Sleeping with the Enemy: The Bluejays of Creighton

The adventure continues. After their second consecutive home loss to DePaul, your fighting Hoyas of Georgetown have an even tougher task on their hands Saturday. They head to Omaha to take on a Creighton team that beat them by 24 points in DC three weeks ago. For a bit more on the Jays, we reached back out to our friends at White and Blue Review to shed some light on the team and on various other interesting things.

So how have things been lately? The team looks good but that loss to Providence seemed surprising.

Other than the season-ending injury to Martin Krampelj, everything seems to be rolling along as you’d expect for Creighton. I don’t think the Providence loss was a huge setback in terms of the bigger picture when you consider that the Jays were in Game 1 of their post-Martin season. That was a must-win for the Friars considering both the stretch they are about to encounter in the schedule, plus the fact that CU blew them out in Omaha.

How much will losing Martin Krampelj hurt this team?

It’s tough to predict how much the team will miss Krampelj because they still have a ton of fire power, especially on the perimeter. It’s probably easier to tell what they will miss with his absence:

1. They have no replacement at present who can set 1-5 ball screen to create a mismatch or slip to the rim for a layup or a lob.

2. Defensively, his athleticism in ball screens was probably the most underrated part of his value. He could sit down and keep ball handlers in front of him, or hedge hard and allow his teammate to get through the screen and still recover to plug up the lane.

3. Rebounding. Pretty self-explanatory — he was the one of the best rebounders in the league before he got hurt and a major reason that Creighton has gone from worst to first in the Big East in defensive rebounding percentage.

What do you think would be a reasonable good outcome for the Bluejays this year?

They are an NCAA Tournament as of today. As long as they remain on track for a stress-free Selection Sunday that will fall into the “reasonably good outcome” category.

To what extent do you think national media/AP ranking voters overlook the Jays? A lot of key metrics (KenPom, BPI, etc.) put this team in the top 25.

Meh. That stuff doesn’t really matter much with they way things have played out so far this season. There are about 40 teams that have an argument for being ranked in the Top 25. As long as Creighton is in the Top 68 on Selection Sunday, they won’t complain. They’ve had opportunities to remain in the rankings, but unless you are Villanova it has proven to be pretty difficult to string together a big winning streak in this league.

The Hoyas didn’t exactly look their best the last time these two teams played. Did you see any sort of issues pop up with Creighton then that the Hoyas did (or could) take advantage of?

None then, but certainly now with one less big man in the mix it will be a really tough task dealing with Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson on the low block. On the flip side, those two are going to have a hell of a time defending the perimeter with Toby Hegner pulling them away from the basket because of his shooting ability. It’ll be an interesting chess match between Patrick Ewing and Greg McDermott to see who will flinch first.

Ok, so apparently Omaha claims to have invented the reuben sandwich. This is almost definitely wrong, but where should any Georgetown fans heading to the game go if they want a good Omaha reuben?

First of all, how dare you?! Second, Crescent Moon and Jason’s Deli are my preferred Reuben spots, but if you want to go with an untraditional approach I highly recommend the Reuben rolls at Sinful Burger. Third, you’re welcome.

Do you have a roommate horror story from college or elsewhere? Please share your most interesting one.

My old roommates are still my best friends so I’m not putting them on blast like that. Besides, those stories are better for audio than print.

Should pennies even exist? Why or why not?

Considering I have mild OCD about getting even money for change at the counter, pennies are a Godsend.

Final score prediction?

It wasn’t close in D.C., it won’t be close in Omaha. Jays 95, Hoyas 74.