The Gonzaga Bulldogs will play their first ranked opponent of the new season as they host the Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday evening.
Creighton, ranked No. 23, has just one game under their belt–a lopsided win over South Dakota, your standard KenPom 300ish team.
Gonzaga opened with a similar win over Texas Southern, but then followed up that effort with a largely lock down performance over Oklahoma on Saturday.
TV Schedule
- Time: 7:00 pm PT
- TV: ESPN
- Live Stream: Link here
Meet the Creighton Bluejays
Record: 1-0, KenPom: 44
Creighton fans finally had to come to grips with the departure of Ryan Kalkbrenner, the 7′ defensive menace who has been an anchor of the team’s identity for the past four years. They also lost their starting backcourt to graduation. So, like basically every school out there, this is a new-look starting five for head coach Joe McDermott.
He raided Iowa for two pieces–senior guard Josh Dix and junior forward Owen Freeman. He pulled in senior point guard Nic Graves from Charlotte to stabilize the backcourt. Sophomore guard Blake Harper comes from Howard, where he was an absolute scoring machine his freshman year.
McDermott also had the good pleasure of actually retaining players. Sophomore Jackson McAndrew and junior Issac Traudt are two top-50 recruits in high school that are being asked to take an elevated role this season.
The four factors
(largely meaningless due to lack of data from early season)
| Gonzaga O | Gonzaga D | Creighton O | Creighton D | |
| eFG% | 53.7 (113) | 36.3 (15) | 55.2 (94) | 45.3 (94) |
| TO% | 13.7 (59) | 22.5 (63) | 17.8 (173) | 17.8 (170) |
| OR% | 44.6 (25) | 23.5 (59) | 54.3 (2) | 45.7 (327) |
| FTA/FGA | 21.6 (311) | 29.9 (97) | 14.9 (344) | 18.9 (25) |
What to watch out for
More of the first half defense from Oklahoma
It was trying times from the Sooners on Saturday as they opened the game and just could not get a single thing going. Gonzaga held Oklahoma to just 0.811 PPP and two offensive rebounds. About the only thing Oklahoma managed to do correctly was get to the line, where they went a perfect 11-for-11.
Things tapered off for Gonzaga defensively a tad bit in the second half. Although the final score sat at a 15 point spread, that feels closer than the game ever actually felt, mainly because of how good the Zags looked to start the game.
Creighton, like Oklahoma, has some experienced scorers but they are also playing together for the first time. The Zags have length on the perimeter that successfully disrupted an athletic and skilled Oklahoma backcourt.
Mario Saint-Supery vs. Braeden Smith
In general, if a starter from a mid-major transfers over and then willingly chooses to redshirt, they’ve bought into the system. For Braeden Smith, the question is if the system is going to work for him. My take–it will.
Two games is hardly a trend. Smith hasn’t looked excellent by any stretch of the matter to start the season. However, there is something to be said for a player coming off a redshirt year. Practices are practices. They aren’t games.
Meanwhile, Saint-Supery spent the offseason playing in international tournaments. In terms of conditioning of the brain–he is there, right now.
I still think that Smith is going to be the starting PG for much of the season. Saint-Supery looked both good on Saturday and very much the freshman. Smith does need to rediscover a bit of his mojo quickly, however, or else the minutes will continue to get eaten away.
The x-factors plural
If it looked like Tyon Grant-Foster and Jalen Warley were all over the court against Oklahoma, that is because they were. The two senior wingers had plenty of highlight-reel worthy plays and made life miserable for Sooners fans.
Neither one has a particularly dangerous outside shot, but both players made up for it in those other intangible ways. The two combined for nine of Gonzaga’s 18 offensive boards vs. Oklahoma. I wouldn’t expect that night in and night out, but that sort of glue guy hustle work is what makes good teams great.
Usually, a squad would be lucky to have one such player. On Saturday, Gonzaga had two such players. Let’s see if that is the case as the year progresses.