Creighton men’s basketball got a little more than it bargained for in its final exhibition, but the Jays found a way to pull out an 89-86 double-overtime win over Minnesota at CHI Health Center Omaha Friday night.
The Bluejays raced out to an 11-0 lead to start the game and extended the advantage to 18 early in the second half, but the offense dried up and the Golden Gophers mounted a comeback, taking their first lead of the game with 1:18 to play.
Eight ties and three more lead changes followed as the game needed a second overtime to determine a winner, but the Bluejays eventually proved victorious, creating just enough separation to hold on at the end.
“It’s clear why you play exhibition games,” Coach Alan Huss said. “We had an opportunity tonight to show where we were, and we weren’t able to capitalize on that opportunity. Obviously, Minnesota has a lot to do with that, but you’re talking about a team that loses its point guard at half, is down double digits. They dug deeper, shared the ball, did what they did with their process. We really deviated from our process, and that part of it’s disappointing because I think this is a group that has really worked to share the basketball in practice, and we got loose with it within our motion offense.
“And then the second piece of it is just every 50/50 basketball in the second half, every long rebound, every toughness play until the last stretch in overtime that was kind of the deciding part of the game really went Minnesota’s way in the second half.
“For that, I’m disappointed, but I’m also encouraged that we had the opportunity to feel that emotion right now. We’ve got a locker room that’s pretty down because we’re committed to process, and even though we found a way to win the exhibition game, we understand we’ve got a long ways to go.”
Jasen Green was in uniform and warmed up but did not get in the game. Huss said he’s day-to-day with a leg issue and could have played if the game had counted, but they wanted to give him a chance to heal fully before the season-opener.
Fredrick King, on the other hand, made his re-debut in blue after receiving an injunction to play last Friday. He converted an and-one put-back and logged six minutes. In total, 11 Bluejays saw the floor and all 11 scored.
Here are three takeaways from the exhibition finale.
Failing to Meet the Standard
Creighton went 2-0 against other high-major teams in its public exhibitions. In both games, the Bluejays built big leads, and in both games, they let the opponent back into the game and had to execute late to pull out a win. The Iowa State and Minnesota games provided a lot of teaching tape for the Jays, as well as some proof of concept for what the staff has been preaching.
“We were up 19 last game, we were up 18 this game, and we deviated from process both times,” Huss said. “It’s a great lesson. It’s a great lesson of what we’re capable of. It’s also a great lesson of just how small the margin for error in college basketball is. When you deviate from process, and you decide that being tough isn’t our number one objective defensively, and being unselfish isn’t our number one objective defensively, then leads evaporate quickly.
Creighton Bluejays huddle during an exhibition game against Minnesota. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
“I think it’s one thing for coaches to say that in practice, but I think the true value in both of these exhibition games is we’ve now been gut punched in both of these games, and we had a chance to throw knockout punches in both cases, and weren’t capable. It’s a great teaching moment for us to be able to say, ‘All right, this is how small the margin for error is. You can be an elite team, and you can be a really poor team, and the difference is just those two things.’”
Creighton gave up 15 offensive rebounds, including a handful on free-throw block-outs. The Jays also recorded just 12 assists in 50 minutes of action, and when the Gophers made their run, Creighton’s shot quality dropped rather than sticking with the game plan. The Bluejays didn’t do a good enough job of following and executing the scout, according to Austin Swartz, and a lot of that comes down to toughness and the willingness to do the hard things.
BJ Davis said Creighton’s approach under the process-oriented Huss is chasing a championship in the way they attack every day, be it practice or a game. Friday night certainly didn’t look like championship basketball for the last 10 minutes of regulation.
“Everything is held to that standard, and it gets repetitive, but that’s what’s necessary to accomplish your goals,” Davis said. “I think we all have to lean into that more and be willing to make sacrifices for that, for the greater cause. That’s our mindset, and going forward, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Whether it be Swartz and Davis in the press conference or Wes Enis speaking with Ana Bellinghausen after the game, the Bluejays were all in lock step with the head coach’s message — and the whole locker room was on the same page before Huss even set foot inside after the final buzzer.
“It’s encouraging that they’re recognizing the lesson,” Huss said. “I purposely went off to the side, back into the coach’s locker room to let those guys have a few moments. I wanted to see what kind of energy there was in the locker room, and I was genuinely pleased that there was not a bunch of grab-ass happening in the in the locker room where everybody’s celebrating. There was a genuine tone to the locker room that was very clear, and it was that we had not lived up to our standard. Of anything tonight, that’s what I’m most pleased with.”
Finding Answers When Things Get Tough
Against Iowa State, Creighton shot the lights out — 14-for-29 — from 3-point range to cover up the team’s shortcomings in other areas. Huss said at the time that wasn’t a formula for success.
Against the Golden Gophers, the Jays hit another 10 triples, but it took them 38 attempts to get there, a 26.3% clip. That included a 1-for-13 performance in the second half as the Gophers mounted their comeback.
Huss said Minnesota played a lot of drop coverage, a very different approach than what the Jays are practicing against in their own gym now. Where Creighton is used to having to deal with traps and hedges and trying to play the numbers game from there, Minnesota’s soft drop gave the ball-handlers pause as their ball screen actions didn’t generate many clean driving lanes or draw many double-teams.
“It really fractured our timing and our spacing offensively, and we ended up playing a lot of one-on-one basketball,” Huss said. “I think it’s more like where do we turn to pull a trigger in that situation? Because for us, we’ve got to get two to the ball. The one thing our team doesn’t have is a 6-5, 6-6 dude that you just throw it to on the wing say, ‘Go get me a bucket.’ We have to play together. We have to pull triggers. We have to get two to the ball … It’s a great lesson to our guys that there’s a lot of really good things we do; playing one-on-one basketball is not amongst them.”
Half of Creighton’s shot attempts came from the 3-point line. The Jays shot 19-for-38 on 2-pointers, including a 12-for-18 mark on layups and dunks. That manes they shot 7-for-20 on all other 2-point attempts. Creighton took a lot of tough jump shots when Minnesota made its run.
“I think we settled a little bit, but also just moving the ball around a little bit more,” Swartz said. “It stuck a little bit, especially in that second half. We’re running a motion offense, and no one’s coming out of the corner. Sometimes we get stuck in the top. So whatever it is, we just have to have bodies moving, making plays, whether it’s for yourself or for somebody else. So just doing a better job of whoever needs to pull the action and make the action happen, just making it happen a little bit faster.”
Swartz was the biggest bright spot from the first half, pouring in 14 of his 18 points after scoring 15 points and hitting the dagger against Iowa State. The junior shot 4-for-10 from deep (meaning everyone else was 6-for-28) and used his strong frame to create a couple of buckets at the rim as well.
Swartz getting buckets is nothing new. He proved he can do that last year after leading the team in scoring during conference play. However, his effort and execution on the other end was sorely lacking. On Friday, there looked to be noticeable improvement. He recorded three steals and also came up big at the end of overtime, sliding over in help and remaining vertical to force a miss at the buzzer.
After a strong shooting debut against the Cyclones, Wes Enis had a much tougher time against the Gophers. He led the team with 20 points (all after halftime) but did so on 5-for-21 shooting, including 2-for-11 from 3. He was one of the primary culprits behind the high volume of difficult or contested jumpers. However, when the team needed a bucket late, Huss called his number.
Wes Enis (2) celebrates a 3-pointer against Minnesota. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Nolan Groves split a pair of bonus free throws to give Minnesota a 76-73 lead with 20.6 to go in overtime. Niko Medved called a timeout to discuss his team’s defensive strategy, and out of the break Huss put the ball in Enis’ hands. He brought it up the floor, passed to Katrelle Harmon on the wing and ran off a flare screen from Oswin Erhunmwunse. Harmon hit him and Enis let it fly, swishing the triple to tie the game with 14.1 to go.
“As is evidenced by the fact he shot 21 times tonight, he’s got a giant set of guts on him, and is never afraid of the moment, no matter what’s going on,” Huss said. “When we recruited him, we knew that is he going to sometimes take a tough one? Yes. But is he ever going to take a playoff defensively? No. And is he ever going to be afraid of the moment? Absolutely not. I had zero doubt that he was going to get a great look. He was going to rise up. He wanted it, he wanted to shoot it, and you saw the result.”
Davis was the other Bluejay in double figures, matching Swartz with 18 points. However, 11 of those points came in the two overtime periods, matching the total he scored in regulation between Iowa State and Minnesota.
Davis shot 4-for-5 in the overtimes with a mid-range turn-around jumper, a 3-pointer and a pair of layups. He also went 2-for-2 at the line with less than five seconds to go in the game to push the lead to three.
Davis went 7-for-19 from the field and 1-for-6 from 3 in the two exhibitions, but Huss isn’t worried — especially considering he also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and dished out three assists without a turnover in 37 minutes against the Gophers.
“I thought BJ really stayed the course offensively … He hasn’t shot the ball well in two exhibition games, but he’s an elite shooter,” Huss said. “He’s led us in pretty much every category throughout the summer and the fall months, so he’s a guy that can really shoot it. I think he shot 38% last year. He’s really worked on his off-the-dribble 3s, and so that’s a shot that he’s going to be comfortable with him taking.
“I just think he got a little bit snakebit there, trying to figure out where the spots were, and then his calf was cramping a little bit, and I think he was maybe just not as aggressive as he could have been through that.”
A New Defensive Identity
Huss has somewhat downplayed the overhaul in defensive philosophy throughout the preseason, but it was apparent against the Gophers.
Early in the first half, Creighton’s defense was boom or bust. More often than not, the possession ended in either a Bluejay takeaway or a defensive breakdown. The Golden Gophers shot north of 50% from the field well into the game.
However, they seemed to settle in down the stretch and busted out the clamps for the last five minutes. The Golden Gophers made just one of their last 10 shots and didn’t convert a field goal in the last 2:45. King put an exclamation point on the performance by swatting a Minnesota layup with a few seconds remaining to maintain a 13-point advantage at the half.
In all, the Jays forced 11 turnovers — seven of them steals — leading to 10 points the other way in the first 20 minutes. The highlight of the half was a stretch of three consecutive steals from Erhunmwunse, denying the high-post entry and taking the ball away. On the third one, he took it up himself on the other end for a short push shot. Davis credited plays like that for sparking the overall team defense.
“I think our bigs did a good job in the first half of pressuring their bigs,” Davis said. “We got a couple easy baskets off that, and I just feel like that kind of gave us some momentum in the first half.”
Creighton is more aggressive in ball screen coverages too, as opposed to the drop coverage fans had become used to seeing over the previous five years. Add that to the baseline traps, and it has to be a bit of a shock for Bluejay fans watching them operate.
Minnesota settled down and took better care of the ball in the second half, but the Jays turned it up again in the overtimes to force five more turnovers, finishing with 20 in all after managing just half that against Iowa State.
There were far too many possessions where the Jays had no help side defense, got beat on slips or gave up open 3s to Minnesota’s best shooters off flare screens, but Friday looked to be a step in the right direction as far as this team playing the way Huss wants on the defensive end.
