Guest Article - The Creighton Side of the Story...

A GUEST ARTICLE FROM A CLASSY CREIGHTON JAY -
Try to behave as Southern gentleman in your comments, please

Guest writer - Jacob Padilla
Creighton University
A great guy 

       Hello Tide fans. My name is Jacob Padilla. I am a freshman at Creighton and a student sports reporter for the Creightonian (www.creightonian.com), our school newspaper. I’ve been covering the Jays all season, and per Jim’s request, I’ve dropped by to offer you some insight from the other side regarding our teams’ second round NCAA Tournament game on Friday. 

MVC


First, let me give you a little background information about my beloved Bluejays. 


As you’re probably aware of, Creighton belongs to the Missouri Valley Conference. Back in the days of Kyle Korver, the MVC was the premier mid-major conference, routinely sending multiple teams to the Big Dance. 


Unfortunately, the conference has been down in recent years and has been a one or two bid league each of the last several seasons. That is changing, however, as the MVC had a solid year and appears to be on the upswing. 

Fear the Jay

 The MVC sent two teams dancing this year, the No. 5 seed Wichita State Shockers and of course they No. 8 seed Jays. Those two dominated the conference. However, teams three through seven in the final standings finished league play with 9-9 records, which shows the depth and parity of the league behind the top two. It is not an easy conference to navigate, even for really good teams like the Shockers and Jays.


Top to bottom, the MVC is not close to being as good as a major conference such as the SEC. But Valley teams are by no means pushovers (except for Bradley and Southern Illinois that is).


Fan support for the Jays is crazy. Creighton plays their home games at CenturyLink Center Omaha, a great arena capable of holding over 17,000 fans. The Jays have been in the top 25 for attendance each of the previous five seasons, and rank seventh nationally this year with an average of 16,664 fans per game. The crowd has been louder this year than I’ve ever witnessed personally, and it has definitely helped tip the momentum the Jays’ way on more than one occasion. But Creighton can win away from the C-Link as well, as they are one of only two teams this season to earn ten true road wins and they also went 4-0 in neutral site games. Expect plenty of Bluejays fans to show up in Greensboro on Friday, and expect them to be loud.


STRENGTHS


First and foremost, Creighton’s biggest strength is of course their offense. The Jays rank among the top ten in the nation in many offensive categories including leading the NCAA in field goal percentage. 


The offense starts with our All-American forward, Doug McDermott. Doug is an incredible player, an regardless of how the game turns out on Friday any true basketball fan can’t help but admire how he plays the game. He is ambidextrous in the post, able to finish with either hand equally well. He gets the ball out of his hands and into the basket faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. He has a wide array of shots he uses down low, and is terrific at getting his man sealed. He can also step out and hit the 3-pointer with the best of them, and has shown improvement in his mid-range and off the dribble game as well. I’m not sure you can really understand what he does or how good he is until you’ve played against him, which explains why he dominated non-conference foes and looked slightly more mortal in the Valley.


But Doug isn’t our only post presence. We also have a 6’9” 270 behemoth at center named Gregory Echenique. Gregory is a real load down low, and although he isn’t the greatest finisher he has improved with every game and has been a monster down the stretch. While his offensive contributions have been great recently Echenique’s true value lies at the other end. He was named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year this season, and with good reason. He straight up locks down opposing big men. He is so big and strong, it is tough for anyone to get position on him or back him down. But he also moves really well for a man his size and is great at getting out and hedging screens. The match-up between Gregory and JaMychal Green is going to be a big one, and is fun to watch.


Creighton complements the inside presence with a host of 3-point shooters. Starting guard Jahenns Manigat, reserve wings Josh Jones and Avery Dingman, and back-up big man Ethan Wragge all shoot over 40% from deep, and each one of them is very capable of going off. 


Finally, we have our two leaders, senior point guard Antoine Young and junior guard Grant Gibbs. Before Gibbs’ arrival, Creighton was a horrible passing team. They couldn’t feed the post to save their lives. Now, they are second in the nation in team assists per game, and it all starts with Gibbs. He is a true point guard in a wing’s body, and always makes the extra pass. He gets the ball exactly where it needs to be, when it needs to be. He makes the game easier for everyone else on the court. 

Home Grown and recruited at home by Coach McD

    Young is capable of playing a distributors role, but he’s a scorer at heart. He is gifted with tremendous quickness and strength, and has a unique ability to get to the rim and finish through contact. Although he’s not a great outside shooter, his 17-foot jumper is wet and he seems to pull it out whenever he feels the team needs a bucket. And when the game is on the line in the closing seconds, the ball is going to be in his hands. He has numerous clutch plays on his resume, including a game-winner against Long Beach State.


When this team is in rhythm, it is pick your poison at its finest. It’s very difficult for even the best defenses to shut down the perimeter and clog the paint, especially when the players are as talented as the jays are.


WEAKNESSES


This team’s biggest weakness is its defense. At times they have been pretty bad and have let opposing scorers torch them. They struggle in particular with athletic perimeter players. This year’s team is not blessed with incredible speed or lateral quickness, and it has shown when they’ve gone up against dynamic wings. 


That being said, there are some good defensive players on the team and they’ve been getting stops when they need them recently. Gregory Echenique is a force down low, as I’ve already talked about, and Antoine Young, Josh Jones, and Grant Gibbs are all capable of holding their own defensively. Even a couple of freshmen, back-up point guard Austin Chatman and Dingman, have come in and given the team some excellent defense down the stretch. Gibbs is usually the one assigned to guarding the opponents best wing player, and although he’s somewhat lacking in athleticism since his knee injury a couple years ago, he makes up for it with his smarts and hustle. He has been getting in foul trouble recently, though, which puts Coach Mac in a tough situation. 

o

Antoine Young is good defender
and a GREAT point guard

     Creighton is not as bad defensively as their reputation suggests, but they are nowhere close to the Tide on that side of the court. The key will be consistently giving the effort and putting in the work necessary to get the job done. That hasn’t always been the case this year, and it must change if the Jays want to advance. Early foul trouble to Echenique and/or Gibbs could cause problems on both ends.


Creighton was flying high in early February with a record of 21-2, but then they began to struggle and dropped three straight games. From my perspective, two things were at the heart of their struggles. First, the 3-pointers stopped falling. Ethan Wragge and Jahenns Manigat in particular couldn’t buy a bucket from deep, but they were still getting up plenty of shots. Creighton’s offense is predicated on the inside-outside game, and when the 3s dried up teams were able to collapse in the paint and double and triple team the bigs. The second problem was Gibbs. The confident, savvy point guard that had been the catalyst for the extreme efficiency in the first half of the season was gone, and in his place was a player who struggled to find his shot and began making stupid passes that resulted in turnovers. Without Gibbs directing the offense like he had before, the team struggled to score. If either one or both of these problems rears their ugly heads, the Jays could be finding themselves on an early flight home. 


HOW WILL IT ALL PLAY OUT?


You won’t find many fan of the NCAA selection committee in Omaha, Neb. An 8 seed makes no sense considering the team’s resume and where other mid-majors comparable to the Jays ended up (Wichita State being a 5 seed for one, or San Diego State being a 6 seed for another; Creighton beat both teams and finished with a better overall record than both). 


But you have to play the hand that you are dealt. I’m not thrilled about playing Alabama in the first round. Your defense is smothering and might have just what it takes to knock Creighton’s offense out of sync. That being said, I still expect Creighton to emerge victorious.


As I said above, Doug McDermott has killed it against nonconference foes that aren’t familiar with what he does, and I don’t know if the Tide will be ready for him. If the Jays can knock down their 3-pointers, I don’t think the Crimson Tide will be able to hang with them. That’s just my opinion, of course, and I could be dead wrong. 


Regardless of who wins, I hope the two fan bases can come together to cheer on the victor in the third round against Midwest’s top seed, the North Carolina Tar Heels. Everybody loves an upset (unless it busts your bracket, that is). 


I'd like to think both the Author and his great publication for the contribution of this well written story.