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- Jan 6, 2015
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I'm ready to move quickly onto the next one...
Worst loss (no “awful” losses):
Currently on a seven game winning streak headlined with Big East wins over Seton Hall, Marquette, Butler and DePaul
OFFENSE: 28th in efficiency
DEFENSE: 23rd in efficiency (2nd best in McDermott’s 13 year tenure)
There should be a lot of familiarity between last year and this year’s Creighton squad, namely with Baylor Scheierman stepping into Ryan Hawkins’ starting position.
Like Hawkins last year, Scheierman has the ability to take over a game in a variety of ways and is a very versatile point forward with almost no holes in his game.
Fully healthy after a nasty wrist injury ended his freshman campaign, Ryan Nembhard has slightly improved his shooting splits but has most drastically improved his A/TO ratio from last year by 1.8, making him a much less mistake prone pass-first point guard.
Another much improved sophomore is Trey Alexander. Forced into sharing the point guard duties last year after Nembhard’s injury, Alexander has developed into a sound two-way secondary ball-handling wing who is Creighton’s second best rim attacker vastly improved his three-point shooting (0.5 3PM @ 28.1% last season; 1.7 3PM @ 44.8%).
To me, Kaluma is a bit of an enigma. He’s a long combo forward who can do a little bit of everything, especially on defense, but he is the most mistake prone Bluejay (2.3 TOs).
Of course, Creighton’s low-post anchor is Ryan Kalkbrenner, who, like Sanogo, is shooting threes at a career high rate (0.8 3PA/game). However, 90% of his offense comes from inside the arc, so whichever big guards Kalkbrenner can also focus heavily on help defense if/when Kalkbrenner fades towards the perimeter.
One benefit of Kalkbrenner’s absence was the performance of freshman big Fredrick King (averaged 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks in King’s three starts), making him both arguably the best backup big in the Kalkbrenner era and also a suitable long-term replacement for the post-Kalk years.
While McDermott is not afraid to play small, expect most of the game played with two guards, two forwards and a big with floor spacers Mason Miller and Francisco Farabello rarely, if ever, sharing the floor together.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it, Creighton has our number. They’ve been 5-0 against us since we’ve rejoined the Big East.
If there’s a matchup to exploit, it’s Nembhard on D. A capable defender, but 6’0 is 6’0 and this could be Newton’s game to show his ability to attack the rim in conference play.
Also, another good game to experiment with Sanogo and Clingan sharing the floor.
I'll be in attendance for the first time at Gampel this season and CANNOT wait!
Creighton: 9-6
Record w/o Kalkbrenner: 0-3
Kenpom Rating: 18
Overall Strength of Schedule: 16th (20th hardest non-con)
Best wins:Record w/o Kalkbrenner: 0-3
Kenpom Rating: 18
Overall Strength of Schedule: 16th (20th hardest non-con)
- 90-87 v #9 Arkansas (neutral)
- Three Bluejays w/ 20+ points (Kalk, Nembhard and Scheierman)
- 83-61 v #65 Seton Hall
- Four Bluejays between 14-17 points (Alexander, Kaluma, Kalk, Nembhard)
Worst loss (no “awful” losses):
- 53-63 hosting #88 Nebraska
- Team shot only 40% from 2 and 25% from 3
Currently on a seven game winning streak headlined with Big East wins over Seton Hall, Marquette, Butler and DePaul
OFFENSE: 28th in efficiency
- 30th in 2p% (55.6 2p%)
- 30th in A/FGM (59.8%)
- 49th in 3PA/FGA (43.4%)
- 70th best 3p% (36.3%)
- 53rd in lowest turnover % (16.7%)
- 112th in time per possession (16.9 seconds)
- ~ median FT% (71.4%)
- Bottom-third nationally in
- FTA/FGA: 27.9%
- Offensive rebounding rate (24.5%)
DEFENSE: 23rd in efficiency (2nd best in McDermott’s 13 year tenure)
- 1st in opponent FTA/FGA 16.2%)
- 12th in minimizing 3PA/FGA (29.8%)
- 13th in opponent offensive rebounding rate (22.5%)
- 61st in average opponent possession length (16.8 seconds)
- ~near median opponent 3p% (32.9%)
- 86th in opponent 2p% (46.9%)
- 323rd in turnover % (16.0%)
Like Hawkins last year, Scheierman has the ability to take over a game in a variety of ways and is a very versatile point forward with almost no holes in his game.
Fully healthy after a nasty wrist injury ended his freshman campaign, Ryan Nembhard has slightly improved his shooting splits but has most drastically improved his A/TO ratio from last year by 1.8, making him a much less mistake prone pass-first point guard.
Another much improved sophomore is Trey Alexander. Forced into sharing the point guard duties last year after Nembhard’s injury, Alexander has developed into a sound two-way secondary ball-handling wing who is Creighton’s second best rim attacker vastly improved his three-point shooting (0.5 3PM @ 28.1% last season; 1.7 3PM @ 44.8%).
To me, Kaluma is a bit of an enigma. He’s a long combo forward who can do a little bit of everything, especially on defense, but he is the most mistake prone Bluejay (2.3 TOs).
Of course, Creighton’s low-post anchor is Ryan Kalkbrenner, who, like Sanogo, is shooting threes at a career high rate (0.8 3PA/game). However, 90% of his offense comes from inside the arc, so whichever big guards Kalkbrenner can also focus heavily on help defense if/when Kalkbrenner fades towards the perimeter.
One benefit of Kalkbrenner’s absence was the performance of freshman big Fredrick King (averaged 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2.7 blocks in King’s three starts), making him both arguably the best backup big in the Kalkbrenner era and also a suitable long-term replacement for the post-Kalk years.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it, Creighton has our number. They’ve been 5-0 against us since we’ve rejoined the Big East.
If there’s a matchup to exploit, it’s Nembhard on D. A capable defender, but 6’0 is 6’0 and this could be Newton’s game to show his ability to attack the rim in conference play.
Also, another good game to experiment with Sanogo and Clingan sharing the floor.
I'll be in attendance for the first time at Gampel this season and CANNOT wait!
