This season for Creighton basketball will largely go as Trey Alexander goes. The junior guard has a lot on his plate — he’s the team’s best playmaker, off-the-dribble scorer and perimeter defender.
His efficiency has been up and down this season, but Alexander has stacked three of his better halves of the year back-to-back-to-back, and the 22nd-ranked Bluejays (11-4) have won their last two games as a result.
The first of those halves was an 18-point explosion against Georgetown, part of his season-high 25 points, but it came against a team ranked 274th in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom. Best not to get too excited about what we saw in that game.
The last two halves are a different story. Alexander put up 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting including 2-of-3 from deep with five assists in Creighton’s 69-60 win against then-No. 23 Providence. The Friars have the fourth-ranked defense in the country led by one of the nation’s best defensive guards in Devin Carter, who has evolved into Providence’s leading scorer this season as well.
Saturday saw two of the best guards in the Big East go head-to-head, and although Carter ended up with a game-high 25 points, it was Alexander who got the better of the matchup. Let’s dive into the tape, focusing on the plays involving both of them.
Alexander went to work early, scoring his first bucket on Creighton’s second offensive play. Baylor Scheierman missed a contested shot inside but grabbed his own rebound and Carter doubled down on him, leaving Alexander open.
Scheierman kicked it out and Carter tried to recover, but Alexander attacked his closeout, got into the lane and dropped in a floater. Smart play from Alexander to take advantage of Carter’s aggressiveness.
Nearly a third of Alexander’s scoring possessions this season have been pick-and-rolls. His second bucket of the game showed why.
Alexander is very methodical in his approach to running the pick-and-roll. Here, he called for the ball screen from Fredrick King, but Carter quickly jumped underneath to cut off his path. Alexander crossed back over as King re-screened, forcing Carter to chase over the top. Alexander got downhill off the screen and put Carter in jail — the phrase used to describe a ball-handler keeping the defender on his back or hip to prevent him from getting back between the ball-handler and the basket. Alexander got to his spot and faded away for the short jumper.
This next play wasn’t necessarily directly on Carter, but I’m including it because it was a milestone bucket for Alexander. Creighton forced a turnover, triggering a three-on-two break for the Jays.
Carter was focused on Scheierman bringing the ball up while Alexander ran to the wing, and Scheierman hit him for the catch-and-shoot 3 before Carter could get there to contest. The trey pushed him past 1,000 career points.
This next play started with Carter on Alexander and ended with the Bluejay shooting over a Carter contest, but it included some pretty heady play from Alexander in between. It starts with another pick-and-roll.
Providence was playing drop coverage with Rafael Castro hanging back in the paint while Kalkbrenner set the screen. Alexander got downhill with Carter chasing him, and Castro stepped to Alexander, triggering a switch. Alexander pulled it out then swung it to Francisco Farabello to look at Kalkbrenner with Carter on him. Farabello didn’t see a passing angle, however, and quickly passed it back to Alexander to attack the other mismatch. A subtle head fake got Castro to lunge and Alexander stepped past him, tossing up a floater as Carter attempted to slide over in help.
Alexander isn’t just a scorer, however. These next two plays were brilliant passing reads for assists.
The first is another pick-and-roll, and another screen and re-screen — on the very next play after Alexander’s floater.
On the previous play, Castro stepped to Alexander in the drop, and he did so on this one as well. Whereas on the previous play Ticket Gaines was tagging off the corner and Carter had switched quickly enough to take away the lob pass, on the second Corey Floyd Jr. was in no-man’s land on the weak side. Alexander threw it up over the 6-foot-3 Carter to let his 7-foot-1 center go get it for the redirect bucket.
This next play saw Alexander take advantage of Carter’s help defense rather than making a play against him as the primary defender. With Gaines guarding him, Alexander got downhill off a handoff and attacked the baseline.
Carter saw that Alexander had a step on Gaines and helped off Scheierman in the corner, cutting off the dribbler’s path, but Alexander recognized it and made a great play, diving out of bounds to deliver the pass to Scheierman for the corner 3 as Garwey Dual’s rotation came to late.
Back to scoring for this next play, and it started with Alexander off the ball. Carter initially denied the pass to him, so Isaac Traudt passed to Steven Ashworth instead.
Alexander initially started retreating, setting Carter up as Kalkbrenner got into position for a screen. Alexander used the screen to create separation, found a gap in the defense with Oduro in drop and rose up for another mid-range jumper.
Alexander’s last bucket was a huge one. After Carter hit a beak-adjacent 3 on Alexander to pull the Friars within one, Creighton put the ball in Alexander’s hands. They ran the same action we’ve seen a couple times already — a pick-and-roll with a re-screen.
Carter went under the first screen, then went under the second as well, so Alexander rose up and buried a 3 over a late contest. He then let Carter hear about it heading back up the court. Though Ashworth’s dagger got plenty of attention, this was probably the biggest shot of the game from Creighton. It was a good read from Alexander and a great shot.
The 3-ball falling for him has been a big part of his success the last two games — he’s 5-of-8 from deep over his last two after shooting 27.9% in Creighton’s first 13 games. To have the confidence to rise up and hit that shot in that moment is huge for Creighton and for Alexander.
Additionally, Alexander’s 21 points and five assists only tell part of the story as Carter wasn’t the only two-way difference-making guard in the game. The best defenders prevent a shot from even going up, and most of Carter’s points came with somebody besides Alexander on him or as the result of team breakdowns where it’s hard to assign blame with the tape alone.
Carter got the better of him a few times, but here are a few examples of Alexander’s strong defense in forcing Carter into tough shots.
The second clip was on the play after Alexander’s pull-up 3 (and subsequent trash talk). So he answered Carter’s 3 with one of his own then defended him well and seemingly baited him into a tough shot. That stretch is where Creighton won the game, and Alexander made plays on both ends to spark the mini-run to stretch the lead back out.
The Providence game was one of Alexander’s best of the season, especially considering who he was matching up with. He scored in a variety of ways with more than half his total coming with Carter on him.
As Trey Alexander goes, so goes Creighton. When he plays like he did against the Friars, the Bluejays will be tough to beat.
