Creighton men’s basketball won its Big East opener for the first time since 2021 in dominant fashion, blowing out Xavier at the Cintas Center 98-57 Wednesday night.
The Musketeers entered the game riding a five-game winning streak, while Creighton had dropped its last two and sat at 5-5 on the season.
Eight different Bluejays scored eight-plus points as Creighton took a 27-point lead into halftime and extended it throughout the second half.
Here are three takeaways from the victory.
Message Received?
McDermott made a dramatic change to his starting lineup and rotation against Kansas State, moving Nik Graves, Owen Freeman and Blake Harper to the bench and reducing their minutes significantly.
“The bench was really short in the second half, but if that’s the way it’s got to be, that’s how it’s going to be,” McDermott said after the game.
However, during his pre-game radio interview, the head coach said some of the guys who had their minutes reduced had a good couple days of practice and would get a shot against the Musketeers. Whatever message McDermott was sending with the move seemed to have hit home, because all three made a big impact on the game.
Graves was the first sub off the Creighton bench on Wednesday, four and a half minutes into the game. He immediately sparked an 8-0 run, pulling up for a 3 (the 100th of his career), then finding Swartz on a skip pas for a 3, then setting up Freeman for a bunny.
Graves diced the Musketeers up throughout the first half before jamming his hand/wrist/finger on another slick assist to Freeman. He reentered the game in the second half, however, and finished with 12 points on 4-of-6 from the field (3-of-5 from 3) and 1-of-2 from the foul line plus five assists. He was making quick decisions with the ball, getting it out of his hands early, manipulating the defense in the pick-and-roll and attacking the rim decisively to collapse the defense.
Freeman was active defensively and put up eight points on 4-of-5 shooting, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks in 14 minutes. Harper added 11 points on 3-of-5 from the field (2-of-2 from deep) and 3-of-4 from the stripe, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in 19 minutes.
“Blake Harper didn’t play a lot against Kansas State; he’s had two great days of preparation, and I thought he impacted winning tonight,” McDermott told FS1 after the game.
Josh Dix led the team with 29 minutes, Isaac Traudt played 28 on his 22nd birthday and everybody else played 23 or less as nine guys saw 14 or more minutes. No need for a short rotation when everyone who steps on the floor makes an impact.
If the transfer trio can capture Wednesday’s play and carry it forward, the Bluejays have a chance to make some noise in the Big East.
Austin Swartz’s Emergence
During the preseason, a member of the coaching staff highlighted Swartz as one of two players he thought would be most important to the team long-term. The 6-foot-4 sophomore transfer from Miami started the season deeper in McDermott’s expanded rotation and struggled to translate a good preseason into in-season production in his limited opportunities. McDermott didn’t play him at all against Oregon in the team’s Players Era finale in Las Vegas.
However, after injury sidelined freshman Hudson Greer, McDermott went back to Swartz, and he’s scored in double figures in the four games since, while starting the last two.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with how Austin has approached the last two or three weeks,” McDermott said. “He didn’t play against Oregon, and he’s practiced better since then, so he’s gotten an opportunity.”
Swartz made program history, shattering the Creighton record for points in a Big East debut shared by Doug McDermott and Ryan Hawkins (19). He buried a 3 on Creighton’s first possession and kept firing away, finishing with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-17 from the field including 7-of-13 from deep. He added six rebounds, three assists (all for 3-pointers) and a steal in 23 minutes.
The rest of the Bluejays did a good job of recognizing the hot hand all game and kept feeding him. He hit 3s while spotted up, while running off screens and after putting the ball on the deck. He added some impressive finishes at the rim in transition as well.
Swartz is the first Bluejay this season to score 20 or more points in a game. He flashed significant bucket-getting ability in practice throughout the season, and now the fans are getting to see his talent for themselves when it really matters.
3-and-D Victory
Creighton scored a season-high 98 points against the Musketeers and shot 16-for-33 from deep, one shy of the team’s season high with five players contributing to that total, including a 3-for-4 mark from Dix, who has made 15 of his past 33 attempts (45.5%).
The Bluejays shot 60.3% from the field, got 43 points off their bench, scored 42 points in the paint and added 21 points in transition. They also dished out a season-high 31 assists on their 38 field goals.
“Shooting cures a lot of ills,” McDermott said. “We got out in transition, and I thought our pace was good. I thought we set some flares that gave them some problems and then the bottom line is you have to step up and make shots. For the first time in a while, our offense looked like Creighton offense. The ball was moving, we were making the extra pass, good to great, and that’s the way we have to play if we’re going to be successful.”
However, as impressive as the offense was, it was the defense that fueled the blowout victory. After allowing Kansas State to get whatever it wanted in the first half with poor effort poor communication and poor attention to detail, the Bluejays flew around from the opening whistle on Wednesday.
They matched their season high of 11 steals (two apiece from Graves and Dix and one each from Jasen Green, Swartz and Ty Davis in addition to Harper’s four), constantly plugging gaps and making life difficult on Musketeer ball-handlers. They also blocked four shots, one by Dix in addition to Freeman’s three.
Creighton held a good 3-point shooting team to 6-of-24 from the arc and 36.4% shooting overall with 14 turnovers, just six free-throw attempts and just 27 points in the paint.
“I thought our guys were really connected on the defensive end,” McDermott said. “With all their shooting, it’s hard to guard, and I thought we got back in transition, took that part away, and our switching on some of their ball-screen actions, I think, caused them some problems.”
Creighton rose 25 spots in adjusted defensive efficiency ranking on KenPom, from 87th to 62nd.
The Bluejays will return to Omaha for their Big East home opener against Marquette on Saturday.
