Creighton

[tower912]

To take this out of the 'what are we ranked' thread.........    Creighton is tough at home.    Gave Gonzaga all they wanted in Omaha.   Good 3 pt shooting team (43.6% as a team), particularly at home.     9 guys averaging double digit minutes.    I get the notion that MU needs a statement road win.    And, for MU to win a Big East Championship, they need to find a way to win 4-5 road games.    But kenpom isn't wrong and I expect Vegas to favor Creighton, too.   

[Lighthouse 84]

To take this out of the 'what are we ranked' thread.........    Creighton is tough at home.    Gave Gonzaga all they wanted in Omaha.   Good 3 pt shooting team (43.6% as a team), particularly at home.     9 guys averaging double digit minutes.    I get the notion that MU needs a statement road win.    And, for MU to win a Big East Championship, they need to find a way to win 4-5 road games.    But kenpom isn't wrong and I expect Vegas to favor Creighton, too.

FIFY.

[muwarrior69]

Wojo might have better luck bringing the women's team to Creighton.

[MuMark]

Creighton....elite offense...bad D......

Offense is going to have carry the load in this one for MU to have a chance

[Herman Cain]

Have watched Creighton a lot this year. They are the typical Creighton style team, which moves the ball around fast and can go on runs. Should be a loud environment and a great game for the fans to watch. 

[muwarrior69]

Harry Froling's brother, Samson, plays for Creighton.

[MUMountin]

We've had pretty good success at Creighton since they joined the BE.  Always a tough environment but I hope we can keep it up.  Would be a big win for the confidence to get an early conference win on the road against a top half team, and sets us up nicely to have another decent winning streak into the end of the month.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

To take this out of the 'what are we ranked' thread.........    Creighton is tough at home.    Gave Gonzaga all they wanted in Omaha.   Good 3 pt shooting team (43.6% as a team), particularly at home.     9 guys averaging double digit minutes.    I get the notion that MU needs a statement road win.    And, for MU to win a Big East Championship, they need to find a way to win 4-5 road games.    But kenpom isn't wrong and I expect Vegas to favor Creighton, too.

I would not be totally surprised if the BE champ is 12-6, or even 2 or 3 teams at 11-7.  There just isn't a standout team this year and the bottom of the conference will still win some games.  Last place team could very well have 4 or 5 wins; some years last place only wins 2.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Could be a first to 95 wins type game. 

[MU82]

FIFY.

Yeah, gotta agree that beating this Creighton team wouldn't be a "statement" win, at least not the way I think of what that term means.

Harry Froling's brother, Samson, plays for Creighton.

Maybe Wojo should bring some shears and secretly cut off this guy's hair.

I would not be totally surprised if the BE champ is 12-6, or even 2 or 3 teams at 11-7.  There just isn't a standout team this year and the bottom of the conference will still win some games.  Last place team could very well have 4 or 5 wins; some years last place only wins 2.

Agree. Several good teams, no great teams, no horrifically bad teams. Hoping that at the end of the season we'll be a "very good" team -- and the champion.

I hope we can keep it up.

That's what she said. (Sorry.)

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Weird team. Top 5 players in terms of minutes are all 6'5" or shorter. Biggest guy in that group is Mitch Ballock who is 8/21 on 2P FGs this season. Martin Krampelj is their only good big and he has been dominate in his first two Big East games. They will play him max minutes and surround him with a bunch of short guys who can shoot. He can shoot as well so I would expect to see very little Theo and more Joey/Ed at the 5.

Personally, I think they are a tad overrated by the metrics. They have been munching on really good buy games, beating 5 teams ranked between 72 and 120 on KenPom and avoiding any sub-300 opponents. And the team ranked #72 was missing its leading scorer (AJ Reeves of Providence) when they played. They are 1-5 against teams ranked 71 or higher in KenPom with the one win being against #36 Clemson on a neutral court. Granted, 3/5 of the losses were true road games and the two home losses were both to top 25 teams (including #3 Gonzaga).

Keys to this game:

1. Run them off the three point line. 3 of their top 5 players have more 3PMs than 2PMs. They are not bad scoring inside the arc but I don't think they can win without it.

2. Kill them on the offensive glass. We will have size at every position not manned by Markus Howard. Getting Krampelj in foul trouble could help with this.

3. Big games from the Hausers (or Cain/Bailey) would really help. At any given moment one of the Hausers (or Cain/Bailey) are going to have 3-5 inches on the guy defending them. That makes shooting so much easier. Creighton is not a good defensive team. If Howard can find the open Hauser then our offense should be clicking.

Creighton is a lot like us from the last two seasons. When their offense is on all cylinders, it can beat anyone. Given that Wojo has absolutely owned Creighton since starting here, I'm feeling confident heading into the game.

[goldeneagle91114]

I also think there is one big X factor that is not being discussed. Marquette has been blown out on the road. I felt that both games the team did not seem dialed in. Wojo let them have it after the St. Johns game. I would assume that Marquette will be ready to play on Wednesday and wil want to prove they can win on the road.

[CreightonWarrior]

I think the only way Creighton pulls this one out is if Howard goes broke. While we kind of played Gonzaga close we still got outscored by 18 in the 2nd half. Defense isn't good so it will be very difficult to keep up with a good scoring team.

[KampusFoods]

I think the only way Creighton pulls this one out is if Howard goes broke. While we kind of played Gonzaga close we still got outscored by 18 in the 2nd half. Defense isn't good so it will be very difficult to keep up with a good scoring team.

Twins. Just like when we played Kansas.

[denverMU]

I also think there is one big X factor that is not being discussed. Marquette has been blown out on the road. I felt that both games the team did not seem dialed in. Wojo let them have it after the St. Johns game. I would assume that Marquette will be ready to play on Wednesday and wil want to prove they can win on the road.

It seems to me that they try not to get too amped up on the road and as a result they come out flat.  We need much more energy to start road games.

[BM1090]

I'm not saying MU can't or won't win this game, but I do feel like we're being a tad too optimistic. We're likely to be 3-4 point underdogs. We haven't shown any ability to play well on the road yet. I'd expect a better performance than SJU simply because it is a better matchup for us, but I don't think we win this one.

Should be a good game.

[warriorchick]

This just in:

https://twitter.com/mjdemarinis/status/1082376092948881409


@mjdemarinis
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#Jays sophomore big man Jacob Epperson will have surgery soon on his injured right knee and will miss the remainder of the 2018-19 season.

Recovery timetable is 5-6 months. Creighton will apply for a medical redshirt.

[tower912]

He had appeared in 9 of their 15 games averaging 9 minutes a game.  10th on their team in minutes.   The equivalent of MU losing Heldt.

Still, too bad for the kid.  Best of luck on his recovery.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I was wondering how he regressed so much. Looked really good at the end of last season. Hope he recovers well

[JakeBarnes]

I was wondering how he regressed so much. Looked really good at the end of last season. Hope he recovers well

Magic Epperson.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Magic Epperson.

He did look like Alley Oop Magic against MU in spurts last year.

[Nukem2]

A tough year for Epperson as he also had a back injury during the summmer.  Really liked him in his short  season last year after burning his redshirt.

[Herman Cain]

Weird team. Top 5 players in terms of minutes are all 6'5" or shorter. Biggest guy in that group is Mitch Ballock who is 8/21 on 2P FGs this season. Martin Krampelj is their only good big and he has been dominate in his first two Big East games. They will play him max minutes and surround him with a bunch of short guys who can shoot. He can shoot as well so I would expect to see very little Theo and more Joey/Ed at the 5.

Personally, I think they are a tad overrated by the metrics. They have been munching on really good buy games, beating 5 teams ranked between 72 and 120 on KenPom and avoiding any sub-300 opponents. And the team ranked #72 was missing its leading scorer (AJ Reeves of Providence) when they played. They are 1-5 against teams ranked 71 or higher in KenPom with the one win being against #36 Clemson on a neutral court. Granted, 3/5 of the losses were true road games and the two home losses were both to top 25 teams (including #3 Gonzaga).

Keys to this game:

1. Run them off the three point line. 3 of their top 5 players have more 3PMs than 2PMs. They are not bad scoring inside the arc but I don't think they can win without it.

2. Kill them on the offensive glass. We will have size at every position not manned by Markus Howard. Getting Krampelj in foul trouble could help with this.

3. Big games from the Hausers (or Cain/Bailey) would really help. At any given moment one of the Hausers (or Cain/Bailey) are going to have 3-5 inches on the guy defending them. That makes shooting so much easier. Creighton is not a good defensive team. If Howard can find the open Hauser then our offense should be clicking.

Creighton is a lot like us from the last two seasons. When their offense is on all cylinders, it can beat anyone. Given that Wojo has absolutely owned Creighton since starting here, I'm feeling confident heading into the game.

I think ETSU buy game has worked out really well for them.

[PGsHeroes32]

Will be a tough game to win

But if we struggle offensively in this game like IU and SJU...the road woes will be real concerning.

We should at least be able to score a lot

[willie warrior]

I would not be totally surprised if the BE champ is 12-6, or even 2 or 3 teams at 11-7.  There just isn't a standout team this year and the bottom of the conference will still win some games.  Last place team could very well have 4 or 5 wins; some years last place only wins 2.

What? There isn't a standout BEast team this year? But wait...I thought all the soothsayers said we were the standout team. Hmmmm....or was it DePaul?