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- Jan 6, 2015
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Creighton 12-7 overall, 4-4 conference, KenPom rank #69 (nice)
Schedule summary:
Offense: 93th in KenPom efficiency
Defense: 44th in KenPom Efficiency
Schedule summary:
- Lost four of last six (Nova, Xavier 2x, Butler), wins over St. John’s and DePaul
- Best Big East win: 79-59 over Villanova
- Best OOC win: 83-71 over BYU
- Worst loss: 55-72 against Butler, one point loss over Arizona State. Outside of these two games, they beat who they "should have".
- OOC schedule: 190th in difficulty: wins over BYU, Southern Illinois, North Dakota State, Brown, Nebraska…losses to Colorado State, Iowa State and Arizona State
- Only 13.6% of minutes from last year returned this year. Amongst their eight healthy rotation players, only Kalkbrenner and O’Connell played at Creighton last season
- They have the size to match ours. ½ of the time they play four players 6’6 and taller. Average roster height is 6’6, which is 52nd in the nation
- Shereef Mitchell 6’0 170 JR, 16.5 mpg -Out since 12/4 (undisclosed)
- McDermott has settled into a steady eight-man rotation:
Offense: 93th in KenPom efficiency
- Four players average between 11.8-12.8 ppg
- Only 37.4% of their shots are from three (189th) and their 3p% is 30.5% (299th). This differs greatly from what we are used to at Creighton and also shows McDermott’s willingness to adjust to his roster. O’Connell and Hawkins are their only players who average 30%+ from three.
- Led by Kalkbrenner, they are 29th in 2p% (29th).
- Their offensive rebounding rate is 123rd.
- A whopping 21.5% of their offensive possessions result in turnovers (326th worst prevention rate). Five of their eight rotation players have a A/TO ratio less than 1, the worst being Kaluma (1.2:2.8 or 0.42). Let’s get those transition buckets!
- They don’t get to the line well (289th in FTA/FGA rate).
- Outside of Nembhard, no player averages more than 1.7 a/gm.
Defense: 44th in KenPom Efficiency
- 6th in the nation at preventing teams from getting to the line.
- 10th in opponent 2p% (42.8%).
- Their strongest defenders are their bigs and forwards.
- Kalkbrenner is the rim protector (3.1 blocks/game).
- Hawkins was a 2x MIAA DPOY before transferring to Creighton. He’s not much of a rim protector (even in D2, he averaged about 0.5 blocks/game), but he’s a physical, hard-nosed defender who wears down opponents as the game goes on.
- Kaluma does a bit of everything. Strong base, athletic, smart, long, high motor. One of those guys who can guard a wide range of players and could be an NBA player if he improves his shooting.
- Not good at perimeter D (33.5 3p% is 175th in nation).
- Not good at defensive rebounding (179th nationally). UConn’s offensive rebounding rate (2nd in nation) is 10.5% better than Creighton’s defensive rebounding rate…maybe a missed shot good offensive strategy?
- They don’t cause turnovers (310th turnover rate)
- My summary: since they aren’t good at perimeter D and UConn’s offensive rebounding rate is far superior to Creighton’s defensive rebounding rate, is this a game we let it fly from deep and then let our glass cleaners keep the possessions alive? Could it be a big game for Polley?
