The No. 12 Creighton men’s basketball team has made a good first impression halfway through its debut season in the Big East, going 8-1 on its way to first place in the conference.
The lone blemish in conference play came in a road loss to Providence on a night that the Jays shot 21 percent from beyond the arc. The other two losses in the Jays’ 18-3 start came against a San Diego State team currently ranked No. 5 in the nation, and a 17-3 George Washington team, both in the Wooden Legacy Tournament.
“Obviously it goes without saying that I’d have never imagined this the first time through that we could be in this position,” head coach Greg McDermott said. “Obviously to be here you’ve got to figure out a way to win on the road, and this is a hard league to win on the road. We’ve found a way to do that, but there’s a long ways to go. Anything can happen in this league; there’s just so little difference from the teams that are on the bottom right now and the teams that are on the top.”
The team is talented in all aspects, but every conversation about Creighton basketball begins and ends with two-time All-American senior forward Doug McDermott. A favorite to win National Player of the Year, McDermott is second in the nation in scoring, averaging 25 points on 50 percent shooting and 43.9 percent from 3-point range.
McDermott has hit two game-winning shots this season, including one last week against St. John’s when he dropped a season-high 39 points. He certainly has every Bluejay fan thankful that he decided to return for his senior year.
“I knew we could get off to a start like this,” McDermott said, “We all did. It’s definitely going to be a challenge this next run through because everyone is going to be coming at us. We’re the new guys in the conference so they’re going to want another crack at us.”
This team is not just about McDermott, however. Senior forward Ethan Wragge has emerged as a scoring threat that hits 49.7 percent of his shots from long range. After averaging 7.7 points per game last year, he has improved to an average of 12 points this year to go along with 4.2 rebounds. In the Jays’ 96-68 win over No. 6 Villanova, Wragge hit his first seven shots from 3-point range and tied a school record with nine 3-pointers in the game, finishing with a career-high 27 points.
In the absence of senior Grant Gibbs, who suffered a dislocated knee cap on Jan. 7 against DePaul, the backcourt trio of guards featuring juniors Austin Chatman and Devin Brooks and senior Jahenns Manigat have risen to the challenge. Chatman is averaging 7.2 points, 4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, while Brooks is posting 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game on top of wowing Jays fans with his highlight-reel plays. Manigat, the team’s emotional leader, is averaging 8.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
“We’ve just got to learn from our victories as well as our one loss and understand that we’re not unbeatable,” Manigat said. “Every day we have to come out there with an approach that we’re going to get better, we’re going to get better defensively, we’re going to be more crisp offensively and see how good of a team we really can be.”
Should Gibbs return by mid-February as expected, the backcourt could be a force to be reckoned with come March. Gibbs was averaging 6.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game before his injury.
At 6 feet 11 inches, junior center Will Artino has been a big presence in the middle for the Jays. After losing Gregory Echenique to graduation at the end of last season, many were unsure of how the Jays would fare against physical Big East teams. Artino has accepted the role of the man in the middle and is putting up 6.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game off the bench.
The Jays will need contributions from all players as they embark on the second half of Big East conference play. The Big East is talented from top to bottom, it looks as if it will come down to Creighton and Villanova (7-1 Big East) vying for the regular season title come March.
The Jays will have to take the season one game at a time however, as they first take on the DePaul Blue Demons in Omaha on Friday. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. and the game will be shown on Fox Sports 1.