No. 11 Marquette travels just over 500 miles West to Omaha in hopes of snapping its two-game losing streak Saturday afternoon against Creighton. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup:
The First Matchup
On January 3rd, Marquette defeated Creighton 79-71 thanks to 40 combined points from Stevie Mitchell and Kam Jones. The Golden Eagles held the Bluejays to 24-for-60 (40 percent) and 7-of-31 (22.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Since then, Creighton (17-6) has gone 8-0 and is second in the Big East at 10-2.
Marquette (18-5) is 5-3 since January 3rd and is third in the Big East at 9-3.
Saturday’s matchup in Omaha is a golden opportunity for the Golden Eagles to jump into second in the Big East and pick up a much-needed Quad 1 win to improve their NCAA tournament resume.
Contrasting styles
Creighton and Marquette play defense in polar opposite ways.
Creighton ranks 359th out of 364 teams in turnovers forced per game, at 8.6, and has been in the bottom 10 in the country for three years straight.
Additionally, the Bluejays foul the fewest out of any team in the country, with 10.6 fouls per game, and have been top five in fewest fouls for three seasons straight.
Creighton’s game plan is to play passive defense while taking no chances and funnel everything to the rim, where 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner, who commits a shockingly low 1.8 fouls per 40 minutes, is waiting.
On the other hand, Marquette wants to cause havoc on the defensive end. The Golden Eagles rank second in the country, forcing 16.3 turnovers per game.
The Golden Eagles play aggressively and take chances to get steals. They get in your shorts to disrupt the offensive flow.
Frontrunners for Big East Player of the Year
This game features the two best players in the Big East. Kam Jones and Ryan Kalkbrenner are neck in neck for the Big East Player of the Year.
Kam Jones is averaging 18.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and six assists on the season while shooting 49 percent from the floor.
Ryan Kalkbrenner averages 19.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game on 66.5 percent shooting.
Saturday in Omaha will go a long way in deciding who the Big East Player of the Year will be.
Keys to the game
The primary key to the game for Marquette is creating extra possessions. As mentioned, Creighton forces a meager 8.6 turnovers per game, and the Golden Eagles are the best team in the country at taking care of the ball, averaging 8.9 turnovers per game.
On the other side of the ball, Marquette forces 16.8 turnovers per game, and the Bluejays are 267th in the country, turning the ball over 12.8 times per game.
The more Marquette wins the turnover battle, the better chance they win. The Golden Eagles secondary key to victory is pulling Kalkbrenner out of the paint.
Kalkbrenner started the first matchup guarding Stevie Mitchell, who went 2-for-9 from downtown in the game. It’s unclear who Kalkbrenner will guard, but whoever it is needs to be able to knock down some deep balls to pull Kalkbrenner out of the paint, opening the lane for the Golden Eagles guards to finish over smaller Bluejay defenders.
Creighton’s key to victory is getting Ryan Kalkbrenner the ball.
In the first matchup, Marquette held Kalkbrenner to 4-for-11, his worst shooting percentage all season. In Saturday’s game, the Bluejays will try to get Kalkbrenner the ball as much as possible. The Bluejays tend to turn it over at a high rate when trying to get the ball inside, so they need to find creative ways to get Kalkbrenner touches down low.
Secondly, Ashworth and other Bluejays need to knock down shots.
In the first meeting, the Golden Eagles held Steven Ashworth to 1-of-13 from deep, his worst performance of the year.
Since Creighton will be giving up multiple possessions, its elite shooters — Isaac Traudt, Fedor Zugic, Jackson McAndrew and Ashworth — need to make the possessions they get meaningful by knocking down triples.
How to Follow the Game
Tip-off is scheduled for Saturday, February 8th, at 1 p.m. CST at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, NE.
Watch: FOX will broadcast the game nationally, with Kevin Kugler (play-by-play) and Robbie Hummel (analyst) calling the afternoon’s action.
Listen: 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee
Live updates: @MatthewBaltzMU and @MUWireSports
This story was written by Max Mullin. He can be reached at maxwell.mullin@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MullinMax.