No. 23 Creighton men’s basketball took care of business to get back in the win column on Friday night, blowing out Maryland Eastern Shore 84-45 at CHI Health Center Omaha.
The Bluejays (2-1) led wire to wire and used a big second half to turn the game into a rout, outscoring the Hawks 47-22 after halftime. Creighton used a 42-20 edge in the paint to offset a poor perimeter shooting game.
Eleven players scored, eight totaled six or more and three reached double figures as Creighton racked up 23 assists on 33 field goals. Blake Harper nearly notched his first-double-double at Creighton with 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line and nine rebounds. Jasen Green matched him for game-high honors with 14 points and five boards off the bench as the Bluejays bounced back from the humbling defeat at No. 19 Gonzaga Tuesday.
“Being at Gonzaga is a tough environment,” Harper said. “I feel like we came out a little bit soft, not as physical, and it was definitely a point of emphasis in practice that we use our voice. We had a couple drills that also connected us just as a team more. I feel like on Tuesday night, we were a little bit more scrambling one-on-one basketball, and I feel like that was a point of emphasis this week in practice to play more as a team get everybody touches as well.”
Here are three takeaways from the victory.
Quick Start, Strong Finish, But Work to Do
Creighton scored the first 12 points of the game and led by as much as 14 in the first half, but the Jays had a tough time separating further thanks to some offensive struggles.
The Hawks switched to a shifting, chaotic zone, and at times it seemed to cause Creighton some problems. The Bluejays made just four of their 20 field goal attempts in the last 10 minutes of the first half, allowing the Hawks to trim the deficit to nine before a 5-0 finish to the half.
Creighton took a 37-23 lead into the locker room, then turned it up in multiple ways in the second half.
“I wasn’t crazy about the last 15 minutes of the first half,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “The zone paralyzed us a little bit more than it should have, and we had some pretty good looks at the basket and didn’t make them, but we didn’t get it into the teeth of it as much as we did the second half. I would have thought we could have handled that, but I thought the energy was there. I thought there was some enthusiasm. I thought we got into the ball better defensively, which was really a point of emphasis the last couple days.”
Defensively, the Bluejays didn’t give up a bucket in the second half until the 15:31 mark. Offensively, Creighton made seven of its first eight shots — three layups, two dunks and two 3s — to loosen up the Eastern Shore defense and force the Hawks out of the zone.
“I wouldn’t say we necessarily had a tough time figuring it out, but there were some things that we should have and could have been doing to break down the zone a lot easier, and we just kind of weren’t doing them,” Jasen Green said. “It was kind of a point of emphasis during halftime, just a couple things that we could get into if they were to run that zone again, and I feel like we handled it a lot better in the second half.”
For whatever reason, each of Maryland Eastern Shore’s first four opponents have struggled from the 3-point line as Georgia Tech, Georgia, Cheyney and Nebraska all shot under 24% or worse, combining to shoot 23-of-115 (20%). Creighton did hit 10 triples, but the Jays did so at a 30.3% clip. Jackson McAndrew and Josh Dix both went 2-for-7, Austin Swartz 0-for-3 and Fedor Žugić 1-for-4 — all below what you’d expect from them based on the quality of looks they got.
“I obviously liked the start of the game,” McDermott said. “I liked the start of the second half … I thought our activity was better, our hand activity. I thought our ball pressure, some of the things we did with the double teams were effective, forced them into some turnovers and turned that into some baskets. We didn’t shoot it great again from 3; that’s got to be something that that we’re better at. I think we got a lot of the right shots for the right guys that just didn’t make them. But I thought they came out of the halftime with some energy, and that’s what I wanted to see.”
Three-Headed Center
Through three games (and more specifically in the last two with Josh Townley-Thomas sidelined), McDermott has deployed a three-man rotation at center with the still-recovering Owen Freeman, first-year Turkish import Kerem Konan and Swiss army knife Jasen Green. Each of them brings a different skill set to the table.
Against the Zags, Freeman played 15 minutes, Green 14 at the five and Konan the remaining 11. On Tuesday, that split was Freeman 19, Konan 14, Green seven.
“It’s difficult, and obviously, with Owen still trying to get back in shape, it’s kind of out of necessity right now,” McDermott said. “Kerem’s learning; it’s a steep learning curve, not being here all summer and missing everything that he missed, and then the language barrier is a little bit of an issue too. Jasen gives us some stability there, and I know what I’m going to get. He was pretty effective when he was out there. I thought Kerem the second half, that’s what we need to see, that kind of pressure on the rim that he puts on the rim. I think he can do some pretty special things defensively as well. But it’ll be a process with Owen; as I’ve said from the start, it’s just going to take some time.”
Freeman only took two shots against Gonzaga, making one of them. Against the Hawks, Creighton played through him almost exclusively to start the game as he accounted for Creighton’s first 12 points before checking out at the first media timeout. He split a pair of free throws to open the scoring, then assisted Creighton first three buckets (a 3-pointer and a layup on a cut from Jackson McAndrew and another cutting layup for Josh Dix). He added a dunk and a layup of his own, all in a wo-and-a-half-minute span.
Freeman finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting, eight rebounds and five assists (with no turnovers) in his 19 minutes.
“We wanted to try to get him the ball and establish him,” McDermott said. “I think, besides coming back from an injury and the conditioning component, I think you probably lose a little confidence when you’re out that long, because your mind is telling you that I can do all this stuff that I used to be able to do, but your body’s not there yet. I think the more times he can see good things happen, whether it’s making a nice pass and a nice read or finishing a basket, I think it’s really good for him.”
Konan’s first half included one missed shot and two fouls in five minutes on the court. In the second half, he scored eight points (including two dunks) and grabbed three offensive rebounds, with his only missed shot coming on a misplayed alley-oop as he flashed the potential that has the coaching staff excited about his future.
More on Green, who is undersized for the position but continues to find a way to be productive anyway, below.
Lineup Experimentation Continues
Against Gonzaga, Green only logged three minutes at the three, all in the last seven minutes after the game had already been decided. His stints during the competitive stretch of the game all came at the five.
On Tuesday, Konan was the first center off the bench, while Green checked in to play the three during his first stint. He ended up playing 17 minutes, with 10 of those coming on the wing. Before the season began, McDermott called him a Swiss army knife, and he’s continued to be that while splitting his time at two different positions, neither of which is probably his natural spot (power forward).
“Just the principle of what each position is doing is different, obviously, but I’ve been in the program for so long and I’ve been, honestly, playing those two positions here for a little bit, so I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable with playing both of them at the same time,” Green said. “There’s a little bit of a mindset switch on what I’m doing offensively, but overall, the goal is still the same, to put the ball in the basket.”
E’s done exactly that and is leading Creighton in scoring through three games at 11.5 per game (though he’s only played in two of them), scoring inside, at the foul line and from the 3-point line (2-for-3 on Tuesday after making his only attempt against Gonzaga).
Where his minutes come will continue to be something worth monitoring. He’s made a case for more playing time, but where would they come from? It’s hard to see Harper’s minutes decreasing based on how he’s played thus far, but Konan’s upside is intriguing as well.
Another shift from the previous game’s rotation was more stints with neither Nik Graves nor Ty Davis on the floor. That shifts the point guard responsibilities to Josh Dix, which he did for all of 38 seconds against the Zags. Against the Hawks, he had four stints at the point totaling 8 of his 28.5 minutes, and Creighton outscored UMES 20-5 with him running the show.
“I wanted to see it,” McDermott said. “He had four assists, no turnovers, so I like that part of it. It’s an opportunity to kind of play a different lineup at times, but we’re obviously still trying to kind of find this rotation and what’s best for us.”
More minutes at the point for Dix, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting plus two steals, could be an option to open up a few extra minutes for the collection of wings.
McDermott gave nine or more minutes to 11 different players on Tuesday as he continues to evaluate the full roster. However, for that to continue, he needs to see attention to detail and the ability to correct mistakes as the players continue assimilating to what the staff is asking of them on both ends of the floor.
“I need to watch the film and see if guys were in the right spot, doing the right things,” McDermott said. “They have to bring consistency off the bench. I’d love to have a deep team, I’d love to play a lot of guys, but a lot of guys have to be doing what they’re supposed to do, and if they can’t do that, then we have to shorten it. I think they can, I think they can work at it, they can work through some of that, but they’ve got to hold themselves to a pretty high standard of accountability.”
