MBB: Projected Creighton starting G/F Damien Jefferson gametime decision for tonight's game

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Jefferson is a 6'5 G/F who started 16 games for Creighton as a Sophomore last year after transferring from New Mexico. He averaged 6.2 PPG and 4.0 RPG on 53/39/64 shooting splits (only 13 makes from 3 in 26 games though). He was projected to start this year but has been dealing with a foot injury and missed the opener. According to Dylan at UMHoops the rehab work he has done recently has been secondary stuff and not work with the team which makes it sound less likely that he'd play tonight.

I'm sure we're going to get a preview from Ace later today, but this should be a really interesting game tonight. Between Jefferson, SR G Davion Mintz and SO C Jacob Epperson, Creighton is down 3 potential starters already due to injury, and a 4th player in JR G Denzel Mahoney is out until the 2nd semester as a mid season transfer.

This has left Creighton with one scholarship player taller than 6'7 in 6'11 SR C Kelvin Jones. Jones is a 5th year grad transfer from Idaho State (at his 3rd school after transferring from UTEP to ISU) who played less than 50% of minutes at ISU last year on a 7-13 Big Sky team that finished 348th in defensive efficiency. This is a big jump up for Jones, who also seems like a traditional big that can hit some mid range jumpers but can't expand to the 3 point line (0 attempted 3's in his career). He went for 7 and 4 in the opener.

Jones doesn't start however. With Epperson out Creighton starts 6'7 SO Christian Bishop, who played 17% of minutes last year for Creighton. He started and played the plurality of minutes at the 5 (18) in the opener, going for 12 and 5. The expectation is for him to make a big jump this year, but he's also 6'7 and can't stretch the floor (0-3 from 3 last year, 43% career FT shooter), so he has his limitations. Bishop played 18 minutes, Jones 16, and 6'8 Freshman Nic Zeil 6 minutes in the opener to combine for 40 minutes at the 5. These are the only 3 players they have above 6'5 and though I didn't watch I assume Zeil only played garbage time, so expect to see a split between Jones and Bishop at 5 unless there's foul trouble.

The 5 is the only position where Creighton can't shoot however. Since they're so small, the play a 4 guard lineup led by Ty-Shon Alexander, Marcus Zegarowski, and Zack Novak-esque small ball 4 Mitch Ballock. All 3 of these guys are great shooters with Ballock being just a shooter, Alexander being the best scorer, and Zegarowski being the most PG like. Shooting is the moto of this team. Last year Creighton 7th nationally in eFG% because they were 28th in 3P%, 17th in 2P%, and 17th in 3P shooting rate.

Creighton always has a great offense and struggles on defense. With their lack of size/established talent at the 5, their interior defense and even 2P shooting % should be expected to drop. However from the opener it seems like they are going to run more and shoot a lot of 3's, especially in transition. While Michigan will have a huge size advantage, the fact that our best lineups involve Castleton or Johns at the 4 could be a big problem for Michigan. Playing big at the 4 is just asking for a team of great shooters to jack up 3's. Michigan has to hope that Creighton is just off, one of Nunez/DDJ can step up and guard on of their freshman backups or just a shooter players for the game, or that John's length can disrupt the smaller/quicker players he'd guard on the perimeter turning that matchup from a loss to a win for Michigan. Tonight will be a fun game to watch, especially to see the real way Howard wants to play.