Oregon Game Thread

[3ontheway]

I think what we all should know by now is if you can't shoot the 3, and are not Kalkbrenner, your minutes will likely be pretty scarce. FF has benefited from this in regards to minutes played...

[JacobPadilla]

Here's my gamer if you're looking for some more Creighton words.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... -overtime/

As for the supposed lack of adjustments, basketball is often a lot more complicated than the way in which we choose to talk about it.

Oregon didn't run much ball screen action in the first half. A lot of what Couisnard got was in transition or off-ball situations where guys fell asleep somewhat.

They got him some mid-post touches for ISOs early in the second half, then started going to more ball screens. The drop worked a little bit early, but then Couisnard got going a bit (and the illegal screens definitely helped that). Midway through the half, they had Kalkbrenner hedge a few screens then swarmed Dante on the roll, and it forced a couple of turnovers.

After Creighton tied it up, Kalkbrenner showed and recovered and Couisnard made a great lob pass to Dante. Then he went into kind of a high drop and Couisnard got downhill; Ashworth dug in off the corner and got a hand on the ball, forcing a wild shot, but Kalkbrenner left his feet to challenge it as well and the ball went right to Dante. Kalk dropped again on the next possession and Couisnard missed a floater instead of challenging him.

They stuck with the drop to start OT and Couisnard hit a floater on the first possession. After that, they trapped him a few times to get the ball out of his hands to great success. Oregon didn't run a single ball screen with the 5 in OT, instead having Evans set a couple.

Couisnard shot 2-14 in the last 15 minutes of the game.

Jacob, the most interesting observation (to me and I can be a bit obtuse) in your story was that Green sat 18 of 20 minutes in the second half. On TV at half time, Mac in a very brief interview mentioned that Green played really well in the first half. The question I have is why did Mac wait so long to go back to Green? Did anyone ask Mac? If not, what is your best guess?

I dislike the Bello, Ashworth, Alexander lineup except when the other team is playing small or when we are milking a lead at the end of the game.

Looks like Mason and Oregon's 4, Kwame Evans Jr., played 11 minutes apiece in the second half. Oregon doesn't have a back-up four, so it was likely just matching Oregon with four guards. Evans played the whole 10 minutes of OT.

[SeattleJay]

Thank you, Jacob. Logical

[vivid_dude]

It's tiring how much other Big East fanbases focus solely on the total points scored by opposing bigs and just extrapolate from there that Kalk is somehow not a great defender. They don't care if it takes 100 shots to get 25 points, they don't watch and see that the scoring is almost entirely as a result of Kalk defending others and not actually scoring one v. one, they completely ignore everything else about his defense and our system, etc.

Annoys me to no end too. Efficiency (or lack thereof) matters. The one-on-one matchups are but one facet of being a good defender. His defensive impact on the other four opposing players is arguably just as important as what he does against his guy. How many times has a capable scoring wing drove the paint this season, saw/sensed Kalkbrenner's presence, and did an about-face back to the perimeter? I don't have the data to support this, but my guess would be several million times.

Kalkbrenner is the most important player to his team in the Big East, in my opinion. Our offensive and defensive schemes are structured around him. CU opponents design their offensive and defensive game plans with him as the focal point. On the rare occasion when he gets a breather, the entire game feels different on both ends of the court because he controls the flow so dramatically with his presence.

Coaches know. That's why they have voted him DPOY for three consecutive seasons. Fans checking a box score don't really know.

[SDJay]

It's tiring how much other Big East fanbases focus solely on the total points scored by opposing bigs and just extrapolate from there that Kalk is somehow not a great defender. They don't care if it takes 100 shots to get 25 points, they don't watch and see that the scoring is almost entirely as a result of Kalk defending others and not actually scoring one v. one, they completely ignore everything else about his defense and our system, etc.

Annoys me to no end too. Efficiency (or lack thereof) matters. The one-on-one matchups are but one facet of being a good defender. His defensive impact on the other four opposing players is arguably just as important as what he does against his guy. How many times has a capable scoring wing drove the paint this season, saw/sensed Kalkbrenner's presence, and did an about-face back to the perimeter? I don't have the data to support this, but my guess would be several million times.

Kalkbrenner is the most important player to his team in the Big East, in my opinion. Our offensive and defensive schemes are structured around him. CU opponents design their offensive and defensive game plans with him as the focal point. On the rare occasion when he gets a breather, the entire game feels different on both ends of the court because he controls the flow so dramatically with his presence.

Coaches know. That's why they have voted him DPOY for three consecutive seasons. Fans checking a box score don't really know.

+100

[JacobPadilla]

Greg McDermott drew up some beauties out of timeouts in the win over Oregon, so i decided to go back over the tape and break down Creighton's ATO plays. Enjoy.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... -sweet-16/

[Chicagojayfan]

Greg McDermott drew up some beauties out of timeouts in the win over Oregon, so i decided to go back over the tape and break down Creighton's ATO plays. Enjoy.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... -sweet-16/

These are great - we are really fortunate to get to watch a team like this and a coach like Mac in action!

[Chicagojayfan]

It's tiring how much other Big East fanbases focus solely on the total points scored by opposing bigs and just extrapolate from there that Kalk is somehow not a great defender. They don't care if it takes 100 shots to get 25 points, they don't watch and see that the scoring is almost entirely as a result of Kalk defending others and not actually scoring one v. one, they completely ignore everything else about his defense and our system, etc.

Annoys me to no end too. Efficiency (or lack thereof) matters. The one-on-one matchups are but one facet of being a good defender. His defensive impact on the other four opposing players is arguably just as important as what he does against his guy. How many times has a capable scoring wing drove the paint this season, saw/sensed Kalkbrenner's presence, and did an about-face back to the perimeter? I don't have the data to support this, but my guess would be several million times.

Kalkbrenner is the most important player to his team in the Big East, in my opinion. Our offensive and defensive schemes are structured around him. CU opponents design their offensive and defensive game plans with him as the focal point. On the rare occasion when he gets a breather, the entire game feels different on both ends of the court because he controls the flow so dramatically with his presence.

Coaches know. That's why they have voted him DPOY for three consecutive seasons. Fans checking a box score don't really know.

100%

Also, thanks to Jacob for breaking down the numbers on Dante versus Kalkbrenner. Teams have gotten smarter about trying to take advantage of Kalkbrenner's help, but it still leads to a win for Creighton in almost every case.

- Dante had a .695 eFG% this year, and in our game he was .600 with much of it coming on those offensive rebound plays off of Kalk happening. A good game by Dante, no doubt, but not a clear win, particularly when you look at how that help defense changed Oregon's play elsewhere

- While it seemed they were killing us over and over, eventually Couisnard wore down and even then the D hadn't been all bad, in large part because we took pretty much everyone else on their team out of the game.

In terms of total shooting %, they were .460 (3rd worst of the season for them)
In terms of offensive rating they were 95.4 (offensive rating on bball reference), and the 5th worst of the season for them

If we'd shot anywhere near our norm in the first half we blow them out, but, as it is, we got a classic game and the win

[jays911]

Nice interview of Mac on the Jim Rome show, re the Oregon game and more: [link]

[JayPak]

Nice interview of Mac on the Jim Rome show, re the Oregon game and more: [link]

Thanks for link.