Creighton v Georgetown - Preview: Can Creighton Win In D.C. For The First Time?

How to Watch, Stream, Listen, Follow

Game Time: 11:00am CT

Location: Capital One Arena, Washington D.C

TV: Fox Sports Networks (Nebraska & Omaha - FS Midwest / D.C & East Coast MASN2)

Stream: None

Radio: 1620AM the Zone in Omaha / 106.7FM in D.C

Other Blogs: White & Blue Review / Bluejay Banter - Creighton / Casual Hoya - Georgetown

Tweeters:

Creighton - Rob Anderson / Creighton MBB / Tom Nemitz / “Patrick Marshall” / Matt DeMarinis / Corey Lathrop / Jon Nyatawa / Fake Blue Crew

Georgetown - Casual Hoya

---

Odds & Ends

Creighton is favored by 7 points according to Odds Shark.

The over/under is set at 162.

Kenpom says the Jays have a 68% shot at winning this one. The predicted score at 84-79.

---

Series History

Georgetown owns the overall series 6-4, yet the two teams have split in their last four, taking their respective home games.

Creighton won the last game 87-70 in Omaha on February 19th, 2017. In that game, Marcus Foster scored 35 points on 13-19 shooting. Marcus Derrickson had zero points while Jessie Govan scored 12 on 5-14 shooting.

---

Verba de Ludis

Patrick Ewing finally got his first win in conference after the Hoyas outwilled DePaul 90-81 in their last affair. Marcus Derrickson and Jessie Govan combined for 49 points in the affair, with Derrickson going a perfect 10-10 from the stripe on the evening.

You’d think with all the length in Georgetown’s lineup that they’d probably outrebound the smaller Blue Demons, but if you thought that you’d be wrong, as they lost the rebounding battle 35-32.

The Hoyas shot 38% from the field and still somehow found a way to win the game, yet I think that’s more a testament to the awfulness of DePaul than it is to Georgetown’s strengths.

See, when a team hires a head coach who happens to be in his first year of the program, yet has professional basketball accolades that make your grocery list look like a microchip, you’d expect the first year to be mediocre (see: Chris Mullin). That’s exactly what these Hoyas are, yet when they led by almost 20 at the half at Butler, one’s mind might wander and begin to believe in the badboys from D.C. again.

I feel bad for you if you started to believe. I really do. They went on to lose that game, dontcha know?

So, for a team that sits just inside the Kenpom top-100 (at 92!) and that plays with a lightning fast pace, like their opponent will today, yet only shoots an eFG% of 54%, but only allows their opponent to shoot, on average, 30% from beyond the arc, you get a bizarre portrait that’s deceiving and frustrating to properly gauge purely with numbers.

The one thing that’s clear about these Hoyas: they like to score in the post. Whether it be Derrickson or Govan or Johnson, they prefer to pitch it inside, or drive to the tin, than to launch triples from the outside. Straight line drives to the bucket.

Nothing fancy.

Creighton, on the other hand, likes to get up and down in transition. They rely on Marcus Foster to do a breadth of the scoring, yet have picked up Martin Krampelj as of late to put in buckets at a high percentage in the post.

They’ve got flaws, like the fact that their point guards are green and inexperienced, or that if the pace becomes glacial their shooting feeds off the temperature. A good defense can bend the Jays, but not necessarily break them.

Against St. John’s, the Bluejays struggled with the Johnnies’ defensive gameplan which was to simply get back on defense as soon as a shot went up. There was so much emphasis on slowing down the Jays’ transition that they shot themselves out of the game.

The one glaring positive for the Hoyas is the fact that their guard play has been subpar because of their glorious post play, meaning that Khyri Thomas will be without a man to lock in on. He could defend the post, what with his 50-foot wingspan, but to risk the foul trouble would be a foolish gamble.

Speaking of foul trouble, if the Hoyas manage to get both TOBY! and Krampelj into trouble early on, Derrickson and Govan can eat all damn day. The Jays are lacking depth in the post, meaning they’d have to deploy D-2 transfer bigboy Manny Suarez into a high pressure situation while relying on Ronnie Harrell’s smaller frame to defend the post.

This could be a nightmare scenario for the Jays. Or it could be great.

I have no idea.

It’ll be fun, I guess.

Projected Starting Lineups:

Georgetown:

G SR Johnathan Mulmore - 6’4, 185lbs - 7.2 PPG / 4.2 APG / 49% FG

G FR Jamorko Pickett - 6’8, 190lbs - 8.5 PPG / 33% 3FG / 34% FG

G JR Kaleb Johnson - 6’6, 205lbs - 10.5 PPG / 43% 3FG / 60% FG

F JR Marcus Derrickson - 6’7 250lbs - 15.3 PPG / 7.4 RPG / 55% FG

C JR Jessie Govan - 6’10, 270lbs - 18.9 PPG / 12.1 RBP / 56% FG

Creighton:

G SO Davion Mintz - 6’3, 180lbs - 5.4 PPG / 2.5 APG / 48% FG

G JR Khyri Thomas - 6’3, 210lbs - 14.9 PPG / 1.3 SPG / 50% FG

G SR Marcus Foster - 6’3, 205lbs - 19.2 PPG / 44% 3FG / 52% FG

F SR TOBY! Hegner - 6’10, 240lbs - 8.6 PPG / 53% FG / 2.3 RPG

C SO Martin Krampelj - 6’9 220lbs - 12.7 PPG / 65% FG / 8 RPG

---

Song of the Day - Man On Fire - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes