Big East Nightly Recap: December 19, 2014

It was a perfect night for the Big East Conference, as the Creighton Bluejays, Marquette Golden Eagles and St. John's Red Storm all took home victories on the hardwood on Friday.

Creighton took aim at starting another home win streak after the Saint Mary's Gaels upended their winning ways in Omaha. They welcomed Texas Pan-American to the CenturyLink Center and won by the tally of 75-60.

Speaking of the Gaels, they traveled to Queens and inside Carnesecca Arena, they gave another Big East team a scare. But the St. John's Red Storm were able to survive the onslaught, and walked away with a 53-47 victory.

Finally, the Marquette Golden Eagles welcomed the Alabama A&M Bulldogs to the historic Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee. The end result was a beautiful one for the Golden Eagles, as they soundly defeated their opponent to the tune of 83-49. The win was the biggest margin of victory for Marquette this season.

Here are some things we learned from Friday night.

1. D'Angelo Harrison is on an absolute tear

It looks like D'Angelo Harrison wants his third consecutive Big East Player of the Week Award. The senior guard has 21 points on 7-16 shooting, along with three steals in the Red Storm's big come from behind victory against the Gaels.

2. The Johnnies showed their toughness on Friday

A come from behind win like this against a quality nonconference opponent will do wonders for Steve Lavin's bunch going down the stretch. The Red Storm trailed 33-18 at the half, and didn't tie the game until they got it to 41-41 with ten minutes to play.

3. Where's Waldow? You might want to figure that out -- soon

There's a case to be made for Saint Mary's Brad Waldow being the best mid-major player in the country. He had 26 points and 12 rebounds tonight, and has averaged 21.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game this season.

4. Luke Fischer is an impact player

He might not be Justin Credible or Lance Storm, but Marquette's big man Luke Fischer has stepped into the lineup and has become an immediate, legitimate threat. He led all scorers on Friday night with 22 points, and with six rebounds, and a perfect 8-for-8 night from the floor, he proved why there might be something else brewing in Milwaukee, besides the beer.

5. Marquette manhandled their opposition tonight

Not only did the Golden Eagles win by almost 40 points on Friday, but they stifled Alabama A&M just about everywhere. Whether it was picking their pockets -- 12 steals -- winning in the rebounding department -- 32-22 edge -- or forcing them to a line of 35.3-19.0-52.9 in FG%-3PT%-FT%, MU frustrated the Bulldogs from start to finish.

6. The baby blue jerseys are still really, really nice

It's not something we didn't already know. But Marquette debuted their baby blue jerseys this evening against Alabama A&M. And boy are they still really, really nice.

via GoMarquette.com Photo Center

Just gorgeous.

7. Austin Chatman is Creighton's best player -- by far

I wouldn't really classify this as a #hottake or anything of that nature. It's simply the way it is, and Chatman proved that yet again against Texas Pan-American. The senior point guard scored 20 points, meaning he's gotten into double figures nine times this season. He's also done that in seven consecutive games now. The gap is widening between Chatman and every other Bluejay as the season wears on.

8. The more we keep waiting for the Jays to regain their 3-point shooting form, the more hopeless it could be

On 26 3-point attempts against the Broncs, Creighton shot 30.5 percent. At the moment, their 3-point field goal percentage is at 36.5, 96th in the country. That isn't bad by any stretch. But after placing 3rd, 1st and 1st in the country the last three seasons, it's tough to envision that to start to ascend up the ranks at this point. It might be best just to accept that the Jays could be an average 3-point shooting team this year. Whether that plagues them or not is left to be seen.

9. Creighton dominated in the offensive rebounding department

A breath of fresh air? Probably so. The Bluejays had four times as many rebounds as the Broncs did on the offensive glass, winning 16-4 in that department. They might be 209th in OR% but this was probably their best performance of the season in regards to getting their offensive rebounding opportunities. Zach Hanson led the way with four.