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Creighton Basketball 2020: Takeaways from heartbreaking loss to Kansas

By Chris Thedinga

NEW YORK, NY - March 12: The Creighton Bluejays mascot exits after a quarterfinal game against the St. John's Red Storm in the Big East Tournament was cancelled at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2020 in New York City. Each team was allowed about 200 tickets under a reduced attendance policy because of the coronavirus COVID-19. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images).
NEW YORK, NY - March 12: The Creighton Bluejays mascot exits after a quarterfinal game against the St. John's Red Storm in the Big East Tournament was cancelled at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2020 in New York City. Each team was allowed about 200 tickets under a reduced attendance policy because of the coronavirus COVID-19. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images). /
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Creighton Basketball
Christian Bishop Creighton Basketball (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

Troubles in the post

Interior defense has always been a pause for concern regarding this Creighton team. Christian Bishop plays very hard (and had a good game!) but there is only so much a 6’7 forward can do against a much taller Kansas interior.

David McCormack had 12 points on 5-8 shooting in the first half alone for the Jayhawks. In the second half, the Jays were able to slow down McCormick and other Kansas bigs. However, they were still able to greatly influence the game. Kansas got 13 offensive rebounds as opposed to Creighton’s three.

Losing the battle on the offensive glass by ten makes wins very hard to come by, especially on the road. Ryan Kalkbrenner spelled Bishop a couple separate times throughout the game, but Kalkbrenner simply seemed overpowered against KU’s offensive attack. He will be a Creighton great one day, but that day will come when he is twenty pounds heavier and has another year or two under his belt.

In the second half, Creighton doubled down on almost every paint touch, which left open perimeter jumpers for Jayhawk guards. Kansas didn’t shoot the ball great insatiably tonight, but they shot it well enough for this to be a consistent problem. Due to these open shots coming after a double down on a big, Kansas shot 45% from three-point land, a much higher clip than their season average.

Creighton will face similar bigs as McCormack in the future. It makes you question what someone like Nate Watson of Providence will be able to do against Creighton.

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