Creighton Basketball: 3 keys to Bluejays beating San Diego State in Round of 64
Make some timing shots from deep
Well, sometimes basketball comes down to which team puts the ball in the basket. Creighton has not been exceptionally good at that this season. The Jays rank 314th nationally in 3-point percentage at 30%. Against Villanova in the Big East Championship, the Jays went 3/29 from deep. If they make just a couple more they might likely win that game. It’s not like they were throwing up prayers either, plenty of those 26 missed three-point shots were really solid looks.
SDSU’s interior defense is one of the very best in the land. They aren’t going to give up too many freebies in the paint, you’ll have to shoot and create well. Arthur Kaluma is shooting just 25% from deep, while Alexander clocks in at 27%. Both of these guys are good shooters, and Coach Mac continues to say how Kaluma is their best three-point shooter in practice. Adding a couple more perimeter shots to fall from those two guys would go a long way.
The two best perimeter shooters are seniors Ryan Hawkins and Alex O’Connell. Both of them can get *really* hot, but when they’re cold– the Jays go cold. In games where Hawkins scored 11+ points, Creighton is 19-4 on the year. Without him scoring 11+, they are just 3-7.
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Get Hawk and AOC going and find a way to get a couple perimeter shots to fall from the other guys, Creighton will pull this off and set up a juicy Round of 32 matchup with Kansas.