The Creighton men’s basketball team opened Big East play with arguably its best performance of the season on Wednesday, a 98-57 win at Xavier.
The blowout comes on the heels of a 2-4 stretch for the Bluejays (now 6-5) that included dramatic rotation and role changes as Coach Greg McDermott seemingly pushed every button he could find looking to get the team back on track. For perhaps the first sustained stretch all season, the Bluejays played Creighton basketball, resulting in 31 assists, 16 made 3-pointers and a lot of disruption on defense.
“It was good to see,” Coach Greg McDermott told Hurrdat Sports. “Obviously, it’s hard to do on the road, especially in that building, but I was proud of the way we performed on both ends of the court. But it’s one game; we’ve got to stack days. We’ve played 60 pretty good minutes of basketball, starting with the second half of Kansas State, and we’ve got to continue to build on that.”
The star of the show in Cincinnati was sophomore guard Austin Swartz, who went off for a career-high 27 points. He was the primary beneficiary of the improved ball movement against the Musketeers and has emerged as a consistent scoring threat for the Bluejays, scoring in double figures in each of his last four while averaging 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 64.3% inside the arc and 42.1% from 3 (on .9.5 attempts per game).
“He makes some good decisions with the basketball,” McDermott said. “He can pass it. Defensively, he’s a work in progress, but he’s getting better. But obviously he’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. Guys did a really good job, once he got that hot hand, of finding opportunities to get him open and created a few shots for him.”
McDermott stuck with the same starting lineup — Ty Davis, Swartz, Josh Dix, Isaac Traudt and Jasen Green — against the Musketeers that he debuted against Kansas State. Over the past three games, that group has shared the court for roughly 24 minutes of game time and is plus-11.
The second-most effective group since the starting lineup change featured Nik Graves swapping in for Ty Davis at the point guard spot. Graves and the other four starters saw less than three minutes of playing time, all against Xavier, but they outscored the Musketeers by nine in that stretch.
Up next for Creighton is its conference home opener as Marquette is set to visit CHI Health Center Omaha on Saturday night. At 5-7 and losers of three straight — including their Big East opener at home against Georgetown on Wednesday — the Golden Eagles are off to their worst start since the 1990-91 season.
At 107th nationally on KenPom, Marquette ranks second-to-last in the Big East. The Golden Eagles are 128th in adjusted offensive efficiency, shooting 50% inside the arc (226th) and 30.5% from 3 (282nd). Defensively, they rank 92nd, though if there’s one area in which the struggling Golden Eagles still excel it’s in taking the ball away. They rank 27th nationally in steals, pilfering the ball on 12.7% of opponents’ possession, and 51st in overall turnovers forced (a 20.2% rate).
“It’s live-ball turnovers, taking care of the basketball, making sure we’re initiating our offense, and then guard the dribble on the other end of the floor,” McDermott said of the key to facing Marquette. “They’ve got some younger guys out there than they’ve had in the past, but what they do hasn’t changed. Their pressure is elite, top 25 team in forcing turnovers, and we just have to make sure those turn turnovers aren’t live-ball turnovers.”
Shaka Smart started two freshmen and two sophomores against the Hoyas. The lone senior in the lineup was Chase Ross, the 6-foot-5, 210-pound wing who has stepped into No. 1 option role for Marquette and is averaging 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals. An explosive athlete, Ross does his best work in the paint, shooting 54% on 2-pointers and 77% at the foul line. After shooting over 36% from 3 the previous two seasons, he’s at 29.1% this year.
“He’s just always on the attack,” McDermott said. “Obviously, he’s always been able to shoot it, but his ability to get downhill and create opportunities for his teammates and for himself, and he’s shooting eight or nine free throws a game, so we’ve got to be able to guard him without fouling.”
Marquette’s only other double-digit scorer is freshman guard Nigel James Jr., a top-100 recruit out of basketball powerhouse Long Island Lutheran in New York. The 6-foot guard is averaging 11.3 points and 3.8 assists, though he’s struggled to produce efficiently with a 45.6 effective field goal percentage.
The team’s top frontcourt presence is sophomore Royce Parham, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward who is averaging 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds, though he also has a sub-50 effective field goal percentage and is shooting 27.9% on 3.6 3-point attempts per game. Senior stretch big Ben Gold has struggled to make shots this season, averaging 8.8 points and 6.7 rebounds while connecting on 29.5% of his 5.1 3-point attempts per game.
Marquette is 0-7 against teams ranked in the top-100 on KenPom, while it’s five wins are all against teams ranked 200 or worse. With the blowout over Xavier, Creighton climbed 23 spots to No. 49 in net rating.
Tipoff on Saturday is set for 7:30 p.m. CT on NBC Sports Network, with Peacock also streaming the game. John Fanta, Nick Bahe and Jordan Cornette will have the call. Creighton is promoting the game as a “Royal Blue & White Stripe Out,” with fans encouraged to wear appropriate colors based on their section.
