Tuesday, November 26
Las Vegas, Nev. (MGM Grand Garden Arena)
1:00 PM
Creighton University
4-2,0-0Big East
53
vs
71
San Diego State
3-1,0-0Mountain West
1
2
F
Creighton
28
25
53
San Diego St.
32
39
71
Jackson McAndrew
Photo by: Bonnie Ryan
#21 Men's Basketball Falls to San Diego State, 71-53, in Players Era Festival
11/26/2024 3:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Box ScoreSTATS (PDF)Creighton Press Conference TranscriptSan Diego State Press Conference TranscriptPhoto Gallery
Jackson McAndrew notches first double-double.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- The No. 21 Creighton men's basketball team fell short to San Diego State, 71-53, on Tuesday afternoon in the opening contest of the Players Era Festival hosted in Las Vegas, Nev.
The Aztecs improved to 3-1 on the season, while Creighton suffered its second loss of the year to drop to 4-2.
BJ Davis led the way for the Aztecs with a career-high 18 points and career-high nine rebounds. Miles Byrd chipped in 16 points for SDSU on 50 percent shooting from three-point range to offset 18 points and five assists from Bluejay junior Pop Isaacs. Supporting Isaacs was a 12-point effort on four made threes and a career-high 14 boards by freshman sharpshooter, Jackson McAndrew.
Heading into the first media timeout, the Bluejays found themselves trailing 10-8. McAndrew scored the first points of the contest by knocking down a deep three-pointer, before draining another triple to go into the media break. The Aztecs were finding success inside early, scoring eight of their first 10 points in the paint.
While San Diego State got started early in the paint, the Bluejays were hot from deep as Isaacs drilled two treys right out of the timeout to bring Creighton within two, trailing 16-14 with 11:03 left in the frame. San Diego State caught fire in the two and a half minutes following as they embarked on a 9-0 run over the span, while also connecting on their first three-point field goal of the game to expand their lead over the Jays, 25-16 with 8:14 left in the half.
Five consecutive points from junior Fredrick King drew the Bluejays to within four at the 6:22 mark as Creighton finally found their stride inside the arc. An and-one layup from Isaacs and McAndrew's third deep ball of the half set the Jays ablaze as they pulled back within two. Creighton clamped down on the defensive end of the floor, holding SDSU to zero field goals in the final three minutes of the frame before Magoon Gwath knocked down a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer for SDSU to seize a 32-28 advantage heading into the locker room.
Unlike the first half, Creighton was unable to get off to a hot start offensively to begin the second period and struggled on the defensive end of the floor as SDSU got off to a quick 5-0 run. All-American center Ryan Kalkbrenner, matched the Aztecs' intensity and knocked down his second field goal of the contest paired with an and-one layup to match the SDSU run.
Following an alley-oop slam by Kalkbrenner at the 14:28 mark, Byrd drilled two triples to power the Aztecs on an 8-2 run, forcing CU head coach Greg McDermott into a timeout trailing 52-40 with 12:55 remaining in the game. In the minutes following, another McAndrew three-pointer fell as the Bluejays attempted to claw back into the contest, but a deep-ball from Gwath on the ensuing possession quickly matched CU to hold a 17-point lead over the Jays with 7:43 left in the contest. SDSU continued their stifling defense over the next seven minutes and shut down any Creighton push to close out the game, 71-53.
In addition to the 18 points from Isaacs and 12 points and 14 rebounds from McAndrew, Kalkbrenner scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and recorded a season-high five rejections, while King recorded seven points and four boards in eight minutes of action. The Bluejays shot 33.9 percent from the field (21-62) and made 6-of-31 three-point shots as well as 5-13 (38.5%) free throws. The Jays grabbed 40 rebounds and dished 12 assists.
Supporting the Aztecs two leading scorers was Gwath with seven points paired with four rebounds and Nick Boyd with seven points, six rebounds and five assists. San Diego State shot 48.4 percent from the field, 8-of-17 from three-point range and 3-of-7 at the charity-stripe. SDSU also grabbed 40 rebounds and dished 13 assists as a team.
Creighton returns to the hardwood on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Central for their second game of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Nev. against No. 20 Texas A&M. The game will be streamed on MAX.
Players Era Power College
Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
MGM Grand Garden Arena
Creighton Bluejays
Coach Greg McDermott
Jackson McAndrew
Postgame Press Conference
San Diego State - 71, Creighton - 53
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Greg McDermott and
Jackson McAndrew.
GREG MCDERMOTT: I think San Diego State is a good
basketball team. We've played them a lot, seems like the
last four or five years. Have tremendous respect for them.
And the names and the numbers -- the names change, but
the way they play is pretty consistent. They don't
necessarily beat themselves and there's a toughness about
them.
I thought for a decent portion of the game we matched that.
We had a stretch in the second half, I think they scored
eight possessions in a row.
Defensively we were out of sorts and allowed them to
create that separation that was too much for us to
overcome with what we had going today.
Q. On that point, do you think they got you guys out of
rotation defensively or what did your guys
(indiscernible).
GREG MCDERMOTT: Some of both. We made some
mistakes a few times going under some screens when we
weren't supposed to. When we got a little bit aggressive,
our rotations weren't where they needed to be.
And, again, maybe sounds like a little bit of a broken
record, but we built this team on shooting and we're not
shooting it very well now at all.
Q. Have you been able to put your finger on why? Are
you guys getting the looks --
GREG MCDERMOTT: They're getting some pretty good
looks. I never say until I watch the film. There were some
pretty open shots. And today -- we've been a great free
throw team all season -- and today we couldn't do that
either.
Q. Ashworth, we saw him warming up?
GREG MCDERMOTT: Probably better than I thought,
especially based on what I saw on Saturday and Sunday.
He's doing everything right to try to get himself back.
But as I told him last night, he's got to listen to his body on
this one. We're not going to push this thing. We've got to
make sure we make a long-term decision that's in his best
interest.
Q. How hard is it to prepare for a team that has only
played two Division I games and they basically have a
whole new roster?
GREG MCDERMOTT: We had some film on them. Dutch,
what they do is what they do. It's always been San Diego
State basketball. It's how they play.
We knew what we were going to see. Obviously there are
a few new wrinkles with eight days in between games.
And then obviously we played Friday and lost our point
guard. Coming into the game they were in better shape
than we were.
Q. Jackson, first start today. What was today like for
you?
JACKSON MCANDREW: It was definitely exciting. And
definitely the fact that they're trusting me to go out there
and start me. Just going out there playing the same I have
been, trying to work as hard as I can to do the right things,
make sure I'm locked in defensively, offensively.
It was honestly no different, just being out there right away
and obviously playing more. But I know what I've got to do
out there. It was exciting, for sure.
Q. From a player's perspective, can you tell why shots
aren't falling for you guys? Do you feel like you're
getting open looks and they're just not falling?
150946-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:44:00 GMT Page 1 of 2
JACKSON MCANDREW: I feel like we're getting great
looks off of our motion, off of our sets that we do. But, I
mean, there's really no excuse. We were just missing
open ones. It's just something we've got to get in the gym
and continue to get reps up and just make shots.
Q. (Indiscernible) the offense (indiscernible)?
GREG MCDERMOTT: It was a mixture of Ty bringing it
and Pop bringing it. And Shane played a little bit as well.
But Steven's played a lot of minutes for us, so outside of a
couple of practices we haven't had a lot of reps with that.
I thought they did a good job. I thought Ty moved the
basketball. I thought he made some really nice passes.
And sometimes assists are really -- I think it's the worst stat
in basketball because if you make the right play you get
somebody an open shot; and they miss it, you get no credit
for that. So that's something that we evaluate. And I think
Ty created a lot of opportunities for his teammates today.
Q. I think they've won I think four of the last five
against you. Some have been close, but is there
something about this match-up that's tough for you
guys, something that maybe defensively --
GREG MCDERMOTT: We won an overtime game and lost
in a last-second shot. So we've had competitive games
until today. But Dutch is a good coach and they've got a
great program.
Q. Do you have an overall takeaway that you
(indiscernible) in after this one heading into tomorrow?
GREG MCDERMOTT: You have to have a short memory
because we play a really good team tomorrow. We had
some guys lodge some pretty big minutes, so we've got to
try to get off our feet and get some rest.
We've built this program on unselfishness. Sometimes
selfishness will creep in when things are tough and
adversity strikes. It's really important that we don't enter a
finger-pointing phase when we go through a tough time
here. We stick together. We try to help each other, try to
look in the mirror and figure out what we can do better to
try to correct it and then move on from there and get ready
for the next one.
Q. Jackson, what are you hoping to get out of
tomorrow?
JACKSON MCANDREW: A win. I just want to see
obviously us win, being connected, especially on the
defensive end. And I think when we do that I think shots
will go down. I just want to see us go out there and play
hard and stay connected and get a win.
Players Era Power College
Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
MGM Grand Garden Arena
San Diego State Aztecs
Coach Brian Dutcher
Miles Byrd
BJ Davis
Postgame Press Conference
San Diego State - 71, Creighton - 53
BRIAN DUTCHER: I love my team, but I don't know what
I'm going to get from them in November. It's a challenging
schedule -- Gonzaga, then Creighton, then Oregon and
then someone else.
So I know this team is going to be good, but I don't know
how soon it's going to be good. It was good tonight. Now
can it be good tomorrow? That's the question.
I've got two really good sophomores sitting up here. And
I've got a redshirt freshman in the starting lineup. And I've
got some good experience but new to our team.
I sit and watch these other teams with eight new pieces.
I'm, like, damn, that coach is doing a good job. And I don't
know if I'm doing a good job or not. I'm trying. We're
trying. We're trying to figure it out on the fly.
And the best lessons to learn are lessons you learn when
you win. You're going to take some Ls in those lessons,
like we did against the Zags. Or you're going to be
fortunate enough to play Creighton without arguably their
most important player, Ashworth.
But that's part of the game, too. We've got guys hurt and
everybody has guys hurt. But obviously that hurt them
tonight not having Steven in the lineup. But we took
advantage of it, to our credit. We took care of the ball, only
eight turnovers. We shot a high percentage. And our
defense is what we hang our hat on.
It's what Aztec basketball is, it's about defense. And it's
easier to defend when the ball's going in. I understand
that. But our program is based on defending when it
doesn't go in. We'll see if we can do that when we run into
our next game; if we end up getting behind, if we can
defend at that level.
I'm proud of our guys, proud of our effort and proud of our
growth as a team.
Q. BJ, you mentioned before the season one of the
things you wanted out of this year was more minutes.
How does it feel to be getting those minutes and
playing so well so far?
BJ DAVIS: It feels good. All the work that we put in as a
collective, and just for me to be able to go out there and
perform, it feels great. Just going to keep working and
keep trusting the coaches, keep trusting my teammates.
Q. What are the challenges going against a shot
blocker like Kalkbrenner?
MILES BYRD: Being solid, getting two feet when you
drive. It's easy to, especially with good competition, it's
easy to drive out of control and off balance. But when you
have a shot blocker like that, it's easier for a team like that
to fan out on a drive. So guarding the two on two on the
ball screen, just playing off two feet and being sure of your
decisions.
Q. Just talk about the last eight days, (indiscernible)
practice every day, but the last week of practice. I
know you didn't go against the scout team as much as
you normally do. You went pretty hard and coaches
were on you pretty hard. What happened in those
days that elevated to you this level?
BJ DAVIS: The coaches did a great job just emphasizing
the importance of just having urgency. Playing with
urgency and being alert and not being a step behind.
Being proactive if anything. They did a good job preaching
that to us. And we go out there try to implement it.
MILES BYRD: I think just when you have this big of a
week leading up to a team -- especially a team when they
have a guy like Kalkbrenner, it allowed us a lot more time
to go over scout.
150947-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:50:00 GMT Page 1 of 4
We have a lot of new and young guys. That was a big plus
for us, getting extra time to go over scout. And just the
extra week of going hard and attacking each other in
practice every day and making each other better.
Q. What have you seen out of BJ this season?
MILES BYRD: He's a killer. I love seeing what BJ is
doing. We keep talking about it. We're from the same
area and been playing against each other since middle
school. To see each other come out here and perform like
this, we're just super excited.
Q. BJ, what was it today that you saw your
opportunities in the offense to set a career high at 18
points?
BJ DAVIS: I just seen, you know, where I had advantages
in certain places and I took them. So I kind of just tried to
hunt my shot and stay ready because any given moment
that ball could be swung my way. So just really being
ready to just make plays.
Q. BJ, you guys got out early on transition,
(indiscernible) opportunity, (indiscernible) early in the
second. What did their turnovers do to give your
offense life?
BJ DAVIS: Like Coach said, turnovers lead to fast breaks.
When they turned it over we were capitalizing on the fast
breaks.
Really just understanding when we get steals they want us
to run so let's go run. We've got great coaches that just let
us play and give us freedom on offense. It really takes a
lot of pressure away from us. We can just go out there and
play.
Q. Miles, one of the big differences of this year's team
and last year's team is rim protection. You entered the
game No. 2 in blocks. You had two in one play, you
had one and (indiscernible) had one what's the
difference there and how much does that change when
you (indiscernible) defense?
MILES BYRD: A guy like Magoon takes so much pressure
off of you defensively. I wouldn't say a safety blanket, but
he's definitely a guy where you're comfortable if you're beat
by a step to just peel off and go find a body and box out
because you trust a 7-footer who moves like Goon to goes
up and block a shot.
I think this year we're so long and athletic that it's going to
be a sure thing that we come in the game, get a lot of
blocks and deflections and stuff like that.
Q. What was your focus or philosophy in practice this
past week, getting it going? Usually during the season
you don't see the first two units go that hard against
each other.
BRIAN DUTCHER: We compete hard. I don't want get
guys hurt. That's the thing, you compete hard, you run the
risk of hurting one another. We don't want that to happen.
We had the advantage of extra days of prep. We had a full
week since Gonzaga to get ready. Basically stole
Nebraska's game plan. Played them front and back as
best we could, tried to get the shooters. Without Ashworth,
we were able to succeed in that. Takes a certain part of
their game away not having him. But Greg's a good coach
and he'll get it solved. I'm just happy he didn't get it solved
against us.
But having a player short definitely hurt their team. And
our depth is great. I mean, we don't really drop off. We go
to the bench, and you're bringing good players in. And two
true freshmen and transfers that had a lot of experience
and I think we're a really deep team.
I don't feel like we're buying time when I go to my bench.
Our bench is productive. That's how you're able to grow a
lead where you don't rest guys and you maintain it. We
grew the lead from our bench at times. So we're deep, and
I like that too.
Q. Did Magoon's shot to end the half energize the
team?
BRIAN DUTCHER: Well, it energized me. That's the good
news. Magoon, he played in our closed door scrimmage
against UCLA -- played really well. He had like eight
points. Then I think he played two Division I games without
a point.
He's a 7-foot young freshman learning how to play. He's
picking and choosing his moments. He hit two hard shots
off the dribble. Then he hit a couple of catch-and-shoot
threes. He's dangerous but he's still young. Went from
185 to 205 in one year. As he continues to gain strength,
his game will get better. But right now, he's doing a really
good job as a young freshman playing out on the
perimeter. That's hard to do. He was a center in high
school that had freedom to go out and shoot, but now he's
playing the power four, stretch four, and we're asking a lot
of him, and he's growing with every game. That's the good
news.
Q. What were your original thoughts on playing
Kalkbrenner before you saw the Nebraska game and
how did Nebraska game tweak that plan?
BRIAN DUTCHER: It's just the backside defender.
Someone that good, we try three-quarter wrap or front. We
tried the front.
And you look at our back-to-back games, we had to play
Ike and Huff from Gonzaga and follow up with Kalkbrenner.
I don't know who else -- and we'll play Bittle tomorrow.
We're playing as good of bigs as there are in our
three-game stretch as anybody in the country has to play.
We have to grow up fast and learn how to play these guys
and not give in and when to double and how to play them.
We're just stacking games. We're playing good
competition, trying to learn something about ourselves, yet
still play well. So this is a great event for us to be in for
that to happen.
Q. You've been pretty complimentary of Steven
Ashworth while you're up here. How different does
Creighton look with him and without him? You've
watched --
BRIAN DUTCHER: He's like the Curry of college
basketball. He moves so much without the ball. Shoots
behind screens. Even if you go over, he can still get it off.
I had to deal with him at Utah State. This is not a guy
watching tape of a guy and saying he's really good. This is
having played against him for multiple years, never leaving
him on the floor, chasing him everywhere, just knowing
how hard it is.
So he's got my utmost respect. I tried to get him out of the
portal and he wouldn't come. That's how much I loved him.
But he makes a difference. The quicker he can get
healthy, the better they'll be. It's amazing what players do
for coaching. And he's a very good one.
Q. Seems there's a point of emphasis to get to the
paint early, score there, how did that set the tone
physically open up things for you to move the game
along?
BRIAN DUTCHER: As much as we tried to follow the
game plan, our guys are still players. We told them you're
not going to drive in there and keep going and score over
Kalkbrenner. You'll get one that will be fool's gold and then
everything else where you don't play to two feet or you
don't shoot mid-range or you don't change your angles,
you're not going to score those. And he blocked all of
them.
Eventually we got to the point where we started playing on
two feet and rolling the post where he had to at least leave
us for a second. But as much as you talk to players and
you work on it for a week, they still want to challenge them,
and every time they did, he blocked it.
Q. I think you've played here, I think it's 75th time you
played in Vegas in the last 15-plus seasons. You play
here a lot and you've had incredible success here. Is it
just a comfort coming here, it's a short trip, your
players --
BRIAN DUTCHER: It's a 45-minute flight from San Diego.
Our fans travel. They're used to Vegas. They're used to
following us here. For an 11:00 game, I thought we had a
lot, lot of fans. And they'll grow. There will be more the
next game.
And then the question is, will anybody come back after
Thanksgiving? That I can't answer. They'll go home,
maybe, for Thanksgiving. If we win two games and we're
playing in the title, they'll come back. But otherwise I don't
know if they'll make the trip back. But we travel, our fans
travel and they give us tremendous support.
Q. When you were first invited to this event, what did
you think and how did you make the decision to
participate from an event standpoint?
BRIAN DUTCHER: It was a no-brainer for us. It was like,
yes, anytime, anyplace. And the question was, you know,
is the money really going to be there? But for us, the
money, yeah, the money is critically important. And this is
a great event for that. But for us to play this talent level
that we get to play and our flight from our campus -- I don't
want to tell them this because they might not pay us, but I
would have come for free to play this kind of competition.
We're not in a Power Four league. It's hard for us to play
these kind of teams. So we have to build a resumé in
November. So it's Gonzaga, it's Creighton, it's Oregon and
it's someone from the other side. And those are games we
have to take to give ourselves a chance if we don't have
the year we want to have in conference to get an at-large
bid. These are the games that will do it, with these kind of
games.
Q. Given you have such a young team, given you don't
have Reese until December, January, how much
pressure does it take off to have sort of a resumé win
against a team that's going to be very good?
BRIAN DUTCHER: Yeah, you win a game and you get
greedy. Now you think maybe we can get two here now.
150947-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:50:00 GMT Page 3 of 4
When you go to these events with all these teams, you go,
God, we can't lose them all. It's modeling. Every time you
go to those, you look at who you're going to play and
you're, like, holy smokes, I hope we're the team that
doesn't leave with no wins. It can happen at these events.
We got one. Now we have to get greedy, get two and try
to get a third if we can. We're playing a good Oregon
team. It's nice to know our opponent already because now
we can go in and not have to wait until this game's over to
know who we're playing.
We know who we're playing. We have had assistant
coaches working on the game like everybody else knows
their second opponent. Now we'll go into the film room, do
a walk-through, get ready for tomorrow.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
The Aztecs improved to 3-1 on the season, while Creighton suffered its second loss of the year to drop to 4-2.
BJ Davis led the way for the Aztecs with a career-high 18 points and career-high nine rebounds. Miles Byrd chipped in 16 points for SDSU on 50 percent shooting from three-point range to offset 18 points and five assists from Bluejay junior Pop Isaacs. Supporting Isaacs was a 12-point effort on four made threes and a career-high 14 boards by freshman sharpshooter, Jackson McAndrew.
Heading into the first media timeout, the Bluejays found themselves trailing 10-8. McAndrew scored the first points of the contest by knocking down a deep three-pointer, before draining another triple to go into the media break. The Aztecs were finding success inside early, scoring eight of their first 10 points in the paint.
While San Diego State got started early in the paint, the Bluejays were hot from deep as Isaacs drilled two treys right out of the timeout to bring Creighton within two, trailing 16-14 with 11:03 left in the frame. San Diego State caught fire in the two and a half minutes following as they embarked on a 9-0 run over the span, while also connecting on their first three-point field goal of the game to expand their lead over the Jays, 25-16 with 8:14 left in the half.
Five consecutive points from junior Fredrick King drew the Bluejays to within four at the 6:22 mark as Creighton finally found their stride inside the arc. An and-one layup from Isaacs and McAndrew's third deep ball of the half set the Jays ablaze as they pulled back within two. Creighton clamped down on the defensive end of the floor, holding SDSU to zero field goals in the final three minutes of the frame before Magoon Gwath knocked down a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer for SDSU to seize a 32-28 advantage heading into the locker room.
Unlike the first half, Creighton was unable to get off to a hot start offensively to begin the second period and struggled on the defensive end of the floor as SDSU got off to a quick 5-0 run. All-American center Ryan Kalkbrenner, matched the Aztecs' intensity and knocked down his second field goal of the contest paired with an and-one layup to match the SDSU run.
Following an alley-oop slam by Kalkbrenner at the 14:28 mark, Byrd drilled two triples to power the Aztecs on an 8-2 run, forcing CU head coach Greg McDermott into a timeout trailing 52-40 with 12:55 remaining in the game. In the minutes following, another McAndrew three-pointer fell as the Bluejays attempted to claw back into the contest, but a deep-ball from Gwath on the ensuing possession quickly matched CU to hold a 17-point lead over the Jays with 7:43 left in the contest. SDSU continued their stifling defense over the next seven minutes and shut down any Creighton push to close out the game, 71-53.
In addition to the 18 points from Isaacs and 12 points and 14 rebounds from McAndrew, Kalkbrenner scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and recorded a season-high five rejections, while King recorded seven points and four boards in eight minutes of action. The Bluejays shot 33.9 percent from the field (21-62) and made 6-of-31 three-point shots as well as 5-13 (38.5%) free throws. The Jays grabbed 40 rebounds and dished 12 assists.
Supporting the Aztecs two leading scorers was Gwath with seven points paired with four rebounds and Nick Boyd with seven points, six rebounds and five assists. San Diego State shot 48.4 percent from the field, 8-of-17 from three-point range and 3-of-7 at the charity-stripe. SDSU also grabbed 40 rebounds and dished 13 assists as a team.
Creighton returns to the hardwood on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Central for their second game of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Nev. against No. 20 Texas A&M. The game will be streamed on MAX.
NOTES: Creighton's Jackson McAndrew and Ty Davis made their first career starts … Davis assisted a McAndrew three-pointer on the first Bluejay possession of the game … Ryan Kalkbrenner had his 20th straight game with a blocked shot, the nation's longest active streak … Greg McDermott's first game as a Division I head coach came in 2001 with Northern Iowa and was against San Diego State … Ryan Kalkbrenner had a season-high five blocked shots … San Diego State evened the all-time series against Creighton at 5-5 … Jackson McAndrew's 14 rebounds were the most by a Bluejay freshman since Doug McDermott had 16 at Akron on Feb. 19, 2011 ... McAndrew is the first Bluejay freshman with a double-double since Fredrick King had 16 points and 10 rebounds at Marquette on Dec. 16, 2022 ... Today was Creighton's 107th straight televised game, a streak that will end tomorrow ... Creighton played without starting point guard Steven Ashworth, who was injured in Friday's game vs. Nebraska ... Creighton and San Diego State are two of the five schools in the country with 22 or more wins each of the previous five seasons ... Creighton committed just six fouls, and just one in the first half. It was CU's 19th different half since the start of last season with three fouls or fewer ... Creighton has not had a player foul out in its last 59 games, the nation's longest streak since at least 2005-06 ... Creighton has made a three-pointer in 1,026 straight games ... Jackson McAndrew became the first Bluejay with a double-double in his first career start since Baylor Scheierman (11 points, 10 rebounds) on Nov. 7, 2022 and the first Bluejay freshman with a double-double in his first career start since Ryan Nembhard (15 points, 10 assists) on Nov. 9, 2021.
Players Era Power College
Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
MGM Grand Garden Arena
Creighton Bluejays
Coach Greg McDermott
Jackson McAndrew
Postgame Press Conference
San Diego State - 71, Creighton - 53
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Greg McDermott and
Jackson McAndrew.
GREG MCDERMOTT: I think San Diego State is a good
basketball team. We've played them a lot, seems like the
last four or five years. Have tremendous respect for them.
And the names and the numbers -- the names change, but
the way they play is pretty consistent. They don't
necessarily beat themselves and there's a toughness about
them.
I thought for a decent portion of the game we matched that.
We had a stretch in the second half, I think they scored
eight possessions in a row.
Defensively we were out of sorts and allowed them to
create that separation that was too much for us to
overcome with what we had going today.
Q. On that point, do you think they got you guys out of
rotation defensively or what did your guys
(indiscernible).
GREG MCDERMOTT: Some of both. We made some
mistakes a few times going under some screens when we
weren't supposed to. When we got a little bit aggressive,
our rotations weren't where they needed to be.
And, again, maybe sounds like a little bit of a broken
record, but we built this team on shooting and we're not
shooting it very well now at all.
Q. Have you been able to put your finger on why? Are
you guys getting the looks --
GREG MCDERMOTT: They're getting some pretty good
looks. I never say until I watch the film. There were some
pretty open shots. And today -- we've been a great free
throw team all season -- and today we couldn't do that
either.
Q. Ashworth, we saw him warming up?
GREG MCDERMOTT: Probably better than I thought,
especially based on what I saw on Saturday and Sunday.
He's doing everything right to try to get himself back.
But as I told him last night, he's got to listen to his body on
this one. We're not going to push this thing. We've got to
make sure we make a long-term decision that's in his best
interest.
Q. How hard is it to prepare for a team that has only
played two Division I games and they basically have a
whole new roster?
GREG MCDERMOTT: We had some film on them. Dutch,
what they do is what they do. It's always been San Diego
State basketball. It's how they play.
We knew what we were going to see. Obviously there are
a few new wrinkles with eight days in between games.
And then obviously we played Friday and lost our point
guard. Coming into the game they were in better shape
than we were.
Q. Jackson, first start today. What was today like for
you?
JACKSON MCANDREW: It was definitely exciting. And
definitely the fact that they're trusting me to go out there
and start me. Just going out there playing the same I have
been, trying to work as hard as I can to do the right things,
make sure I'm locked in defensively, offensively.
It was honestly no different, just being out there right away
and obviously playing more. But I know what I've got to do
out there. It was exciting, for sure.
Q. From a player's perspective, can you tell why shots
aren't falling for you guys? Do you feel like you're
getting open looks and they're just not falling?
150946-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:44:00 GMT Page 1 of 2
JACKSON MCANDREW: I feel like we're getting great
looks off of our motion, off of our sets that we do. But, I
mean, there's really no excuse. We were just missing
open ones. It's just something we've got to get in the gym
and continue to get reps up and just make shots.
Q. (Indiscernible) the offense (indiscernible)?
GREG MCDERMOTT: It was a mixture of Ty bringing it
and Pop bringing it. And Shane played a little bit as well.
But Steven's played a lot of minutes for us, so outside of a
couple of practices we haven't had a lot of reps with that.
I thought they did a good job. I thought Ty moved the
basketball. I thought he made some really nice passes.
And sometimes assists are really -- I think it's the worst stat
in basketball because if you make the right play you get
somebody an open shot; and they miss it, you get no credit
for that. So that's something that we evaluate. And I think
Ty created a lot of opportunities for his teammates today.
Q. I think they've won I think four of the last five
against you. Some have been close, but is there
something about this match-up that's tough for you
guys, something that maybe defensively --
GREG MCDERMOTT: We won an overtime game and lost
in a last-second shot. So we've had competitive games
until today. But Dutch is a good coach and they've got a
great program.
Q. Do you have an overall takeaway that you
(indiscernible) in after this one heading into tomorrow?
GREG MCDERMOTT: You have to have a short memory
because we play a really good team tomorrow. We had
some guys lodge some pretty big minutes, so we've got to
try to get off our feet and get some rest.
We've built this program on unselfishness. Sometimes
selfishness will creep in when things are tough and
adversity strikes. It's really important that we don't enter a
finger-pointing phase when we go through a tough time
here. We stick together. We try to help each other, try to
look in the mirror and figure out what we can do better to
try to correct it and then move on from there and get ready
for the next one.
Q. Jackson, what are you hoping to get out of
tomorrow?
JACKSON MCANDREW: A win. I just want to see
obviously us win, being connected, especially on the
defensive end. And I think when we do that I think shots
will go down. I just want to see us go out there and play
hard and stay connected and get a win.
Players Era Power College
Basketball Tournament
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
MGM Grand Garden Arena
San Diego State Aztecs
Coach Brian Dutcher
Miles Byrd
BJ Davis
Postgame Press Conference
San Diego State - 71, Creighton - 53
BRIAN DUTCHER: I love my team, but I don't know what
I'm going to get from them in November. It's a challenging
schedule -- Gonzaga, then Creighton, then Oregon and
then someone else.
So I know this team is going to be good, but I don't know
how soon it's going to be good. It was good tonight. Now
can it be good tomorrow? That's the question.
I've got two really good sophomores sitting up here. And
I've got a redshirt freshman in the starting lineup. And I've
got some good experience but new to our team.
I sit and watch these other teams with eight new pieces.
I'm, like, damn, that coach is doing a good job. And I don't
know if I'm doing a good job or not. I'm trying. We're
trying. We're trying to figure it out on the fly.
And the best lessons to learn are lessons you learn when
you win. You're going to take some Ls in those lessons,
like we did against the Zags. Or you're going to be
fortunate enough to play Creighton without arguably their
most important player, Ashworth.
But that's part of the game, too. We've got guys hurt and
everybody has guys hurt. But obviously that hurt them
tonight not having Steven in the lineup. But we took
advantage of it, to our credit. We took care of the ball, only
eight turnovers. We shot a high percentage. And our
defense is what we hang our hat on.
It's what Aztec basketball is, it's about defense. And it's
easier to defend when the ball's going in. I understand
that. But our program is based on defending when it
doesn't go in. We'll see if we can do that when we run into
our next game; if we end up getting behind, if we can
defend at that level.
I'm proud of our guys, proud of our effort and proud of our
growth as a team.
Q. BJ, you mentioned before the season one of the
things you wanted out of this year was more minutes.
How does it feel to be getting those minutes and
playing so well so far?
BJ DAVIS: It feels good. All the work that we put in as a
collective, and just for me to be able to go out there and
perform, it feels great. Just going to keep working and
keep trusting the coaches, keep trusting my teammates.
Q. What are the challenges going against a shot
blocker like Kalkbrenner?
MILES BYRD: Being solid, getting two feet when you
drive. It's easy to, especially with good competition, it's
easy to drive out of control and off balance. But when you
have a shot blocker like that, it's easier for a team like that
to fan out on a drive. So guarding the two on two on the
ball screen, just playing off two feet and being sure of your
decisions.
Q. Just talk about the last eight days, (indiscernible)
practice every day, but the last week of practice. I
know you didn't go against the scout team as much as
you normally do. You went pretty hard and coaches
were on you pretty hard. What happened in those
days that elevated to you this level?
BJ DAVIS: The coaches did a great job just emphasizing
the importance of just having urgency. Playing with
urgency and being alert and not being a step behind.
Being proactive if anything. They did a good job preaching
that to us. And we go out there try to implement it.
MILES BYRD: I think just when you have this big of a
week leading up to a team -- especially a team when they
have a guy like Kalkbrenner, it allowed us a lot more time
to go over scout.
150947-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:50:00 GMT Page 1 of 4
We have a lot of new and young guys. That was a big plus
for us, getting extra time to go over scout. And just the
extra week of going hard and attacking each other in
practice every day and making each other better.
Q. What have you seen out of BJ this season?
MILES BYRD: He's a killer. I love seeing what BJ is
doing. We keep talking about it. We're from the same
area and been playing against each other since middle
school. To see each other come out here and perform like
this, we're just super excited.
Q. BJ, what was it today that you saw your
opportunities in the offense to set a career high at 18
points?
BJ DAVIS: I just seen, you know, where I had advantages
in certain places and I took them. So I kind of just tried to
hunt my shot and stay ready because any given moment
that ball could be swung my way. So just really being
ready to just make plays.
Q. BJ, you guys got out early on transition,
(indiscernible) opportunity, (indiscernible) early in the
second. What did their turnovers do to give your
offense life?
BJ DAVIS: Like Coach said, turnovers lead to fast breaks.
When they turned it over we were capitalizing on the fast
breaks.
Really just understanding when we get steals they want us
to run so let's go run. We've got great coaches that just let
us play and give us freedom on offense. It really takes a
lot of pressure away from us. We can just go out there and
play.
Q. Miles, one of the big differences of this year's team
and last year's team is rim protection. You entered the
game No. 2 in blocks. You had two in one play, you
had one and (indiscernible) had one what's the
difference there and how much does that change when
you (indiscernible) defense?
MILES BYRD: A guy like Magoon takes so much pressure
off of you defensively. I wouldn't say a safety blanket, but
he's definitely a guy where you're comfortable if you're beat
by a step to just peel off and go find a body and box out
because you trust a 7-footer who moves like Goon to goes
up and block a shot.
I think this year we're so long and athletic that it's going to
be a sure thing that we come in the game, get a lot of
blocks and deflections and stuff like that.
Q. What was your focus or philosophy in practice this
past week, getting it going? Usually during the season
you don't see the first two units go that hard against
each other.
BRIAN DUTCHER: We compete hard. I don't want get
guys hurt. That's the thing, you compete hard, you run the
risk of hurting one another. We don't want that to happen.
We had the advantage of extra days of prep. We had a full
week since Gonzaga to get ready. Basically stole
Nebraska's game plan. Played them front and back as
best we could, tried to get the shooters. Without Ashworth,
we were able to succeed in that. Takes a certain part of
their game away not having him. But Greg's a good coach
and he'll get it solved. I'm just happy he didn't get it solved
against us.
But having a player short definitely hurt their team. And
our depth is great. I mean, we don't really drop off. We go
to the bench, and you're bringing good players in. And two
true freshmen and transfers that had a lot of experience
and I think we're a really deep team.
I don't feel like we're buying time when I go to my bench.
Our bench is productive. That's how you're able to grow a
lead where you don't rest guys and you maintain it. We
grew the lead from our bench at times. So we're deep, and
I like that too.
Q. Did Magoon's shot to end the half energize the
team?
BRIAN DUTCHER: Well, it energized me. That's the good
news. Magoon, he played in our closed door scrimmage
against UCLA -- played really well. He had like eight
points. Then I think he played two Division I games without
a point.
He's a 7-foot young freshman learning how to play. He's
picking and choosing his moments. He hit two hard shots
off the dribble. Then he hit a couple of catch-and-shoot
threes. He's dangerous but he's still young. Went from
185 to 205 in one year. As he continues to gain strength,
his game will get better. But right now, he's doing a really
good job as a young freshman playing out on the
perimeter. That's hard to do. He was a center in high
school that had freedom to go out and shoot, but now he's
playing the power four, stretch four, and we're asking a lot
of him, and he's growing with every game. That's the good
news.
Q. What were your original thoughts on playing
Kalkbrenner before you saw the Nebraska game and
how did Nebraska game tweak that plan?
BRIAN DUTCHER: It's just the backside defender.
Someone that good, we try three-quarter wrap or front. We
tried the front.
And you look at our back-to-back games, we had to play
Ike and Huff from Gonzaga and follow up with Kalkbrenner.
I don't know who else -- and we'll play Bittle tomorrow.
We're playing as good of bigs as there are in our
three-game stretch as anybody in the country has to play.
We have to grow up fast and learn how to play these guys
and not give in and when to double and how to play them.
We're just stacking games. We're playing good
competition, trying to learn something about ourselves, yet
still play well. So this is a great event for us to be in for
that to happen.
Q. You've been pretty complimentary of Steven
Ashworth while you're up here. How different does
Creighton look with him and without him? You've
watched --
BRIAN DUTCHER: He's like the Curry of college
basketball. He moves so much without the ball. Shoots
behind screens. Even if you go over, he can still get it off.
I had to deal with him at Utah State. This is not a guy
watching tape of a guy and saying he's really good. This is
having played against him for multiple years, never leaving
him on the floor, chasing him everywhere, just knowing
how hard it is.
So he's got my utmost respect. I tried to get him out of the
portal and he wouldn't come. That's how much I loved him.
But he makes a difference. The quicker he can get
healthy, the better they'll be. It's amazing what players do
for coaching. And he's a very good one.
Q. Seems there's a point of emphasis to get to the
paint early, score there, how did that set the tone
physically open up things for you to move the game
along?
BRIAN DUTCHER: As much as we tried to follow the
game plan, our guys are still players. We told them you're
not going to drive in there and keep going and score over
Kalkbrenner. You'll get one that will be fool's gold and then
everything else where you don't play to two feet or you
don't shoot mid-range or you don't change your angles,
you're not going to score those. And he blocked all of
them.
Eventually we got to the point where we started playing on
two feet and rolling the post where he had to at least leave
us for a second. But as much as you talk to players and
you work on it for a week, they still want to challenge them,
and every time they did, he blocked it.
Q. I think you've played here, I think it's 75th time you
played in Vegas in the last 15-plus seasons. You play
here a lot and you've had incredible success here. Is it
just a comfort coming here, it's a short trip, your
players --
BRIAN DUTCHER: It's a 45-minute flight from San Diego.
Our fans travel. They're used to Vegas. They're used to
following us here. For an 11:00 game, I thought we had a
lot, lot of fans. And they'll grow. There will be more the
next game.
And then the question is, will anybody come back after
Thanksgiving? That I can't answer. They'll go home,
maybe, for Thanksgiving. If we win two games and we're
playing in the title, they'll come back. But otherwise I don't
know if they'll make the trip back. But we travel, our fans
travel and they give us tremendous support.
Q. When you were first invited to this event, what did
you think and how did you make the decision to
participate from an event standpoint?
BRIAN DUTCHER: It was a no-brainer for us. It was like,
yes, anytime, anyplace. And the question was, you know,
is the money really going to be there? But for us, the
money, yeah, the money is critically important. And this is
a great event for that. But for us to play this talent level
that we get to play and our flight from our campus -- I don't
want to tell them this because they might not pay us, but I
would have come for free to play this kind of competition.
We're not in a Power Four league. It's hard for us to play
these kind of teams. So we have to build a resumé in
November. So it's Gonzaga, it's Creighton, it's Oregon and
it's someone from the other side. And those are games we
have to take to give ourselves a chance if we don't have
the year we want to have in conference to get an at-large
bid. These are the games that will do it, with these kind of
games.
Q. Given you have such a young team, given you don't
have Reese until December, January, how much
pressure does it take off to have sort of a resumé win
against a team that's going to be very good?
BRIAN DUTCHER: Yeah, you win a game and you get
greedy. Now you think maybe we can get two here now.
150947-2-2151 2024-11-26 21:50:00 GMT Page 3 of 4
When you go to these events with all these teams, you go,
God, we can't lose them all. It's modeling. Every time you
go to those, you look at who you're going to play and
you're, like, holy smokes, I hope we're the team that
doesn't leave with no wins. It can happen at these events.
We got one. Now we have to get greedy, get two and try
to get a third if we can. We're playing a good Oregon
team. It's nice to know our opponent already because now
we can go in and not have to wait until this game's over to
know who we're playing.
We know who we're playing. We have had assistant
coaches working on the game like everybody else knows
their second opponent. Now we'll go into the film room, do
a walk-through, get ready for tomorrow.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
Team Stats
CU
SDSU
FG%
.339
.484
3FG%
.194
.471
FT%
.385
.429
RB
40
40
TO
10
8
STL
1
8
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
4
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
7
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballC
/ Men's BasketballC
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's Basketball
G
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