Sports

Bluejays’ second season in Big East serves as true transitional period

The Creighton men’s basketball team followed up its best performance in Big East play with its worst, a 67-40 home loss to Georgetown last weekend in which the Jays shot 20.8 percent from the field.

The 40-point performance was the lowest-scoring game in more than 20 years for the Bluejays. No player made more than two field goals, and the Jays shot 6 of 31 inside the arc.

β€œWe were lucky in that during stretches there they got open shots that they normally knock down that we were fortunate didn’t go in today,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. β€œThat’s a well-coached team. Those are tough kids. They fought and scrapped the whole time; the ball just didn’t bounce their way today.”

That quote by Thompson sums up this season for the Jays. Extended scoreless streaks have cost Creighton throughout the Big East slate, and the Bluejays are shooting 37.1 percent from the field in conference.

How does a team bounce back from a 40-point outing? Senior wing Avery Dingman said it comes down to putting in extra work both on the practice floor and on their own.

β€œIndividually, we need to keep ourselves accountable, keep our teammates accountable for getting up shots,” Dingman said. β€œWe just can’t let [the performance against Georgetown] affect us. It’s over. We need to learn from it and then [move on].”

It starts on the practice floor, but regardless of how many shots they take, they are not going to get any taller, faster or stronger. Creighton’s true transition from the Missouri Valley to the Big East was postponed a year thanks to the presence of the national player of the year in Doug McDermott.

Doug McDermott is gone, and what remains is is a roster made up primarily of players recruited to play in the MVC, most of whom have been role players throughout their careers. This year, those players have had to take on more responsibility than ever before against better competition, and as the numbers show, it has not gone well. The lack of a clear-cut number one option on the roster has caused significant problems on offense.

β€œWe don’t necessarily have that guy that we can turn to offensively when times are tough, and we have to work to develop that in our offense,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

The Butler Bulldogs made the jump to the Big East along with Creighton last year, and like the Bluejays, they did it after losing a key part of their recent success when head coach Brad Stevens accepted the Boston Celtics job. The Bulldogs finished 4-14 in conference and suffered a handful of heart-breaking losses.

This season they got a lift with the return of junior forward Roosevelt Jones after the 6-foot-4-inch playmaker missed the 2013-14 season with an injury. Jones is second on the team in scoring and rebounds and first in assists, and the Bulldogs are third in the conference with a 6-3 record.

The Bluejays will also see a pair of proven players hit the hardwood next season after sitting out this year as transfers. Point guard Mo Watson and forward Cole Huff are poised to play primary roles as juniors in 2015-16.

The transition to the Big East has turned out to be more difficult than most expected. However, as Butler showed, a quick turn around is possible.

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May 2, 2025

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