Updated Creighton Scouting Report

[Hey Adrien!]

Only five teams (Akron, St. John's, Drake, Towson and Southern) have a longer winning streak than Creighton, who have surprisingly been playing their best basketball despite starting point guard Pop Isaacs out for the season.

With Isaacs out, Creighton's offensive attack has mostly been shouldered by the one/two combo of Kalkbrenner and Ashworth, while Jamiya Neal -- who achieved a career high w/ 24 points last matchup -- has been a solid third scoring option. Like many Creighton teams under McDermott, the team moves the ball freely and shoots a ton of threes, but their biggest bugaboo is w/ Isaacs out, the team gives up a ton of turnovers.

On the flip side, a bigger lineup with less true guards has made Creighton into a much better defensive team, especially in their ability to make life miserable inside the arc, clogging up passing lanes and defending well near the basket. They are also an excellent defensive rebounding team.

In terms of personal, the biggest change has been the growing role for prized Montenegro import Fedor Zugic, a 6'6 215 guard that earned the attention of NBA scouts last season playing professionally in Germany. At Creighton, he hasn't been scoring a lot, but he's got a diverse offensive profile and he's comfortable to score in a variety of ways, thanks to his combination of size and skill. He backs up Neal at the 2 and Green at the 3.

 

[connVA]

McDermott, Ashworth, and Kalk on a nine-game winning streak in Omaha versus our one-legged PG depth chart. This game petrifies me.

 

[REB1094]

If this team, this year, is the one that is able to break the curse of Omaha...I'm putting $100 on UConn winning it all immediately

 

[SwingDog]

They beat us at home. It's time to return the favor.

 

[RuffRuff]

As odd as this year been, for some reason, I can see us going in and surprising in this one.

They’re off a big win, we’re off a big loss. They have StJ coming up after this one. Liam has feet under him.

It feels like the weights and balances of the Hurley/McDermott matchup have to even out a bit. Otherwise he will truly be DHs daddy.

They got almost half their points from Neal and Traudt last go,18 over their season average.

We need to be ok taking points in the mid range in this one. Like it’s ok to take a ten footer.

 

[yungdowork]

Kalkbrenner and Ashworth are playing the best basketball of their 15 year college careers over the last 5 games or so.

It's going to be really important to limit turnovers in this one because Creighton is a veteran team and they probably aren't going to beat themselves.

 

[RuffRuff]

Kalkbrenner and Ashworth are playing the best basketball of their 15 year college careers over the last 5 games or so.

It's going to be really important to limit turnovers in this one because Creighton is a veteran team and they probably aren't going to beat themselves.

Turnovers are not something you often have to worry about against Creighton. If TO's become the issue here, then we really aren't very good. We only had 6 in the first game and it generally hasn't been an issue most of the year.

Our biggest issue in the first game personnel wise is that Alex sucked. He couldn't make anything. Strategically, they sagged Kalk back on rim and extended the perimeter D to smother the 3 point line. Liam back should help there with his ability to penetrate. The difference in that game if you look at the box is really the FT line, where they outscored us 14-5. All other stats are fairly even. We need AK to be decent, which I think he will be. This type of defense will be a relief after the last two. We need to be ok taking some short jumpers in this one, because that's where the space will be.

We went out and showed some balls on the road the last go, so don't think that is gonna stunt this group. In fact, feel this team has played generally it's best hoops away from Storrs/Hartford most of the year (Texas, Marquette, Gtown, Gonzaga). They've been pretty lackluster at home this year. The more I think about this one, the better I feel, should be a close one.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

Creighton is a very hard place to win at. That said, I root for our teams unquestionably and think we can keep this one close with good 3pt shooting (Ball, McNeeley, Stewart, be nice if AK can hit 1), and Reed. Jr. surviving for 20+ minutes in this would be nice.

Isn't Mahaney due for a decent game though?

 

[huskyharry]

Ashworth has had remarkable improvement this year, not just in skill (much better passer and dribbler) but also he is much faster.
McNeal and Green have improved a ton during f the season this year.
Kalkbrenner is more confident on offense and still a monster on defense. Doomed!

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[Umami Zen]

Creighton doesn't foul much. 14 games this year they've had 10 or fewer fouls called on them. Our shooters have to show up and we have to take care of the ball (limit the TOs).

 

[gsmooth]

Kalkbrenner and Ashworth are playing the best basketball of their 15 year college careers over the last 5 games or so.

It's going to be really important to limit turnovers in this one because Creighton is a veteran team and they probably aren't going to beat themselves.

Creighton's defensive style is not geared towards playing in your face pressure with the purpose of forcing turnovers-so that shouldn't be a problem with UConn.

However, with Kalkbrenner camping in the paint it will be important for UConn to set better screens with better angles so the Creighton defenders don't chase over the top of screens and go behind the UConn player with the ball thus forcing or funneling them into Kalkbrenner. But if UConn can't do that, then they need find ways to trap the defender on their back and utilize the 2-on-1 situations whether that is pick and roll action or the player running off the screens in off ball action, something McNeeley is good at and was sorely missed in the first match up.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

Creighton's defensive style is not geared towards playing in your face pressure with the purpose of forcing turnovers-so that shouldn't be a problem with UConn.

However, with Kalkbrenner camping in the paint it will be important for UConn to set better screens with better angles so the Creighton defenders don't chase over the top of screens and go behind the UConn player with the ball thus forcing or funneling them into Kalkbrenner. But if UConn can't do that, then they need find ways to trap the defender on their back and utilize the 2-on-1 situations whether that is pick and roll action or the player running off the screens in off ball action, something McNeeley is good at and was sorely missed in the first match up.

Would love to see us use some double flare cuts for Solo or Stewart to shoot 3s. Use Sampson to anchor Kalkbrenner down low so McNeeley or AK can get an O-rebound on a miss. Those flare cuts tend to bother teams on D and wear out the guards.

Mainly, we are going to need Reed, Jr and Johnson to not get cheap fouls on Kalkbrenner fakes, pumps, etc. and we need awareness from the others in case he dumps it back out for a clean shot from another player.

Creighton has a pretty soft schedule remaining, so we need to win this to derail their path to regular season champ.

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[uconn_jack]

Would be nice if they said which wrist.....

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[Kitaman]

Tonight is simply: Superman vs Kryptonite

 

[REB1094]

I’ll be interested to see how we attack Kalkbrenner’s drop. Hurley and modern analytics don’t like midrange shots, but a 15 foot jumper is always going to be there for Solo, Liam, and Mahaney. The push shot from Karaban should also be there a decent amount of the time

Last time we just tried barreling to the rim and missed a LOT of layups

 

[RuffRuff]

I’ll be interested to see how we attack Kalkbrenner’s drop. Hurley and modern analytics don’t like midrange shots, but a 15 foot jumper is always going to be there for Solo, Liam, and Mahaney. The push shot from Karaban should also be there a decent amount of the time

Last time we just tried barreling to the rim and missed a LOT of layups

We find that shot and it may pull Kalk out a bit for little slips to our bigs. Will be interesting to see how stubborn Hurley is with the analytics, as it clearly has not worked against McDermott.

Listening to Hurley’s pregame sounded a bit like dejavu. He could just be staying neutral with the press, but I heard nothing that felt like he was thinking differently about his approach. Let’s see.

 

[connVA]

Ashworth is looking forward to when he’s a 12th-year senior and his son is a freshman so they can pull off the first and only LeBron-Bronny in college.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

The good news: Ashworth is 6'0" so their point guard (converted when Pop Isaacs went down) is not going to be like Kadary on our PGs. Court vision won't be an issue, and if Nowell can go, he is a bull dog!

We need Solo but we have Liam. AK just needs a "good" game. Stewart needs to step as well and we'll see Ross, Mahaney but likely not Abraham or Singare in this one.

No dumb fouls Johnson/Reed, Jr, please!

 

[Husker Husky]

$1 beer night (again). The fans of the self branded "Harvard of the Midwest" will be disgustingly obnoxious.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

We find that shot and it may pull Kalk out a bit for little slips to our bigs. Will be interesting to see how stubborn Hurley is with the analytics, as it clearly has not worked against McDermott.

Listening to Hurley’s pregame sounded a bit like dejavu. He could just be staying neutral with the press, but I heard nothing that felt like he was thinking differently about his approach. Let’s see.

Yea, it seems like a good strategy to lay out point-by-point in fine detail what our offensive and defensive strategies will be tonight during a presser. What could go wrong?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

This would be a reasonable game to get Nowell in for some minutes to spell Hass. Same goes for Mahaney, Ashworth is a shrimp and we won't have to worry about either of them getting bullied like some of the bigger guards we've had to play against in the Marquette and SJU games.