There has been plenty to talk about in the Big East over the years, but let’s take a moment and recognize the job that Greg McDermott does at Creighton every year. He’s had quite a run at the school, especially after there were some who wondered if they could succeed long-term in the Big East after thriving in the Missouri Valley Conference for many years.
With Wednesday night’s impressive 87-82 win at conference leader Seton Hall, McDermott is on the verge of his ninth 20-win season in ten years at the helm in Omaha. In a conference full of good coaches, many of who get their due from Jay Wright to Ed Cooley to Kevin Willard, McDermott’s name doesn’t come up enough.
McDermott’s tenure started out the way you might have expected – with a lot of wins. In what would be their final three seasons in the Missouri Valley, the Bluejays won 23, 29 and 28 games those years, reaching the CBI finals in the first year before and setting a school record with 29 wins in year two. Then came their first year in the new-look Big East, which was also a case of good timing as son Doug was a senior and swept the national Player of the Year awards en route to a 27-win season and runner-up finish in the Big East Tournament.
Then came their second year in the Big East, with a whole different team. A 14-19 record that included going 4-14 in the Big East had some wondering if the first season was just good timing and not at all what the norm would be. The landscape was different now.
That changed starting the following year, a 20-win season that ended in the NIT, but a year later you started to see that success would come a little more often. The Bluejays won 25 games, including the Paradise Jam, reinventing themselves around Kansas State transfer Marcus Foster and redshirt freshman big man Justin Patton, who would go on to be a first round NBA Draft pick after that season. It has continued from there, though the NCAA Tournament didn’t come calling last season; they reached the NIT quarterfinals instead.
This time around, the Bluejays are well on their way to an NCAA Tournament bid and are now tied with Villanova for second in the Big East. Wednesday night was their second road win over a top 10 team in February and their sixth win in seven games. While the Bluejays are known for being able to shoot the ball, it was at the defensive end where they won this, starting with holding Myles Powell to 3-16 from the field. But the Pirates have won with other guys this season, and tried to on Wednesday night, but they didn’t have enough.
Four Bluejays scored 18 points each and Christian Bishop added 11 points as they outshot Seton Hall 46 to 42 percent from the field and did enough in other areas to pull this one out against a Pirate team that has found ways to win throughout Big East play.
This Creighton team doesn’t have an All-American, no one who will make anyone forget Doug McDermott. But they have solid players like the perimeter grouping of Ty-Shon Alexander, Marcus Zegarowski, Mitch Ballock and Denzel Mahoney. Zegarowski, in particular, is one of the hidden gems in college basketball, a threat to make shots while also being third in the Big East in assists. None of those four are seniors as well.
Creighton hasn’t had the most talent in the Big East by a long shot during their time in the conference. They have had to reinvent themselves from a personnel standpoint, and have succeeded to this point. The current edition of the Bluejays is continuing that, and Greg McDermott is continuing to win games even as other coaches get more of the publicity.
Side Dishes
Elsewhere in the Big East, Butler held off Xavier 66-61, St. John’s handled visiting Providence 80-69 and Villanova held off Marquette 72-71 after leading by as many as 18 in the second half. Markus Howard scored 24 points and became the Big East’s all-time leading scorer in conference games with 1,408, passing Syracuse guard Lawrence Moten, who had 1,404.
The ACC saw a surprise as Georgia Tech held off Louisville 64-58 in Atlanta, snapping the Cardinals’ ten-game winning streak and knocking them back into a tie for first place in the loss column with Duke (they have one more win than the Blue Devils at the moment).
Other results of note: Auburn continued their success in overtime, as they are now 5-0 in such games after beating arch rival Alabama 95-91 in overtime behind 18 points and 17 rebounds from Austin Wiley; Kansas handled West Virginia 58-49 in Morgantown; George Mason went into VCU and dealt the Rams another damaging loss as regards their NCAA Tournament resume, a 72-67 setback; Northern Iowa will stay on top in the Missouri Valley Conference after knocking off Illinois State 71-63, and got a helping hand from Valparaiso as they beat Southern Illinois 55-38 to snap the Salukis’ seven-game winning streak; Tulsa got back on track with a 70-56 win over East Carolina behind 24 points and 10 rebounds from Martins Igbanu; Michigan went on the road and blew out Northwestern 79-54; Stephen F. Austin continues to hold a big lead in the Southland Conference as they beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 75-67 on the road; and Nevada held on to beat UNLV in overtime 82-79.
Illinois, and indeed college basketball, got some good news on Wednesday afternoon as the school announced that an MRI showed no structural damage to the left knee of star guard Ayo Dosunmu. The super sophomore tried to get one last shot off at the end of their heart-breaking loss to Michigan State on Tuesday night, but his left knee buckled in a scary moment that surely had everyone fearing a serious injury.
As has been the case often this season, Miami was a little short-handed in their 85-58 home romp over Boston College on Wednesday night. The Hurricanes were without redshirt junior forward Sam Waardenburg due to an injury suffered in practice on Tuesday, and his status is day-to-day going forward. Waardenburg had started the first 23 games of the season.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a busy night of action, and a couple of matchups have first place in a conference on the line.
- In the American Athletic Conference, Cincinnati hosts Memphis, while Wichita State tries to get back on track at UCF (7 p.m.)
- The co-leaders in the Northeast Conference are both on the road as Robert Morris visits Mount St. Mary’s and Merrimack travels to St. Francis Brooklyn (7 p.m.)
- The CAA slate features a first place showdown as College of Charleston visits Hofstra (7 p.m.)
- Indiana tries to get some momentum going again as they host Iowa (8 p.m.)
- A key matchup in Conference USA is Charlotte visiting conference leader North Texas (8 p.m.)
- First place in the Ohio Valley Conference is on the line as Austin Peay hosts Murray State (9 p.m.)
- In Pac-12 action, the best game is early as Colorado goes to Oregon, while Utah visits Oregon State and USC hosts Washington at the same time (9 p.m.), while later on Stanford hosts Arizona State (11 p.m.)
