A Tale of the Tape: Creighton is a #6 Seed?
Since Creighton faces off against Rhode Island on Friday afternoon, I decided to watch some game film on Creighton and do a "scouting" job of sorts - a bunch of notes on Creighton. I will include those videos in this article so that you can see exactly what I am talking about.
I have watched and kept my eye on Creighton extensively throughout the season because they were a top-10 team in the country with Maurice Watson Jr. Nowadays, they are pretty irrelevant in the world of college basketball. Since their lead point guard went down, the Bluejays' 7-8 record has included a loss to terrible Georgetown, wins over DePaul (twice), and a win at home vs. St. John's. I am not impressed in the slightest bit.
Saturday, January 21, 2017 vs. Marquette: In Creighton's first home game since Watson tore his ACL on January 16, 2017, all I saw in this game was 3's, 3's, and more 3's from Marquette. 13,000 Creighton fans couldn't save them from a blowout to eventual bubble team, Marquette. When Marquette went up 48-37, the home team gave up an easy floater in the lane, resembling a Jared Terrell-like floater. Marquette head coach, Steve Wojciechowski, may be from the legendary Mike Krzyzewski coaching tree but he is certainly no Coach K. Yet somehow, his offense dissected Creighton like Duke would. Marquette started 9 for 12 in the second half. Creighton went downhill when Justin Patton got his 3rd foul with 18:48 left on 2nd half, with Creighton trailing 54-43. I did see that Creighton's Cole Huff is their unsung hero, a much-improved 3-point shooter. In a scramble play, Creighton found a way to get lost and Marquette found another wide open 3, putting them up 60-46. By the time Patton checked back in at 15:48, his team was already down 63-48. I understand that this was Creighton's first game without arguably their best player but there is no excuse for getting dominated at home against an inferior opponent. This game was never in doubt, seeing as how the home team was constantly down double digits. In comparison, in URI's experience with their star tearing his ACL, the Rams lost by 2 at the buzzer to Valparasio at home, four days after E.C. Matthews had his season-ending injury.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 @ Georgetown: Georgetown's Rodney Pryor, Jessie Govan, and L.J. Peak dominated this game. I still have to ponder how an atrocious Georgetown team managed to upset #16 (at the time) Creighton in front of a small crowd, 71-51. The biggest takeaway from this game for me is that once Georgetown went on a run, it was game over. Furthermore, if Justin Patton wants to play volleyball, instead of grabbing the "50-50" rebounds, Hassan Martin and Kuran Iverson will eat up the boards.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 @ #16 Butler: Creighton won at Butler when the Bulldogs were #16 because Butler never picked up Patton on pick-and-rolls and they kept letting Patton slip underneath the screens for easy scores at the rim.
Saturday, February 4, 2017 vs. Xavier: Time and again, Tyrique Jones took the basketball right into Patton's chest and scored easily on back-to-back possessions (Xavier 4-0, Xavier 6-3). If Jones could do that, then imagine what URI can manage, especially considering that's exactly how Hassan Martin scores the majority of his hoops. Yet again, Creighton showed that they are prone to constantly 3's WIDE open. On the offensive end, the Bluejays were easily stifled by Xavier's defense on the perimeter. For instance, the Musketeers forced a Patton 3-point shot, with Creighton down 79-75 and under a minute to go. If Rhode Island plays defense how Xavier did in this game, Creighton is done. Xavier made Justin Patton uncomfortable in the post and Marcus Foster tried to play hero ball (I literally shook my head while watching). One positive for Greg McDermott's team is that Creighton has a good full court press for late in game. I really do not think that this iteration of Creighton is ready for the big moment, considering Xavier literally left Khyrie Thomas wide open and he missed a "bunny" layup with 13.3 seconds left to tie the game. On their last chance to tie or win, the Bluejays made an incomplete pass with 2.2 seconds left, while down 82-80 after a missed Xavier free throw. Overall, Creighton missed a bunch of critical free throws in the middle of the battle, shooting 52% as a team. Creighton lost again, wow. As a fan of March Madness, #11 Xavier is an intriguing pick over #6 Maryland this season. The Musketeers' Big East counterpart, the #6 Creighton Bluejays, are not a good pick over #11 Rhode Island.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 vs. Providence: In PC's upset over #23 (at the time) Creighton, PC had 6 threes with 11:00 left in first half. Creighton went up 33-21 with 3:39 left in the first half and did not close. When Kyron Cartwright hit the game-winning shot with 4 seconds left with Creighton was up 66-65, 4 Bluejays converged on Isaiah Jackson drive into the paint. Even though he clearly wasn't looking to shot, Creighton made the unforgiving mistake and left Cartwright wide open for the dagger. Off a crazy tip, Khyrie Thomas had a wide open 3 to win the game, which he shot off back win. It appears as though Thomas is incompetent in big moments - given this 3-pointer and his missed wide open layup against Xavier on February 4.
Saturday, February 25, 2017 @ #2 Villanova: During Villanova's senior night, the Wildcats showed how to dismantle Creighton's defense and force empty Creighton offensive possessions. Defensively, the Wildcats continually locked down the guards, which then forced Justin Patton to be dribbling aimlessly around the perimeter; he looked like a lost, little sheep. Throughout the first half, the Bluejays wings and guards liked to take pull-up and trailer 3's. During the first five minutes, Villanova went up 7-0 as a result of Creighton's miscommunication on their pick-and-roll defense. For Villanova, in a spot start, Eric Paschall scored 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the field, while grabbing 6 total rebounds. If anyone is unaware, Paschall is a Fordham transfer. There needs to be no concern about whether or not Atlantic 10 talent can match up with Creighton's players. Also, while watching this game, I saw Kris Jenkins put Patton in the spin cycle. If URI can get Patton on switches, he cannot contain anyone in URI's starting 5 if they use their speed.
Saturday, March 4, 2017 @ Marquette: At Marquette's senior day, the Golden Eagles made it 80-64 on a wide open three-pointer in transition, with 9:49 left in the second half. Clearly, Creighton tends to guard drives and leave 3's wide open.
Thursday, March 9, 2017 vs. Providence (Big East quarterfinal): In the first meaningful game of the Big East tournament, Providence beat themselves with 22 turnovers in Madison Square Garden. Coming back from his grandma's funeral, PC's floor general, Kyron Cartwright, had an uncharacteristic 6 TO's out of the Friars' 22 TO's. With 15:50 left in first half, as per usual, Creighton left a shooter wide open. As a result, PC's Emmitt Holt hit the wide open three-pointer to tie the game at 8, early on. Ultimately, this game was ugly because neither team played well. In this 70-58 victory, Justin Patton had 9 points and 8 balls. Unlike a seasoned veteran like Hassan Martin, he gets the ball, but does not demand it, like an alpha male should.
Friday, March 10, 2017 vs. Xavier (Big East semifinal): In order for Xavier to take the lead, 31-26 and 35-29, the Musketeers' 2 drives into Patton's body equaled points for Xavier. Once more, Xavier took the lead, 41-37 with 17:50 in 2nd half, by driving right into Patton again. For those who want to hype up Creighton's semifinal win, they certainly got away with one. After Xavier's Trevon Bluiett hit the game-tying 3 to make it 75-75 with 14.6 to go, Khyrie Thomas tackled Xavier's J.P. Macura right before the inbounds pass. Conveniently, with Thomas and Macura out of the play, Marcus Foster hit the game-winning 3. So, my question is where was the whistle from the referees? Naturally, Xavier's head coach, Chris Mack, raged after the game and in the handshake line.
Saturday, March 11, 2017 vs. #2 Villanova (Big East championship game): As expected, Creighton got torched by 'Nova. Even though I anticipated the Big East championship game and wanted to watch this game, I switched to Mountain West championship game when the Wildcats started rolling. Even after the game, when interviewed by Fox's commentary team, Villanova head coach, Jay Wright, spent his time talking about how much Seton Hall challenged his team and I don't remember him mentioning Creighton. Even if Creighton wanted to contend in this game, Justin Patton got fouled out with 3:08 left in the second half because Villanova kept attacking the paint and right at the 6'11 shot-blocker.
Based off my observations of these 10 games that Creighton played following Maurice Watson's injury, I have come to a few conclusions. First, Justin Patton is still a young player, I think that he is going to get schooled and pushed off the block by Hassan Martin come this Friday. Patton can be really good but he clearly gets way too emotionally flustered as a redshirt freshman. Also, Creighton uses way too many players. The Bluejays consistently use 10 or 11 players in their games. That statement sounds hypocritical as a Rhode Island basketball fan, considering URI uses 9 or 10 rotation players. With that said, if you have been watching closely, Christion Thompson has practically been cut of the URI rotation while the Rams have gone on their eight-game winning streak. In addition, Dan Hurley still makes the proper decision of pulling Nicola Akele out of a game completely when he is getting outmuscled or if the game is too physical. Therefore, Rhode Island is practically down to using an eight-man rotation, with the capability of using up to eleven players, realistically. Conversely, now compare Hurley's rotation to Greg McDermott's rotation that is clearly out of order. Having depth is one thing and can be an asset but using a bunch of players for the sake of doing so leads to incohesion on the court. Since Watson Jr's injury, Creighton has little to no cohesion on either end of the floor.
Looking at Creighton's resume, they had 4 wins over top-25 teams, a list that included: Wisconsin (struggling now), 2 over Butler (an overachieving team), and Xavier (struggling without Edmond Sumner). Outside of Marcus Foster and a couple of others, Creighton's current group of players is just as inexperienced as URI's players are.
By the time the world clock hits about 6:30 pm EST, I expect that Creighton's head coach, Greg McDermott's face will look a little something like this:
