In last week's loss to Marquette, Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner had a rare bad game. The Bluejays' big man shot 4-11 and was a non-factor in the 79-71 loss.
In the last two games, the Kalkbrenner that has terrorized the Big East has returned. He had 26 points against Xavier and 20 points and 10 rebounds in last night's 84-64 win over Providence.
Kalkbrenner Controlled Both Ends
Kalkbrenner's numbers supported his dominance on both ends of the floor.
On the offensive end, he hurt Providence on two of the three levels of the floor. Early on, the Bluejays were getting the ball to him in the post where Providence didn't have enough size to contain him.
Six out of Kalkbrenner's eight made field goals were either layups or dunks. No big-man rim runs better than Kalkbrenner. That allowed him to get layups and dunks in transition.
His other two made baskets were three-pointers, a shot he's proven time and time again that he can make.
He pulled down 10 rebounds, eight on the defensive end, finishing with a Defensive Rebounding Rate (DRR) of 23.1.
When Kalkbrenner was grabbing rebounds on defense, he was blocking shots. He finished with six blocked shots for the second game in a row.
Three-Point Shooting
Creighton is hard enough to beat when Kalkbrenner gets going, but when the Bluejays can establish an inside-out rhythm, it becomes almost impossible to beat them in Omaha.
Creighton finished 14-32 from the three-point line. Teams know Steven Ashworth is going to make threes, but the goal is to not allow him to shoot a high percentage and ensure the secondary three-point shooters aren't effective.
The Friars failed at both. Ashworth was 4-10 (40%) from the three-point. Providence didn't run Ashworth off the line for most of the night in closeout situations.
Part of the problem was the Friar's insistence on going into drop coverage. Whenever Ashworth and Kalkbrenner went ball-screen action, Ashworth's defender would get hung on the screen. Kalkbrenner's defender would be in drop coverage, so he wasn't in a position to close out on Ashworth.
"We operated in the middle of the floor with ball screens," said head coach Greg McDermott. That's kind of the best way to attack that pressure."
Not only did Ashworth have success from long distance but so did Mason Miller (2-3 from three) and Isaac Traudt (4-4 from three).
Sharing is Caring
The Bluejays had 15 assists on 32 made baskets because they shared the ball, taking advantage of Providence's defensive inefficiency.
Creighton would use screen-and-roll or zoom action when the Friars pressed up on the ballhandler, which put the Friars' defenders in a decision-making posture of what to take away. That allows an unselfish team like the Bluejays to weaponize all three scoring levels on offense.