The No. 21 Creighton men’s basketball team is in Philadelphia and is set to face off against the University of Cincinnati. The Jays (27-7, 13-5 MVC) are the No. 7 seed in the Midwest region and punched their ticket by winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and claiming the Valley’s automatic bid, while the Bearcats (22-11, 9-9 Big East) are a No. 10 seed and made the tournament with an at-large bid.
The game, much like last year’s second round match-up with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, is a clash of opposing styles. The Jays defeated Alabama 58-57 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
“There are similarities, certainly defensively,” head coach Greg McDermott said about Alabama and Cincinnati.
Much like Alabama from a year ago, the Bearcats are a lock down defensive team that features a lot of length and athleticism. Cincinnati held opponents to just 58.8 points per game during the season and dominated the glass, pulling down 40 boards per game.
McDermott said the two teams have different approaches on the other end, however.
“Alabama threw it into JaMychal Green a lot more than Cincinnati looks to throw it inside,” McDermott said. “But Cincinnati has got probably a little more fire power in their guard court with the ability of Wright and Kilpatrick and Parker to score the basketball.
Six-foot-four junior guard Sean Kilpatrick leads the Bearcats in scoring at 16.9 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding at 5.2 per game. Six-foot senior point guard Cashmere Wright leads the charge for the Bearcats, averaging 12.6 points and dishing out 3.1 assists per game. Six-foot-three senior guard JaQuon Parker rounds out the Bearcats’ trio of double-digit scorers at 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
However, Creighton led the country in field goal percentage and 3-point percentage at 50.8 and 42.1 percent respectively, and also finished fifth in assists. The Jays will pose a significant challenge for Cincinnati’s defense. If the Bearcats choose to press the Jays as expected, Creighon’s guards will need to be strong with the ball.
“We haven’t faced a whole lot of teams this year with their kind of athletic ability and what they’re going to do pressure wise … It’ll be an important facet of the game, how we handle that pressure, being in attack mode but still being smart and not turning the ball over,” senior guard Grant Gibbs said.
If the Jays can beat the press, they should have plenty of opportunities to get open shots in transition. Junior forward Ethan Wragge is one player in particular that could receive plenty of open looks.
“They like to press,” Wragge said. “They really go after the ball. And I think when teams press like Wichita had there’s room in the back for shots to get off. I don’t know if they have an undersized five man essentially in the Big East that can stretch the floor, and I just have to be ready, if the shots are there, to knock them in.”
Cincinnati has struggled of late and limped into the tournament after being ranked in the top 10 early in the season, going just 4-7 down the stretch. The Jays went through their own slump, losing five of eight, but rebounded nicely to close out the season on a 7-1 run.
“I think we just have to play our game,” junior forward Doug McDermott said. “We haven’t seen a team like them all year. Wichita is probably comparable just with their athleticism and how they’re able to control the boards. We can’t put too much pressure on ourselves; just have to go out and play just like we did in St. Louis an how we were playing so well there at the end of the season.”
Tip-off is still to be determined, but it the game will begin shortly after the conclusion of the first game of the day between Duke University and the University at Albany and will likely come around 1:45 p.m. CST.