second went down to the wire as Creighton dug a 10-point hole largely thanks to turnovers before climbing back into the game and coming up just short at the end.
“Now we’re going to be going into a hornet’s nest on Saturday,” McDermott said. “Marquette’s one of the teams in the country that I think has a chance to win a national championship.”
Kolek has taken another step forward this season as a scorer and is leading Marquette at 15.3 points per game while shooting 54.1% from the field including 43.5% from 3. He’s also leading the Big East at 6.2 assists per game.
“I think he’s patient,” Farabello said. “Nobody’s speeds him up. His pace, he’s really good at using his body … Really good pick-and-roll player, really good at getting his teammates involved, but he’s also really good at getting to the hoop. So hopefully force him to the mid-range. I think they take like one or two mid-ranges per game, so force him in that area and see what happens.”
Kameron Jones isn’t far behind Kolek at 14.9 points per game while shooting 39.2% from deep. Ighodaro is putting up 13.5 points per game on 63.5% shooting, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. Stevie Mitchell, a 6-foot-2 junior guard averaging 5.8 points per game, will likely return to the lineup after missing Marquette’s last four games with an injury.
While Marquette boasts an effective and disruptive team defense, the Golden Eagles are a little undersized with a starting front line of Ighodaro (6-foot-11, 235 pounds) and David Joplin (6-foot-8, 225 pounds), plus sophomore Ben Gold (6-foot-11, 245 pounds) coming off the bench. Getting the ball inside to the 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner could be an area of emphasis heading into Saturday and beyond.
Kalkbrenner’s post-up frequency has dropped from 36.9% of his possessions a year ago to 28.3% this year.
“We’ve got to get it there,” McDermott said. “Now understand this too, teams are doing a pretty good job trying to keep it out of there. They know that we want to go there as well. So he’s got to work a little harder to get it, and we have to make sure that we don’t miss him.”
Tipoff on Saturday at Fiserv Forum is set for 1 p.m. CT on CBS with John Sadak and Bill Raftery on the call.
