Scouting Creighton

[hhcmatt]

Does anyone remember a less hyped Nebraska-Creighton game? I was trying to think of what I had going on this Saturday because I wanted to hang Christmas lights and then a couple of days later I was like 'oh yeah, Creighton'. Is it because we finally won? Because we're not very good this year? Because of the Miles can't beat McDermott deal?  Is this just me?

 

We are the faster team in terms of overall pace for the first time since 2015 (the year after McBuckets graduated.) Creighton's offense still plays 'fast' but they've turned it down a notch over the last two years.

 

The Jays are shorthanded

- Projected starting center Jacob Epperson suffered a horrific broken right leg and is out for the year

- Probable starting senior PG Davion Mintz has been out the entire year with a high ankle sprain. His timeline for return has been 2-6 weeks and that was 4 weeks ago so he could finally suit up

- Backup center Kelvin Jones suffered a leg injury Tuesday vs Oral Roberts and his status for Saturday is unknown

-SEMO Transfer Denzel Mahoney is eligible for the 2nd half of the season. Memphis transfer Antwann Jones is eligible next year.

- The Jays keep whiffing on their last scholarship a-la-Miles and thus senior walk-on Jordan Scurry has scholarship #13.

- Freshman SG Jalen Windham hasn't really played anything besides garbage minutes. They are getting minutes from freshman walk-on Jett Canfield

 

If you're counting at home, that's 5 scholarships potentially not available and 2 on guys not playing. The Jays potentially are rolling out 6 scholarship players + a walk-on. 

 

[49r]

Creighton fans are just bummed because their football team is not bowl eligible for the third year in a row.  But yeah, it's probably just you.

 

...and me too, but that's largely because I'm pretty checked out on the whole deal.  I have given some thought to picking up a ticket to the Kansas/Colorado game, that one would probably be worlds more entertaining even though I violently hate both teams.

[throwback]

I think it's mostly that we appear to have zero shot. If we keep it to within single digits, that would be a major accomplishment.

 

Most years, I can convince myself if X-Y-Z happen, we can win, so there's a reason to break down the game. Not this year.

 

Hopefully I'm surprised Saturday - but I think it'd have to be a similar level of surprise to where Publisher's Clearinghouse is standing on my doorstep with a giant check, next to Kate Upton wearing nothing but a bow.

 

With this team, it's not going to be about wins. It's going to be about taking baby steps and hopefully playing better in Jan than Dec and Feb than Jan. Rebounding better in the 1st half vs Ga Tech was a nice baby step, for example. 

 

I don't expect baby steps Saturday. Walking into that @#!@@#$ hole Saturday with 12K drunks rooting against them (as they mindlessly clap to NU's fight song before catching themselves) is a significant problem, especially for our team that has little to no experience with D-1 road environments. It simply will not go well. Hopefully they learn something they can use in B1G play later in the season.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by throwback

[brfrad]

If we can defend the 3 (which we are pretty good at doing), rebound (which we are very poor at doing), we give ourselves an outside chance at an upset.

[OmahaHusker]

10 minutes ago, brfrad said:

If we can defend the 3 (which we are pretty good at doing), rebound (which we are very poor at doing), we give ourselves an outside chance at an upset.

 

Last night we were putrid defending the 3. Thankfully GT was missing just as many as we were. Basically every look they had was decent. 

 

You're correct in saying we are pretty good at defending the 3, but we also defended it well against pretty bad teams. Last night was the first relatively decent team we played and they had pretty much any shot they wanted from the perimeter.

[hhcmatt]

34 minutes ago, throwback said:

I think it's mostly that we appear to have zero shot. If we keep it to within single digits, that would be a major accomplishment.

 

You're selling us short. They appear to be similar to us in a lot of ways and we've proven several times this year we are capable of beating ourselves. 

 

Also

 

[TheGov21]

35 minutes ago, 49r said:

Creighton fans are just bummed because their football team is not bowl eligible for the third year in a row.  But yeah, it's probably just you.

 

This is the best thing I've read in a long time. Kudos

[kldm64]

It takes the fun out of "Hate Creighton" week when you feel like you have no shot to win.  This will be the best team we've played all year so far and as much as I hate CU, I'll be shocked if we don't get beat by 25+  We can't defend, we can't shoot 3's, we can't shoot free throws, we can't rebound.  We don't have any aspect of our game that we do well.  Based on that, it could be a blood path on Saturday as well as our next 2 games against Indiana and Purdue.

Edited December 5, 2019 by kldm64

[basketballjones]

Um..... Yeah, I totally forgot about this game this weekend until you said something. Wow.

They have a really good starting 5 - but foul trouble starts and we might have an open window in this game. 

[Ron Mexico]

Big Daddy McD wants to take us behind the woodshed on Saturday. If he gets a chance to run up the score, he will. 

Us winning at their crib would make their fan base absolutely apoplectic.

Most of our fan base, like @throwback said, is expecting Creighton to blow us out whether that is based on reality of not.

As @hhcmatt said Creighton is in a world hurt right now. I think they will really get up for this game though since it really does mean a lot more to them than us.

 

Ultimately the apathy by our fan base about this game is more about us than it is them. We, the collective, still don't view them as a true rival. I believe enthusiasm for this game wouldn't have been hyped this season even if Miles had been the coach since we beat them last year.

[hhcmatt]

1 minute ago, Ron Mexico said:

We, the collective, still don't view them as a true rival

 

I really don't buy this. Creighton is easily the most brought up team on this board. The switching of conferences essentially killed all rivalries prior to 2012. If these guys aren't our rival, then no one is our rival.

[Shawn Eichorst's Toupee]

9 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I really don't buy this. Creighton is easily the most brought up team on this board. The switching of conferences essentially killed all rivalries prior to 2012. If these guys aren't our rival, then no one is our rival.

 

If you told me Nebraska is going to win only 1 game each year, I'd pick the Creighton game 11 out of 10 times.

[Ron Mexico]

7 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

I really don't buy this. Creighton is easily the most brought up team on this board. The switching of conferences essentially killed all rivalries prior to 2012. If these guys aren't our rival, then no one is our rival.

There are a lot of reasons why Creighton is brought up here:

1. Jaysker factor.

2. Proximity

3. Lincoln vs Omaha

4. The #2 and #3 programs in the state in regards to popularity

5. Local press needing to fill articles with something.

 

When it comes to basketball I would argue that we have never really had a rival. The closest would have been KU in the BIG 12 and old BIG 8, although it was mostly one sided.

[Ron Mexico]

2 minutes ago, Shawn Eichorst's Toupee said:

 

If you told me Nebraska is going to win only 1 game each year, I'd pick the Creighton game 11 out of 10 times.

A true rival is a team that when you win it makes your season, regardless of record. Winning that game saves a coaches job. Heat on TO almost completely went away when he finally be OU. 

 

Beating CU is great mostly because it shuts up their fan base and Omaha media. 

Our true rival right now is the NCAA tournament

 

[hskr4life]

1 minute ago, Ron Mexico said:

A true rival is a team that when you win it makes your season, regardless of record.

 

I have actually seen numerous posts on this board about how they wouldn't care if we won another game this year if we win this weekend.  I also believe there was a poll created about winning X number of non-con games or winning just one and it be the Creighton one.

 

Sounds a lot like what you are talking about there.

[Faux Mike Peltz]

I would honestly take not winning a conference game (could actually happen anyway) if it meant we whooped CU by 20 on Omaha. That would be glorious. 

[hhcmatt]

A reason to be optimistic about us winning: Our wins have come against teams with 'substandard shooting defenses'

 

A reason to be pessimistic: Even if we score a bunch of points on Saturday we're easily facing the best offense we've seen who might score a bunch more than a bunch

 

[hhcmatt]

This will probably change at some point, but thus far it's been as simple as 

 

Shoot good = win

Shoot bad = loss

 

[LNKtrnsplnt]

Although I think we’ll probably lose handily, it’s still the game I look forward to the most (and still am this year). That being said, I live in Omaha so have to see people in jaysker gear frequently. If you don’t think this isn’t our biggest game of the year, you were not at last year’s game. Damn that crowd wanted that game like I’ve never seen before. 

[hskr4life]

14 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

This will probably change at some point, but thus far it's been as simple as 

 

Shoot good = win

Shoot bad = loss

 

 

Now dang it Matt... you've got my hopes back up with these last two posts.

[Ron Mexico]

1 hour ago, hskr4life said:

 

I have actually seen numerous posts on this board about how they wouldn't care if we won another game this year if we win this weekend.  I also believe there was a poll created about winning X number of non-con games or winning just one and it be the Creighton one.

 

Sounds a lot like what you are talking about there.

Beating Creighton barely moved the needle for TM. 

I would take losing to CU every year for infinity if it mean that we would regularly made the NCAA Tournament.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Ron Mexico

[TourneyBound]

9 minutes ago, Ron Mexico said:

Beating Creighton barely moved the needle for TM. 

I would take losing to CU every year for infinity if it mean that we would regularly made the NCAA Tournament.

uh  he only beat Creighton his last year right....  hard to move the needle when he lost pretty much every one of them

[Ron Mexico]

11 minutes ago, ConkintheCorner said:

uh  he only beat Creighton his last year right....  hard to move the needle when he lost pretty much every one of them

When TO finally beat OU it moved the needle a lot.

To add to my anti-rivalry point. Creighton and NU don't play in the same conference. 

One point that does matter is that we do often go after the same local recruits.

 

A true rival for us is going to come from the BIG. Wiscy is the closest to becoming our rival and Iowa in the mix as well.

[hskr4life]

Rival Rulebook Section 5.21.1 states

 

"Whereupon two teams who cheer for and affiliate with the same collegiate football team, a rivalry game will be deemed unacceptable due to a possible conflict of interest between one or both fan bases."

 

Man... Creighton fans really do ruin everything.

[Art Vandalay]

Without a doubt Creighton is a rivalry and it should be now. Like it or not they are a Power 6 conference, legit tourney team most years type of program right down the road. The hate is real. Iowa is/will be our main Big10 rival with Wiscy close behind.

 

I don’t like the TO and OU comparison. Hoops you play a lot more games and your conference rivals twice a year, so no one game is make or break. I do think Miles got a lot of benefit winning last year at least in Omaha but obviously not enough to overcome the melt down.