The Big East Weekend Wrap will cover news and notes from the weekend’s games.
Continuing its hot start, the Big East finished off another strong week and as a whole, stands at 30-2. For most teams, the competition picked up after a week of tune-up type games. Sensing a higher state of importance, a number of Big East teams stepped up, pulling off upsets and recording marquee, resume-building wins (Creighton, Providence). Others, however, floundered and either lost to underwhelming competition (Marquette) or narrowly avoided ugly losses (Villanova, St. John’s). Below are four key takeaways from the past week of Big East action.
- Creighton might not be so bad after all. I’ll admit, I had Creighton ranked #9 in the Big East coming into this season. I thought the loss of McDermott, and three other starters, would have a monumental impact on the offense’s fluidity and efficiency. Instead, head coach Greg McDermott’s playcalling, ball movement, and overall offensive scheme appear to have remained the same. This is largely in part due to the emergence of senior point guard Austin Chatman, who has been near flawless at keeping all of the Bluejays’ newcomers on the same page (2.1 turnovers per 40 minutes). On Wednesday, Creighton squared off against the 18th ranked Oklahoma Sooners and rallied from 18 down to steal the show. Surprisingly, the Bluejays shot poorly all night, just 8-26 from three and 37.5% overall, but Isaiah Zierden and Toby Hegner are doing their best to fill the Manigat/Wragge roles on last year’s squad: finding open space on the floor and draining threes at crucial points in the game. Chatman, the lone returning starter, knows exactly how to run the offense after four years in the system, and has found success by driving and drawing defenders, and either getting to the line or dishing to open teammates. The 6’0 guard posted a 17 point, 11 rebound, six assist statline against the Sooners.
- Kris Dunn is the real deal. Normally, Creighton would receive the top headline in the Big East for its win over #18 Oklahoma, but Dunn’s performance this week was just too impressive to ignore. Dunn’s role on the 5-0 Friars is not as a primary scorer, that’s LaDontae Henton‘s job. Instead, Dunn serves as a distributor and offensive coordinator, putting teammates in a better position to score. The 6’3 sophomore was a highly touted McDonald’s All American out of high school, but spent much of last season on the bench after a season-ending injury just two weeks into the season. Anyone can recognize how important senior LaDontae Henton is to Providence, who scored a career high 38 points in a huge win over Notre Dame today and is averaging a league-leading 19.8 points per game. But Dunn, who got off to a rough start in his first game has completely turned things around and is largely responsible for the Friars’ hot start. He is now averaging 8.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game with just 17 turnovers through five games, including a remarkable 14 assists against Navy. Dunn was a major question mark coming into this season, and with a depleted Friars backcourt following Bryce Cotton’s departure, his continued success will be vital to Providence’s. The Friars offense runs at a completely different rate when Dunn on the floor, and now the question will be whether he can avoid foul trouble and stay on the floor long enough in close games: he played just 21 minutes versus Notre Dame, and is averaging 3.3 fouls per game.
- Joshua Smith has proven the doubters wrong. In light of D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera‘s slow start, averaging just 9.0 points per game in three games thus far, the 6’10”, 350-pound center has stepped up big time. Coming into this season, many were concerned over his ability to stay on the floor dealing with both stamina issues and foul trouble. But the last week of games has put these concerns to rest. Sure, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Robert Morris aren’t the most formidable of opponents, and they certainly don’t have the interior size to match up with Smith, but the senior was dominant every time he stepped onto the floor. Smith posted 20 points and 12 rebounds in the first matchup and 22 and 11 in the second, all the while playing 26 minutes each game and staying out of foul trouble. True tests will come in the following weeks in games against Florida and Kansas, and then Smith will have to pick on somebody his own size. The performance of freshman LJ Peak has been encouraging, but Smith-Rivera will need to pick it up if the Hoyas want to put up a fight.
- Villanova, St. Johns, and particularly Marquette have been disappointing. The Wildcats once again had an abysmal shooting night, making just five of 22 attempts from deep in a seven point home win over Bucknell. The “Shoot ’em up, sleep in the streets” philosophy isn’t working out thus far. St. John’s is in the exact same boat. Through three games, the Johnnies are shooting an atrocious 14.8% from three, good for fifth-worst in the country. In the past week, they played close games against Franklin Pierce, a D-II school, and LIU-Brooklyn. Despite completely dominating the glass, the dynamic backcourt of D’Angelo Harrison, Phil Greene, and Rysheed Jordan have been largely inefficient in terms of shooting the ball. And then there’s Marquette. The loss at Ohio State was excusable, but losing to Nebraska-Omaha at home and giving up 97 points? Absolutely not. Senior Juan Anderson has emerged as the team’s leading scorer, after playing just 13.5 minutes per game last year, but Deonte Burton is nowhere to be found and the Golden Eagles look completely lost on defense. Defenders were constantly losing their man off screens and giving up easy layups or wide open threes. There’s still plenty of games to go, but it’s looking more and more like Steve Wojciechowski will have a long season ahead.