Creighton is cruising but wary of Seton Hall’s physicality
The standings and the metrics alike say Seton Hall and Creighton occupy similar spaces in the Big East Conference.
It makes for an unusually important Sunday matinee when the Bluejays begin a two-game trip out east against the Pirates in Newark, N.J.
There are no surprises among the top three in the Big East: UConn, Villanova and St. John's are a combined 7-0 in league play and are inside the top 26 in the NET as of Friday.
The second tier features Creighton (9-5, 3-0), unbeaten in conference despite a rough start to the season, and Seton Hall (12-2, 2-1), the surprise of the Big East after a 7-25 campaign last year. Both are top-50 teams as judged by KenPom.com and the NET.
The Bluejays take a four-game winning streak to the East Coast, where they will also play Villanova on Wednesday. Head coach Greg McDermott is focused on a Seton Hall team that he noted is No. 1 in the country in block percentage (20.1%) and tough on the glass.
"They're a very physical basketball team and they have a lot of interchangeable pieces defensively," he said. "They can do a lot of damage. The big thing is you've got to take care of the basketball and get into our offense."
Creighton will counter with an offense that has woken up in the past few weeks. The Bluejays have averaged 90.8 points and 52.6% shooting from the field in recent wins over Xavier, Marquette, Utah Tech and Butler.
Jasen Green went for 23 points and five assists, both season highs, when Creighton edged Butler 89-85 on Tuesday. Josh Dix paces the Bluejays with 12.0 points per game, but they have seven regulars who average at least 7.6.
Seton Hall bounced back from a loss to Villanova before Christmas by knocking off Marquette 79-73 on the road Tuesday. The Pirates gave up a 16-0 second-half run to fall behind by 10 before ending the game on a 13-0 surge of their own.
Creighton thrived with Ryan Kalkbrenner dominating the paint for the past five years, but with the center off to the NBA, the Pirates may have the upper hand in this matchup with their combination of Stephon Payne and Najai Hines.
Payne has averaged 7.9 rebounds per game, grabbing a career-high 22 against Marquette. Hines returned from a two-game absence and averages 2.4 blocks in just 17.3 minutes per game.
"(Hines is) out of shape, he's just got to play basketball," coach Shaheen Holloway said in a postgame radio hit before marveling at Payne's output. "But man, Steph Payne, look at those 22 rebounds, that's unbelievable."