Creighton Basketball: 3 takeaways from letdown defeat to Providence Friars

Bench issues

Aside from Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Creighton bench was held to just two points, on 1-11 shooting. All of that shooting came from Alex O’Connell and Antwann Jones.

The bench has been a microcosm of this entire Creighton team, being that you never really know what you’re going to get. At times, Antwann Jones and Alex O’Connell have provided an incredible spark at the wing and got the offense going. Other times, like today, they combined for 1-11 and a turnover.

Shereef Mitchell provides stifling defense and premiere breakaway speed when he is on, but tonight was flat and did not contribute much in his short time on the court. Jacob Epperson was inactive again tonight, in a game where we really could’ve used a few minutes from him with Kalkbrenner and Bishop in foul trouble. No official word from Coach McDermott, but one can assume the 7’0 Australian is still having knee troubles.

Kalkbrenner is turning into quite a piece for McDermott, going 3-3 tonight and seemed to stifle Nate Watson better than anyone else tonight. In the past four games, he has been the only truly reliable player off the bench for this Creighton squad.

There will be nights where Mahoney just isn’t on (1-10 from the field tonight), or where Damien hasn’t been able to get going. For Creighton to reach their goals for this year, there need to be guys that can come into the game and play solid minutes of basketball.

I’m not saying they need to light the world on fire, but provide just providing consistent, solid production off the bench will go a really long way. In turn, it will also loosen up the stars and guys like Denzel and Marcus will get a little bit more breathing room.

On the bright side, Zegarowski looked to return to form after missing a couple of games. He looked shard and the hamstring didn’t seem to affect much of what he wanted to do offensively.