Rushed Reactions: #16 Creighton 74, California 64
Posted by rtmsf on December 15th, 2012
Some thoughts from Saturday night’s Creighton-California game in Berkeley…
Three Key Takeaways.
- Doug McDermott Is As Good As Advertised. This was the first time we’d actually seen him play in person and, needless to say, we came away very impressed. Even though he’s clearly not an elite athlete, he makes up for it because there’s no wasted motion whatsoever in McDermott’s game. He keeps things simple — no excessive dribbling, no exaggerated movements, just catch-and-shoot when the opportunity presents itself. More often than not, the ball goes in the hole. In McDermott’s last three games including this win, he’s averaging 30.3 PPG while knocking down splits of 58%/63%/86% from the field, three and foul line respectively. The scary part is that those numbers aren’t terribly far off of his season averages (23.7 PPG on 55%/53%/87%). He may have started out slowly this season compared to his sophomore campaign, but he’s making a great push again at a NPOY candidacy.
- The Frustrating Game of Allen Crabbe. Allen Crabbe continued a career history of shrinking away from the spotlight in big games. In last year’s First Four NCAA Tournament game, for example, he shot 3-of-14 in a horrific 10-point performance. Tonight he ended the game with 14 points and seven rebounds, but he started by making only one of his first 14 attempts, ended with a 6-of-26 nightmare, and much of that falls on his lack of aggressiveness and lack of understanding that he held a distinct size and athletic mismatch over his Creighton defender. The problem is that Cal’s offense depends almost entirely on its guard scoring of Crabbe (21.9 PPG) and Justin Cobbs (17.8 PPG) and when these two struggle — Cobbs shot an ok 8-of-17 for 18 points — the Bears simply don’t have enough offensive answers to challenge good teams.
- Scouting Creighton the Rest of the Way. Creighton’s ceiling with the right match-ups is probably the Sweet Sixteen, perhaps a round further if they play a Cinderella in that round. Even with McDermott’s scoring punch, it was apparent that the Bluejays have more offensive weapons than him especially given all the attention defenses throw his way. Grant Gibbs (10 points) and Jahenns Manigat (11 points) both had quiet but sneakily effective games when McDermott was on the bench of otherwise preoccupied. Gregory Echinique ended up with a double-double (10/11). The one major concern we still have with the Bluejays is its softish defense, but it is clearly better than last year’s mediocre performance and it was apparent that they’ve been really working on it. Crabbe was as frustrated a player as we’ve ever seen him, and much of that was due to the Creighton defensive strategy.
Star of the Game. Doug McDermott, Creighton. Really no other choice here, as McDermott picked his spots on the inside early but drifted out beyond the three-point line as the game progressed to find his 34 points. It didn’t matter where he was located on the floor, though, because Cal couldn’t guard him wherever he was. Eighteen exciting first half points were followed by a more pedestrian 16-point second half, but unlike his counterpart on the Cal side, McDermott expertly played his mismatches and made the Bears defense pay for its mistakes (and there were plenty). He’s well on his way to another NPOY candidacy this season.
Quotable.
- “If that Catholic league goes down, I’m sure we’d love to do it.” – Creighton’s Doug McDermott after the game, referring to the New Big East.
- “We’re not good enough yet.” – California head coach Mike Montgomery, referring to what he’s learned about his team over the last couple of weeks (losses to Wisconsin, UNLV, and Creighton).
Sights and Sounds. Today was Santa Con in many places, and the group of Cal fans dressed as St. Nick immediately behind the visiting basket made for some fun throughout the game.
We also wanted to make sure to catch up with Doug McDermott after the game and here was our short interview with him.
What’s Next? Creighton returns home for a tilt with Tulsa on Wednesday night, but the Bluejays won’t leave Nebraska again until after the new year — a December 29 game against Evansville will tip off the MVC season for the team. California also won’t leave home until 2013, with games against UC Santa Barbara, Prairie View A&M and Harvard before a road trip to the SoCal schools just after New Year’s.
