Creighton Basketball 2020: Takeaways from heartbreaking loss to Kansas

Creighton has a lot of offensive weapons

The narrative of Creighton, at least nationally, is the Marcus Zegarowski show. Zegarowski is very good, and undoubtedly the key point in Creighton’s success, but Creighton is far from a one-trick pony. Zegarowski and Ballock only combined 22 points on 7-22 from the field, and the Jays only shot 33% from three-point range as a team. They were also facing a top-5 opponent in Kansas. With all this being said, they should lose by 20, right?

Not so fast. Creighton is not nearly as reliant on the three-point shots going down, and they have a very talented supporting cast. Denzel Mahoney put up 19 points and five boards and was extremely big down the stretch.

Damien Jefferson sure was a bright spot tonight for Creighton. He put up 13 points and six rebounds. It seemed like every time Jefferson was able to get the ball in his hands, something good came out of it. Except at the free throw line, where he was just 1-4. Regardless, Mahoney and Jefferson proved they are real threats offensively against top-tier defense. You cannot just focus on Zegarowski and Ballock and expect to win, it will not be quite that easy.

Christian Bishop worked tirelessly on both ends and had 13 points and nine rebounds on 5-6 shooting. Bishop is an exciting player to watch and he maybe hustles more than anyone on the floor. He sets countless on-ball and off-ball screens in Creighton’s offense and is asked to carry a lot of the load down low defensively against much bigger competition.

This well-rounded Creighton attack will create a lot of tough decisions for opposing coaches.