Sometimes you can boil a game — even a season — down to one possession. Creighton played its best game of the year Wednesday night against Illinois State. Offensively, they were crisp. Defensively, they got after it.
But one possession represented why the Bluejays are a top-15 team. It happened 7 minutes into the game; the score was 19-6. After Josh Jones missed an open 3, Doug McDermott grabbed the offensive rebound. He kicked it out to Grant Gibbs and posted on the right block.
Gibbs fed him. Illinois State’s defense converged and McDermott kicked it out to Austin Chatman.
Chatman fed McDermott again. McDermott tried to make a move, the defender held his ground. McDermott kicked it out to Jones.
Jones and McDermott ran pick-and-roll. Jones came off the screen, whipped a one-hand pass to McDermott just outside the lane. McDermott caught it 8 feet away and — before the help defender could arrive — flipped the ball off glass with one hand for a bucket.
From afar, the possession didn’t look all that impressive. But study it.
Six passes, only six total dribbles. Three post feeds to McDermott from three different players. Three passes from McDermott out of the post. That kind of patience, focus and efficiency is so unusual.
Creighton was bound and determined to get McDermott a quality shot. He was bound and determined not to force one. He trusted his teammates, they trusted him. And when he did finally get a look, he demonstrated the touch that makes him an elite scorer.
Creighton’s success starts with unselfishness, yes. But it’s also about intelligence. Unity of purpose. Discipline. The Jays know what they have in McDermott. They know what they want to do — and they don’t waver.
You could take that one possession and teach it at a clinic.
***
After Ndamukong Suh’s dominant 2009 campaign, I thought Nebraska would be a destination for great defensive line prospects.
Surely Bo Pelini, who also developed Glenn Dorsey at LSU, would have so many four- and five-star defensive linemen, he’d have to turn ‘em away. Look what Bo did with Ndamukong, imagine what he could do for you!
But the last two D-lines haven’t produced much (Crick’s injury didn’t help). And in three classes since Suh, Nebraska hasn’t scored many big recruits along the front four.
What happened?
Aside from kickers, what profile of football player — if any — do the Huskers consistently attract and develop? Does Nebraska have a recruiting identity? Does it need one?
Tom Osborne offset the Huskers’ recruiting obstacles — small state, bad weather, etc. — by building a different offensive system. Maybe Nebraska couldn’t get passing quarterbacks and blue-chip wide receivers. But if you were a star running back or offensive lineman, Nebraska was on your short list.
Under Pelini, the linebacker/defensive back hybrid looked promising for a while. Maybe NU would be a landing spot for defensive “tweeners” like Eric Hagg and Dejon Gomes. That possibility seems to have gone away with the Big Ten move. What about corners like Prince and Dennard?
I’m not sure you want to brand your school as “DB U” or anything like that. But I’m surprised Nebraska hasn’t capitalized more on its 2009-10 defensive success.
>> Suh has a long way to go to repair his reputation, even among the football gurus. In Indianapolis, I asked Warren Sapp and Brian Billick about Suh. They both had strong opinions, especially about the “stomp.”
First Sapp: “The one thing I would tell him more than anything is be honest with yourself, because he’s still sitting there telling me he was stepping away from (the Packers’ lineman) after stomping him…You’re not stepping away, you stepped on that man. Can you at least get that out of your mouth — ‘I stepped on the man. I apologize for stepping on the man.’ I don’t get it. Be honest with yourself.”
Did Suh have a down year, I asked?
His rookie season, Suh surprised opponents with his strength, Sapp said.
“It was a shock to the league. Now when you come back (for year two), you’re not going to come back with the same game plan, are you? He did. He has to develop another move. What’s his signature rush?…Suh doesn’t have one. He needs to work on his skills. You’re not going to run over everyone. These all are grown men here.”
Billick agreed that offenses adapted to Suh after his big rookie year. And the external distractions — stemming from charges of dirty play — affected him more than he recognized.
“Even today, what I saw in a recent (ESPN) interview shows a lack of understanding that you need to handle this better. You have the maturity to do it.”
It’s crazy for Suh to still claim he was “a victim of my circumstance,” Billick said. “You lost your cool. Admit to it, recognize it, take the blinders off, move past it. You’re going to be fine.”
Billick suspects that the people around Suh are telling him he’s right and everyone else is wrong.
“Bull—-” Billick said. “You were wrong, move on. If I were him, I’d get rid of those people. You’re going to have a much better career.”
>> Thanks to spring weather, Super Bowl week in Indianapolis has drawn fantastic reviews. The downtown is set up beautifully for big events; not too big, not too small. Makes me feel a little bad for complaining about the Big Ten choosing Indy over Chicago for its football championship game. Husker fans, whenever they get a chance to go, will have a lot fun.
>> On Tuesday, I posted a video of Missouri students looking ridiculous. Here’s KU’s response.
>> I wrote a recruiting column in today’s World-Herald focusing on the man who’s ruffling feathers all over the Big Ten — Urban Meyer. Check out Bret Bielema’s comments about Meyer.
>> A lot of schools gave out 4-year scholarships yesterday. Here’s more detail.
>> Finally, Jim Tressel sold his house and is taking an administrative position at Akron? Vice president of strategic engagement? Really? I can understand why a school would be attracted to Tressel’s head coaching record. But what message are you sending by hiring a administrator (for $200,000 a year) who cheated and lied to the NCAA multiple times? What a joke.
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Does anyone know anything about the QB who played with Jordan Westerkamp? Obviously the kid can get the ball to his receivers.
I said this the other day. Bo needs to run with Billy C’s vision of making the Spring Game an EVENT. He needs to ask/welcome back the Alums at the game. Make sure EVERY POSITION is represented and INVITE the Top 3 Players from EVERY POSITION to come for the Spring Game. I know you can’t get them all, but why not try. These kids will get to interact with some “Living Legends” and get the feel of NU Fans. Bo should push for a full stadium. Have a meet and greet. Bring back some of the old coaches too!!! They may be able to show the current staff a thing or two to help them in their “coaching methods”. I agree with the thought that you would have thought there would have been DT’s begging to get to NU. Don’t know what happened. Last thing….wasn’t there a Stud DT from K.C. that signed with Michigan???? Had did that happen??? Did he get an offer???? Thanks.
The stud DT from KC was actually from Michigan and only was in KC for like a year or two. Grew up close to UM and that’s where his family is.
This actually brings up the biggest reason we haven’t gotten 5* DTs. LOCATION. We were in on top DT’s the last two years, these guys were from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and California. Give you a guess what schools they ended up at…
We got the best DT in the 500 mile radius 2 years ago with Rome, and Peat Jr. was a huge recruit too as is Valentine this year. While I’m also a bit suprised we didn’t get 5* DT after Suh and Crick it makes more sense when you step back and I think we have still done really well in this area.
“HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???”
Can someone tell me what happened to King Frazier?
they can only announce 18 walk ons .. assuming he is the 19th that Bo was talking about in his presser.
Is there a reason they can only announce 18? NCAA policy? I have no idea, just curious.
Did anyone ask Sapp why he was so out of shape for the Orange Bowl?
Pelinis breaking the Golden Rule that every Major College Football Coach should know, “Keep your In State Division One Kids home, hes counting on the loyalty of nebraska kids to walk on, but with the Cost of college these days Blue Chippers can’t walk on and reject a free Fullride somewhere else. We let quality players sign elsewhwere and this will come back to haunt us, it sets the precedent that our coach thinks the grass is greener on theother side of the fence. Pelini does not carry the weight that T.O. did and could bring kids into NU without offering $.$$. Mark my words if Pelini doesnt smarten up we will see the decline of NU Football. Nebraska kids arent Prima Dona’s they have a hard work ethic and give a little more than the out of state kid becasue they are playing for the pride of our state, hometown and families.
Pelini has brought in a very good walk-on class. 19 preferred walk-ons, losts of kids with other opportunities.
We had 7 former/current walk-ons starting last year with many more contributing.
I agree the walk-on program is essential as is signing the top in state players. That’s actually one of the reasons I really like Pelini.
Everyone has been so worried about not offering Shoff, thought Iowa would get him. Now he just signed up with one of the Dakota schools. What a HUGE miss. Let the coaches decide who could contribute to the team.
The walk ons I agree are Top telent, but I still think it is a huge gamble to assume they will walk on at NU and bypass other schools Full ride offers, considering the ecomomics in the decision these days. Nebraska Blue Chippers are bound to figure this out and wave good bye to us if we don’t reward them with Scholarships.
The WO class should be even more impressive then if you consider the economics. Not sure we lost out on any blue-chippers.
I think most people would be up in arms if we signed Bender instead of Armstrong.
Sadly this years Nebraska HS class just didn’t have top end talent. Not one 4 star.
The economics are good for Nebraska but not good for the Player who has to dish out money to pay for college rather than have the university pay for it, If Mom & dad are well off no big thing, but if this isnt the case and tyhe rise of a college education (my son graduated from NU tuition went up every year) keeps rising this will factor in their decision.
I’m agreeing with you. I think that sacrifice for the athlete makes the class all the more impressive and definately shows that walk-on recruiting is not slowing down.
False. It depends on where you’re looking. Scout has Armstrong as a 4, espn and 247 have Rose as a 4, 247 has McMullen as a 4, so there are some. I don’t believe that a 4 or 5 guarantees a kid will be a star, but it does mean the kid has done some good stuff. Dirk’s right, you’d think they’d have got more of a bump with D-linemen from Suh’s success. Was this a down year talent wise for HS kids in-state? I see none on Wyo’s or ColoSt’s lists, (who used to get several every year) and no scholarships at NU.
Whats false? I meant there were no 4 star kids from Nebraska this year. Only D1 ships were Bender to KSU, Ott to Iowa and Cotton to Nebraska. Maybe Ohio got someone? Yes, it was a down year for top level Nebraska HS talent.
Mosier its been fun debating with you your facts and knowledge is compendable and you demeanor makes these kind of blogs fun….gotta go
I assumed “this Nebraska HS class” meant, this NU class of HS recruits. My mistake. Be more careful next time.
Walk ons are nice, as you need to fill your scout team. But to say that Nebraska will become a championship caliber football team with walkons is ludicrous.
Too many props are given to the walk on program. The coaches need to focus more on developing the higher level recruits. This in turn brings better recruits to the program, as every player wants to get better.
We should be gloating about our top 15 recruiting class, instead we are talking about walk-ons. I encourage you to read the national press (if you can find any) on Nebraska this off season. There is no buzz. Nothing. Irrelevance and mediocrity are 2 words to describe the state of our program. We should expect better.
Top 15 recruiting class.. according to who??
I wonder how many walk-on’s started for Alabama last year. Or started for LSU. Or started for Oregon. We had 7. That’s telling.
I agree that kids from the great state of Nebraska are hard-working, tough, and dedicated to the Husker tradition. But to call them “Blue-Chips” is an extreme stretch! Especially when you compare Blue-Chip talent in other states around the country, or even the surrounding states. Almost any top talent in the state that is getting multiple offers from other schools (not just Iowa) the coaching staff pursues.
Go Big Red!!! I’m a Boliever!
Don’t believe all the 5 Star rating hype, TO’s recruiting classes always ranked low and look how he did, and thats when the announcers were amazed that our lineups were made up of mostly Nebraska kids.
Again… Osborne did not recruit low ranked teams. He didn’t have a lot of top 5 classes, but his teams were always in the top 20. And if you take the time to research who made up the starters on Nebraska teams during the 80s and 90s… almost all of the skill players (QB, IB, WR, DBs) were not from Nebraska.
Nebraska does not produce enough top flight high school players in a decade that you can get in one year in metro Miami. Or metro Houston. Or metro Los Angeles. It’s simple math.
Truth
False. The 1997 National Championship team was loaded with Nebraska born players at skill positions. Scott Frost starting QB, Ahman Green starting RB, Joel Machovika starting fullback, Vershawn Jackson starting TE, Matt Davison wide receiver. Do a little research.
Bigfred – the 97 team had 6 starters on offense from Nebraska (a couple OL, QB, IB, FB, WR) who started. Nobody from Nebraska started on the defense. The 94/95 teams had fewer guys from Nebraska starting. 3 teams… 66 starters. And there weren’t 25 guys from Nebraska who started on those teams.
Can someone please tell me why NU is only signing 17 when most other schools in the B1G signed way over 20??????
Does it have to do with offering “walk ons” earning scholarships later on? Just a guess
My answer was rather vague, but what I meant to say is does NU save some scholarships back and give them later to some “Walks Ons” who earn them?
Doesn’t seem to me like they try to do this however they don’t oversign at all so then when someone leaves the team/gets injured etc. their open scholly is given to deserving WO’s. Last year I think we gave out 6 ships to walk-ons. Not including Caputo and Cassidy.
Peat’s ship will likely go to C. Jackson first if he qualifies but then will go to Maher.
Williams just getting booted will open up another ship, probably for S. Long, or a deserving senior like Blatchford or Mangieri.
@ Karla…its because of a small senior class. next year the class will be larger…around 24 from what i’ve seen, but that doesnt take into account any attrition
Because we only have 18 scholarships available. Small senior class, only 5, fifth year scholarship guys from Cally’s last class thanks to burnouts and not redshirting anyone.
People don’t realize how much these numbers hurt the team this year.
@Karla – since Nebraska was so dominant in the 1990′s the NCAA decided to limit schools to 85 scholarship players only. That means that if 25 scholarship players leave the team, they can offer 25 more. If only 10 sholarship players leave the team, then they can only offer 10 scholarships to new players. Teams like Alabama have been offering only one year scholarships to recruits so that if they don’t like a player or if he gets injured or if he just isn’t as good as they thought, then they run him off. Nebraska is honorable in that they offer full term scholarships for as long as the player wishes to stay (5 years or less) he has a scholarship. Believe me when Coach Osborne came to our house to recruit our son, he emphasized this. And when our son was injured, he still was guaranteed an education. That is honor. What Alabama and the other SEC schools do is dishonorable. As an old retired coach, I hold what Coach Pelini does in this matter in his program in the highest regard. The boo-birds and trolls want him to discard players like the Southern teams do. They care only about winning at all costs. I want to win too but not at the cost of building it by damaging the young athletes that come to represent our program. Nebraska is the wonder of college football, a tiny state has won more games than any other team in the nation, in the last fifty years, and has done it honestly & honorably with no recruiting scandals. We have done what no other program has done in the history of college football. Be proud.
It’s rare to learn anything new reading these posts. Thanks for the insight.
Fantastic stuff.
Thanks for the insight. I too value honor and integrity in the Nebraska program and love the fact that Pelini is upholding what Osborne started. Very proud to be a Husker fan for those reasons alone. Thanks again…
Great insight from a parent of an athlete. I know who a team is and who their coach is, is important. But I think mom and dads are still very important to where a kid goes. I will never be disappointed over a kid that wants to stay close to home. And yes, honor in recruiting is highly undervalued in this day and age. The kids that see the honor in the way NU recruits are the kids that will give it everything they have for 4 or 5 years and will keep their grades up. That’s all you can ask for. Great post Colorado Springer.
Great play analyis of a great team. Creighton looked really good last night.
Does anyone know if Moss and Peat are really cousins? I’ve seen many articles simply refer to them as teammates and friends. Did the cousin thing come about from some reporters not understanding lingo that younger black guys often use?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l_0EsNM1Y8&feature=youtu.be
nebraska defence will be much improved as for the offance not so much beck doesn’t have a clue how to run it same song and dance a stud in burkhead and a so so qb other diffence’s stop burkhead force tmart to pass stop’s nebraska keep the telant on the bench there not game ready that will be bo’s down fall he made a bad choice with beck as oc
You’ve just made all those that disagree with you very confident in their views. Thanks.
are you drunk?
Bo, just please give our QB recruit an Honest chance of unseating T-crumble!
Gave Carnes ample opportunity last year, by all accounts, simpley wasnt ready.
Carnes doesn’t get it. I don’t understand, do you really think that Bo would play T-mart over Carnes if Carnes were better? Given all the criticism that he recieves about T-mart, to believe he would do that makes you dumb.
There is no good answer for the lack of depth, and execution, at the QB position. What’s amazing… Cody Green couldn’t beat out Taylor Martinez? Green ended up being a big bust. We have not recruited the position well enough (we’ll see if Armstrong works out) the past 4 years. It’s hard to get a read on Carnes… given we’ve only seen him about 20 minutes during the regular season. There are other guys who are just as green as him at their respective positions… and they’re on the field more.
Out of all the comments, Colorado Springer is the ONLY one who had something interesting to say. I didn’t know about what he said about the ‘fishy smelling ‘ SEC, so thanks for the input. Very well put. You hit the nail on the head.