Creighton Men’s Basketball Preparing for Physical Contest with Iowa

Creighton men’s basketball didn’t waste any time getting back to work after suffering its first loss to Kansas State on Tuesday.

The Bluejays were right back on the practice court the next day to address the litany of issues that led to a disappointing loss to the Wildcats.

“I think it was frustrating because we didn’t play to our expectations and what we know we can do on the offense and defensive end,” said Brody Robinson, who made his Creighton debut in the game. “We came back, we got home at like 4 a.m., barely got any sleep, and we came back and we had lift and we had practice, and I thought in practice, dudes had energy, we had that little chip on our shoulder that we need, and I think we need to go into every game with having a chip on our shoulder like that.”

Coach Alan Huss said the team had a good film session and responded well on the practice floor, especially on short rest. He gave them Thursday off before getting back to work on Friday and Saturday to prepare for Sunday’s game against Iowa.

While the film session was productive, it wasn’t kind to the Huskers or their effort, composure or execution on defense. They gave up 13 buckets at the rim and 14 made 3-pointers to the Wildcats.

“I don’t think we competed as hard as we needed to,” Huss said. “We just got the integrity of what we’re trying to do defensively completely violated. We reacted. They had two kind of crazy fluke plays to start the game, hit two 3s that got us spaced out, stretched out more than we needed to. And then after that, we just had so many miscommunications on simple plays that we’ve really, over the past two months, we’ve done a nice job of eliminating those for the most part.

“The fact that they had a stretch five out there, that really that really put an added emphasis on our ability to communicate, or maybe an added strain on our inability to communicate. We weren’t very good in those situations without having a five-man there to put the fire out, and so we were really exposed.”

Perhaps exacerbating the defensive was the absence of Jackson McAndrew, who suffered a sprained ankle during the first half against Kansas State. He tried to play in the second half but returned to the bench after just a couple minutes and did not return.

“Clearly, we missed him,” Huss said. “He’s one of those guys with size that puts out so many of those fires. He’s also an elite communicator, and not having him out there, I thought, really put a strain on some other guys, put some other guys in some positions they’re not used to being in.”

McAndrew sat out Wednesday’s practice but participated on Friday.

“Maybe he can give us a little something on Sunday,” Huss said ahead of Friday’s practice.

Regardless of who will be on the floor Sunday, the Bluejays have to find a way to improve on the feast or famine nature of its defense, which ranks fourth nationally in forcing turnovers through three games but has given up far too many open 3s and uncontested layups when not taking the ball away, particularly against the Wildcats.

“Either you win or you learn, so just having that philosophy, just making sure we learn from what we didn’t do, and also build on things we did well in that game,” Austin Swartz said. “It’s just cutting out the mistakes, just the little things that kind of propelled us to lose that game, and just moving on and making sure we’re in the right headspace.”

Robinson will be available on Sunday — and for Wednesday against Bethune-Cookman too — thanks to a temporary restraining order granted in a Douglas County court. He came off the bench in the second half against Kansas State to scored 10 points and assist a pair of 3-pointers while playing the last 11 minutes of the game. Huss said what kind of role Robinson will have is up in the air as they work through “rotation issues” in practice.

“He’s going to be in the mix,” Huss said. “We’ve got to figure out where, and we’ve got a luxury a little bit right now of having multiple guys that can play, and we’re going to have to have some spirited competition for who has the best ability to execute what we’re asking to execute here for Sunday.”

Robinson had only played on the scout team in Creighton’s team sessions during practice prior to making his debut. Huss called him a “break glass in case of emergency” guy largely because of his lack of practice time with the main rotation, but the Jays found themselves in an emergency against the Wildcats, and they had an opportunity to incorporate Robinson into more of what they want to do in practice this week, which the point guard from Oakland called “super important.”

“I will say I’ve never really played the scout team my life, but it actually kind of helps a little bit,” Robinson said. “When you’re on the scout team, you know exactly what dudes do. I was the point guard for Kansas State on scout team last week, and then I get on the floor and I’m guarding him, and I know exactly what he’s going to do because I was doing it all week for him. It will be good to be actually guarding scout team and playing against it today and this this whole week and be prepared for it.”

Like the Bluejays, the Hawkeyes will head into Sunday’s neutral site meeting at Casey’s Center in Des Moines, Iowa, with a 2-1 record after losing their first high-major test. Iowa also fell on Tuesday, to Virginia Tech in overtime.

“We’ve got to be more physical,” Huss said. “I thought Kansas State was the aggressor, and with all due respect to Kansas State, they’re kind of an offensive, pass it around, spread you out [team]. They out-physicaled us, which is problematic. Iowa’s as physical a team as there is in the country. We’ve got to handle it, and we’ve got to match it with a certain level of physicality from us.”

Huss, Robinson and Swartz all focused on physicality when discussing the Hawkeyes, who reached the Elite Eight last season in Ben McCollum’s first season at the helm in Iowa City. They ranked 362nd in adjusted tempo according to KenPom last season, and they’re 264th through three games this year.

“It’s going to be a very physical, physical game,” Swartz said. “I think it’s going to be a long-possession game, so being mentally prepared and just as physically prepared is going to be so important, and we’ve just got to be ready for the grind, because it’s not going to be easy.”

Iowa ranks 49th in KenPom in the early going, five spots ahead of the Bluejays. They have excelled at defending the 3-point line this season as only five teams have allowed a lower 3-point attempt rate (27.7%) and their opponents have only connected on 23.3% of the 3s they have taken. Creighton ranks 27th with more than half their shot attempts coming from beyond the arc so far this year. Iowa also aggressively crashes the glass (41.8% offensive rebounding rate), something the Jays prepared for in practice.

Illinois State transfer guard Ty’Reek Coleman leads the Hawkeyes in scoring at 14.3 per game on 62.5% shooting, though he’s come off the bench in their first three games. Returners Cooper Koch (6-foot-8, 228 pounds) and Tate Sage (6-foot-7, 210 pounds) are next at 13.7 and 9.3 points per game, respectively. Isaia Howard, a 6-foot-5, 216-pound guard, leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game while chipping in 7.3 points a contest.

Cam Manyawu (6-foo-9, 255 pounds) starts in the middle, but the Hawkeyes also rotate in 6-foot-11, 249-pound sophomore Trevin Jirak and 7-foot-3, 300-pound senior Andrew McKeever, a transfer from St. Mary’s who made his Hawkeye debut against the Hokies after missing the first two games with an injury.

Freshman Jaidyn Coon, the 6-foot-6 wing who flipped his commitment from Creighton to Iowa after Greg McDermott announced his retirement, is averaging 6.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in 13.3 minutes per game.

Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. CT on FS1 with Cory Provus and Nick Bahe on the call. John Bishop and Jeff Vanderloo will have the radio call on 1620 The Zone.