Creighton is a short team that plays at a slightly faster pace than we are used to, and that uses more bench than anyone in the country except Northwestern State and Pepperdine.

The good news is that Creighton is ranked below us in the Pomeroy computer rankings (65 vs. 48), and their only quality win of the season came in the opening game, where they played and beat New Mexico, which is currently ranked at 36 (all rankings hereinafter are Pomeroy’s).

Since that game, Creighton has not played a single team ranked higher than 62nd.  That team is Illinois State, which took 2 out of 3 away from Creighton over the stretch of the season.  The only other games Creighton played against teams in the Pomeroy Top 100 were their wins over Northern Iowa (82), Dayton (83), Oral Roberts (87), and George Mason (89), and a two-point loss to Nebraska (73) at Nebraska.  These teams would seem to compare roughly to the likes of Vandy (77) and Mississippi (95) in the Pomeroy rankings.

Not super-tough opposition, but they did clearly take care of business at this level.

Creighton has several bad losses, including a double-digit loss to Drake (144) at home, and losses to Arkansas Little Rock (158) and Wichita State (126).

Before you get too excited about that news, remember our HOME losses to VMI (175) and Georgia (201) were worse.

We did have one common opponent this season: Mississippi Valley State, whom Creighton beat by 24 points in Omaha on 2 December 2008, and whom we beat at Rupp by 23 points five days later.

The bad news is that Creighton is yet another team that matches up favorably with us in that it relies heavily on and is successful at taking the three-point shot.  Creighton ranks in the top 30 in the country in 3pt field goal percentage, and also shoots very well from the charity stripe (20th in the country in FT %).  They also do not normally turn the ball over (43rd in the country in hanging on to the ball), but remember they haven’t generally played against defenses of our caliber. 

Creighton does not rebound well and their defense generally sucks, except that they are the 20th best team in the country at getting the other team to turn the ball over (top 40 in steals).  How freakishly scary is that?  The only good thing they can do on defense is the thing that has bedeviled us all year!  If they played at a faster pace, it would be VMI redux.

Let us hope that our superior height, superior defense, better rebounding, and much better inside game, coupled with our 21 games against teams in the top 100, will be enough to overcome the heavy turnovers we are likely to commit, and what is likely to be Creighton’s great perimeter shooting.