Creighton has lost three of its last five games, yet the Bluejays’ difficulties pale in comparison to Butler’s.
The Bulldogs (7-9, 0-5 Big East), who host the Bluejays on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis, have lost eight straight games against an array of teams from within and outside the always-competitive conference.
“Outside of the North Dakota State game (a three-point loss for Butler), if you look at the rest of them, they’ve played a heck of a schedule,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said this week. “… Houston, Wisconsin, Marquette, UConn, Villanova, St. John’s, so they’ve played really good teams and they’ve been right there in most of those games … We’re going to play a desperate team on Saturday.”
The Bluejays (9-6, 2-2) haven’t played since absorbing a 79-71 road loss to then-No. 8 Marquette on Jan. 3, giving McDermott a welcome break to get his players some rest.
Leading scorers Ryan Kalkbrenner (17.1 points per game), Steven Ashworth (16.8) and Jamiya Neal (10.9) are averaging 34, 38 and 33 minutes, respectively, over their last five games.
“I have to be really careful with (Ashworth) and Kalk and Jamiya right now because of the amount of minutes they’re logging, and Steve’s having to do it on both ends of the floor, so we’re going to have to manage their legs in practice a little bit,” McDermott said.
Butler’s latest loss, 84-65 at Providence on Wednesday, had coach Thad Matta concerned about his players’ effort level.
“Four of (Providence’s) first six points were on putbacks, guys missed their own shots and put it back. We definitely didn’t have what we needed on the rebounding,” Matta told the Indianapolis Star after the game.
After scoring 76.6 points in their first eight games, the Bulldogs have averaged just 66.1 in their losing streak.
“We’ve got to find something to get this thing going in the right direction. And the hard part is, it doesn’t get any easier. So, I think we got to look from within,” Matta said.
Jahmyl Telfort leads the team with 15.9 points per game, followed by Pierre Brooks II at 14.9 and Patrick McCaffery at 12.8. No other teammates are averaging more than 6.9 points per game.
–Field Level Media
