Creighton University
22-12,14-6Big East
NC State
23-11,12-8ACC
Kalkbrenner's Career High Leads Men's Basketball Past NC State in NCAA Tourney Opener
3/17/2023 4:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Creighton will meet Baylor in Second Round on Sunday
Creighton (22-12) will now face third-seeded Baylor (23-10), which defeated UCSB 74-56 in the first game of the day in Denver. NC State ends its season with a 23-11 mark.
Creighton raced to a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes, keyed by a 3-pointer from Baylor Scheierman just 12 seconds into the game. The triple marked his school-record 34th straight game with a three-pointer, break a mark he had held with Ty-Shon Alexander. Kalkbrenner followed with a lay-in and Scheierman scored off a nifty backdoor pass received from Arthur Kaluma. NC State missed its first eight shots before finally getting on the board with 15:56 left on a bucket by Jarkel Joiner.
Though NC State rallied to tie the game at 24-all with 3:30 remaining, Creighton never trailed in the first half and took a 28-26 lead into the intermission. Kalkbrenner made 5-of-7 shots and led CU with 11 points and six rebounds in the first half. CU won the rebound battle 20-18 and shot 40.7 percent despite missing its final 12 three-point tries.
NC State was paced by Terquavion Smith, who picked up two fouls four seconds apart just two minutes into the game but still managed to score 14 points in 14 minutes of action. The Wolfpack shot 11-for-33 in the first half, including 0-for-5 from deep, and did not have an assist.
After a dunk from Kalkbrenner to open the half, NC State embarked on an 11-0 run to take its first lead of the game. Down 37-30, CU countered with a 9-0 run of its own that included seven points by Kalkbrenner and would not trail again. The Bluejays would move ahead 53-46 and looked in control until NC State buried back-to-back three-pointers to draw within 56-53 with 5:42 left.
The Wolfpack kept scoring, led by Smith's 18 points after the break, but Scheierman buried a deep triple in the waning seconds of the shot clock to put CU up 65-59 with 2:23 remaining, then another deep jumper with 1:08 to play to put CU ahead 69-61.
Kalkbrenner, the NCAA leader in field goal percentage, made 11-of-14 shots from the floor, including a three-pointer, and also buried 8-of-9 foul shots. The Naismith Defensive Player of the Year finalist also swatted three shots. Kaluma, Scheierman and Ryan Nembhard each contributed 10 points, and Kaluma notched team-highs with nine rebounds and four assists. Creighton shot 46.4 percent for the game and drained 17-of-19 free throws.
NC State was led by 32 from Smith, who made 12-of-27 field goal attempts. Joiner scored 13 points and Jack Clark grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. The Wolfpack shot 37.5 percent from the field, 21.4 percent from deep and won the rebound battle 35-34. The Wolfpack had just three assists but only six turnovers as well.
A tip time and television network for Creighton's game vs. Baylor will be announced much later tonight.
NOTES: Baylor Scheierman set a Creighton record by making a three-pointer in his 34th straight game, breaking a mark he had shared with Ty-Shon Alexander ... Scheierman's streak is 44 games long if you include his final 10 games last season at South Dakota State ... Creighton has made a three-pointer in 982 straight games ... Friday marks the birthday for freshman guard Ben Shtolzberg, as well as former Creighton All-American Kyle Korver ... Creighton is now 16-24 all-time in NCAA Tournament action in 24 trips, and 12-12 in its first NCAA Tournament game of an appearance ... Creighton has won an NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons, something only done once previously in program history (2012, 2013, 2014) ... Greg McDermott is 7-7 in NCAA Tournament games as Creighton's coach ... Ryan Kalkbrenner became the first player in CU history to play in four NCAA Tournament wins ... Creighton has won at least one game in 12 of its past 14 postseason trips ... Greg McDermott improved to 3-4 all-time against ACC teams, including three straight wins. He is 2-0 against NC State ... Freshman forward Mason Miller injured his ankle in the final minutes of the first half and did not return. His status for Sunday has not yet been determined ... Ryan Kalkbrenner (1,118) moved past Tim Powers (1,093), Doug Brookins (1,115), Daryl Stovall (1,15) and Kenny Evans (1,116) and into 34th place on Creighton's all-time scoring list ... Ryan Kalkbrenner became the first Bluejay with three NCAA Tournament blocks in a game since Joe Dabbert on March 20, 2003 vs. Central Michigan ... Creighton's six blocks as a team tied its NCAA Tournament single-game record done twice previously.
NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: First Round - NC State vs Creighton
Friday, March 17, 2023
Denver, Colorado, USA
Ball Arena
Creighton Bluejays
Coach Greg McDermott
Baylor Scheierman
Ryan Kalkbrenner
Trey Alexander
Media Conference
Creighton 72, NC State 63
GREG McDERMOTT: It was a really good win. The more I watched NC State, the more they scared me. Our defense is built on kind of being able to protect the rim, and they don't go to the rim necessarily that much. Smith and Joiner are a handful to guard.
Fortunately, we made them take some tough shots. They made some tough shots. But I thought our offense, especially the last 10 minutes, when they got in foul trouble, to be able to get it into Kalk. I thought everybody did a great job of finding him in the right spots. We had made a three forever and Baylor stepped up a made a couple big ones. And Trey fought his tail off all day trying to chase Smith around and make everything as equal as possible.
Yes, he had 32 shots but at least -- 32 points, took 27 shots to get there.
Q. Obviously coming into the game it felt like Burns hadn't seen anybody quite like Kalkbrenner, a guy who can score without necessarily needing the ball. Does 31 points from Kalk surprise you at all?
GREG McDERMOTT: Nothing surprises me from Kalk. He's just continued to get better and better and better. We were joking going into the locker room, I said, I can't believe you missed a free throw. He shot 47, 48 percent as a freshman. Two years later he's on the line with the game on the line late in the game, and he's knocking down free throws.
He's just improved in every facet of the game, and he was able to score on Burns. But then when they had to go small, we did a good job of executing some offense to get him the ball around the rim, and then he did the rest.
Q. Baylor, two parts. It was a little frustrating, I think, or did you get a little bit frustrated today early, and also we saw you blow a kiss to the crowd at the end there after you made a big shot. Was that to anybody in particular or just showing the love?
BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: Yeah, you know, obviously when shots aren't going, that can be frustrating, but you've got to find different ways to impact the game. And ultimately my teammates and my coaches have confidence that shots are going to fall eventually.
And then that kiss, I don't know, I just -- Jayson Tatum does it, it was just in the moment thing, it wasn't necessarily to anybody.
Q. Ryan, when two of their bigger guys picked up four fouls, how did that change the game for you in particular?
RYAN KALKBRENNER: I'd say I still probably attacked it the same way. Obviously DJ Burns is much different than their other big guys. But I don't know, just had the same mindset, trying to get deep catches, trying to just finish around the rim, don't try to make it too complicated on myself by changing things up when different players come in. But I think just staying solid and just doing what I do.
Q. When NC State went on its run to go up 37-30 briefly, you didn't call time-out. What does that say about the faith you have in your team?
GREG McDERMOTT: Well, they know I have faith in them. R2 was kind of on the attack, and not saying I was 100 percent call going to call a time-out, but he got his shoulders by him, so I let him. I trust these guys. We work on all that stuff in practice. And basketball is a game of runs. There's ebbs, there's flows, and I think good teams have to figure out a way to play through some of that.
We obviously took one when we went from up nine to up three there about 30 seconds later in the half. Yeah, I trust these guys. They know I trust them. We play basketball a certain way, and when we play that way, we're pretty good.
They know we'll be successful if we stick to our plan. Today especially defensively I thought a lot of what Smith got was difficult, but everybody else we did a terrific job on and took a very explosive offensive team and ran them off the three-point line.
Q. Baylor, not to obsess about the kiss, but how much were you feeding off the crowd down the stretch? I know this isn't Omaha, but talk about the atmosphere and how it helped you guys.
BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: Yeah, it's March Madness. It's a great crowd, an atmosphere. And growing up that's what you dream of playing in. Like I said, it was an in-the-moment thing. I like to have a lot of fun and interact with the people, and I think that's what it's all about.
That's kind of the gist of it.
TREY ALEXANDER: I just feel like for us to come from Omaha and be able to play somewhere like Denver where it's not too far from home, for everybody to just come out the way that they did, I think it just shows how special the community is in Omaha. I feel like we're very -- gives a very type of home feeling, and I feel like everybody just supports us, whether it's going good or bad.
For them to come out to Denver and just see how much support we had from the Creighton community in Omaha and just kind of over in the area, it just means a lot.
RYAN KALKBRENNER: Yeah, I mean, when we did the starting lineups, every time they did one of our players, it felt like there was a roar from the crowd, and it was like, this feels like home. Creighton fans are amazing. They travel well, and everywhere you go, it feels like home because you've got a ton of support in the stands supporting you.
Q. Trey, obviously Terquavion is a talented player. You talked about him earlier in the week. In the second half it felt like a lot of those rear view contests, he was doing away with them. Talk about when you got a piece of that shot at the end there?
TREY ALEXANDER: I know the second half we tried to throw a couple different ball screens coverages at him, and the big boy, he set some big screens. It's hard to get over his screens. One time I kind of got over it and I was just like just to kind get on the side of him. And then I seen that Kalk was getting back to his man, so I was able to barely get my fingertips on it. Obviously it was a big play in the game and it changed the momentum of how we were able to play going down to the end.
Q. Obviously you don't want Terq to score 30 something, but at a certain point are you kind of living with him getting the mid range and locking up everybody else?
GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, what do you do? He was effective against our drop coverage. Now, you say effective, he shot less than 50 percent from the floor, so he got us on the drop coverage, and then we tried to stretch him out, and he got a couple fouls.
But he's really good. I thought Trey did a great job of really chasing him and making it difficult. He had one three-point shot I don't think Trey was on him a staggered out of a time-out. He makes a lot of threes, so we tried to make him do things that he doesn't normally do. And to his credit, he was able to make us pay, part of the time anyway.
Q. Baylor, you hit your first three 10 seconds into the game and then it seemed like there was a little bit of a cold stretch. What was going through your mind when shots weren't falling and when NC State got up six or seven there.
BAYLOR SCHEIERMAN: I kind of touched on it earlier. You've got to be able to impact the game in different ways. If shots not falling, try to do my best to rebound or try to create for other people or just as simple as just encouraging my other teammates. Because I know they have belief in me, so when things aren't going well for me, maybe aren't going well for Kalk, he had a great game, so just continuing to encourage them.
Q. Coach, how does the energy or the pace of this game set the foundation for the rest of the tournament?
GREG McDERMOTT: Well, we saw a little bit of everything today. We saw a lead, we lost the lead, we got the lead back, then they closed in and then we had to execute some things to finish.
It'll make a pretty good St. Pat's Day for our Irish fans that have followed us over here from Omaha, so I think they're going to have a little fun. Tomorrow may be a little slow for them.
But we've got a lot of work to do to get ready for Baylor. But you know, in this tournament you put the entirety of your focus into Game 1, and you just have to survive and advance. They talk about it all the time.
We beat a good team today, and we're going to play another good team on Sunday, so we'll get off our feet, get some rest, get a good meal, and we'll dig into Baylor.
Q. What does this mean to you, playing in the second round in the context of this last year and obviously what happened? You've probably talked about it with local guys, but it's got to be pretty special getting ready for this weekend.
RYAN KALKBRENNER: I mean, yeah. Got hurt at the end of the game last year, so it's just going to be a lot of fun to play in the second round. 32 teams left, so it's a big opportunity and a big honor to be in that game, and happy to be able to play in it this time.
Q. I've got to ask the backstory on your shoes. Did your coaching staff convince you to do that?
GREG McDERMOTT: My assistant ops guy, John McKew ordered them five months ago thinking that we had a 50/50 chance if we made the NCAA Tournament to play on St. Pat's Day. Out of respect for him and obviously McDermott is a pretty Irish name, we went with the green today.
Q. Given that you have all these guys who have experience in the NCAA Tournament, did you feel a looseness at all from them today, just sort of let it all go or what?
GREG McDERMOTT: They were incredibly loose in the locker room before the game, way looser than I was. But they've kind of been that way all year. They've prepared and they're serious in their preparation and they take that to heart.
But they have a way of getting themselves ready that's a little different to the way I got myself ready back in the day. But it's also part of their personality, and my job as a coach is you never want to take that away. That's part of the joy of playing the game is having fun with your teammates.
If I ever start to take that away, then I need to do something else.
Q. It felt like early on you kind of let Art create a little bit and rock out there and try to play make. And then obviously the shot making didn't work so much down the stretch for him, but he kind of came alive doing some intangible stuff we talked about. Late game you pulled him aside after that run and talked to him. What were you saying to him there?
GREG McDERMOTT: Well, on that particular play, I wanted to know why his guy was open in the corner before he stepped out of bounds. But Art impacted -- Baylor talked about impacting the game in other ways besides scoring. Art had his fingerprints all over this game, nine rebounds, he had four assists, and they were all for easy baskets. I thought defensively did a good job, made a couple great plays. And to your point, got into the paint off the dribble but under control, and then made really good plays out of it.
Only took six shots, only made two of them, made all of his free throws, almost had a double-double. Like I said, that's a heck of a tournament game.
Q. Ryan, obviously some good guards in this tournament. Baylor has a few. Obviously Terquavion is pretty talented. Between the wall ups and all the stops down the stretch, how confident does that make you about defending some of the better guards in this tournament?
RYAN KALKBRENNER: I think just as a team, we do a good job of defending anyone we game plan against. I think Trey, Baylor, Nembhard, all those guys did do a great job of doing their part in our defensive scheme to make it tough on the other guards.
Sometimes some guy will make you pay from time to time, but made it tough for Terquavion Smith tonight, and you live with that. But I believe in our guys can guard any other guards this tournament has, and we'll be ready for them.
Q. Baylor's three late in the game was set up by Ryan's pass late in the shot clock. Were you hoping to use Ryan as a decoy there and get it to Baylor, and also Ryan's improvement as a passer?
GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, that's one of our out of bounds plays that we practice quite often but we haven't used it all year. It felt like an appropriate time. And like I said in the locker room to the guys, a play like that takes five guys. R2 set a good screen to free Ryan, Trey made a great pass to Ryan right where it needed to be. Art set a great screen for Baylor up top and then Baylor has got to finish it by making the shot.
As a coach you save a couple of those in case you need them, and you hope when you need them, we execute it, and to our guys' credit it was executed to perfection.
Q. Do you have an update on Mason and his injury?
GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I think the MRI, the X-ray, whatever they did was negative in terms of anything worse than a sprain. But the grade of the sprain I don't think we'll know until he gets up tomorrow and gets a little treatment tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
130669-1-1046 2023-03-17 22:30:00 GMT
NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: First Round - NC State vs Creighton
Friday, March 17, 2023
Denver, Colorado, USA
Ball Arena
NC State Wolfpack
Coach Kevin Keatts
Terquavion Smith
Jarkel Joiner
Media Conference
Creighton 72, NC State 63
KEVIN KEATTS: You know, I thought our guys fought the entire game. We wanted to -- obviously they got a pretty good lead on us, and we wanted to cut the lead and put a little bit of game pressure on them, and I think we did.
Give Creighton a lot of credit. Very good basketball team, and every time we made a run, I thought they made a run, and obviously they made some plays down the stretch.
I am super proud of my team. I mean, this is -- when you look at where we were at last year to where we're at now and how hard our guys worked, what a season we had with 23 wins and guys playing their butts off. Guys like Jarkel Joiner and the other transfers and the guys like Terquavion Smith who decided to come back, it means a lot to us and our program.
I thought those guys completely fought the entire year. We did some really good stuff. We are going to walk out of here with our head up, continue to build and keep pushing this program in the right direction.
Questions?
Q. Kevin, heading into this game, obviously all the talk was on DJ Burns and that matchup with Ryan Kalkbrenner. How frustrating was that to not have that come to fruition with DJ getting so many fouls?
KEVIN KEATTS: That was more outside talk than anything. I certainly wished DJ could have been on the floor a little bit more. But guard play is really good, and our guards have been really good. These two guys have averaged 17 points a game between the two of them or more. On nights DJ has been really good, certainly never got into a flow, and I thought their big was tremendous. He did a great job. We fronted him, played him, he did a good job, they found him, he made shots.
Q. Jarkel, how frustrating was it for you guys that you were kind of scrapping for shots at one end and trying to find openings and they would get down to the other end and dump it in inside? Did that take a toll on you guys a little bit in terms of frustration?
JARKEL JOINER: I wouldn't say that we were frustrated because we knew the game plan, we knew what they was going to do. I felt like we could have been a little bit more disruptive because they're a great passing team. But give credit to them, they found their big man.
Q. Jarkel, so much at NC State is about legacy and heritage. How important is it to you that you've lifted NC State back up to that level where they're in the mix for the NCAA and competing for these type of awards?
JARKEL JOINER: Man, it's been great. When I first came on my visit, Coach told me we was going to go to the NCAA Tournament, and everything he said to me in the office came true, man. And I love him to death. I'm so glad I came here. It's so family oriented and I'm glad that we got back to the NCAA Tournament. Coach has been a winner all his life, and I'm so glad he's been able to coach me and get me to here. It's been fun.
Q. T, you decided to come back. How things ended right now tonight, given everything you've been through over the last two years, what has it been like? What has your career been like and what do you take away from the things you've learned here in.
TERQUAVION SMITH: I'm just blessed and glad that I got to play with the group of guys I got to play with, and I'm glad I got the coaches I have and I've got the staff that I have, and I'm glad I chose NC State. Like he said, like Jarkel said, every time I talked to Coach and when he was recruiting me all the way till now, everything he told me that would happen happened.
I just had to believe in it and put the work in for it. I'm just glad to have this group of guys and the coaching staff that I have.
Q. Terquavion and Jarkel, this is the only year the two of you will get to play together. What has that experience been like sharing the same backcourt throughout this year?
JARKEL JOINER: It's been fun, man. Me and T are like brothers. I love him to death. He's an amazing person. Like he's a more amazing person than he is a basketball player, and he's an amazing basketball player. And he's going to do great things in his career whatever he decides to do, and I love him to death.
TERQUAVION SMITH: I can say we're brothers. This is my big brother. I take everything he said into consideration. Whenever he tries to tell me anything as far as on the court, off the court, somebody I know I can count on, and I just love him. I wish we had more time together, just to try to make it better, make the chemistry better. But I'm glad he came and I'm glad it was the best fit for him, and I just love him. This is my guy.
Q. Kevin, you went into the game knowing you had to defend a three, that they've had great success this season. What did you feel like the difference in the game was? Was it just a shot here and a rebound there and a call, a no call? What was the difference?
KEVIN KEATTS: Yeah, I thought we did a great job defending the three. When you look at them, they were 3 for 20. We obviously didn't shoot the ball well. I thought they got some interior baskets that helped those guys get a little easier baskets. It was a possession game, if you look at it. If the ball bounces one way or we make a couple shots here, it may be a different outcome.
But give them credit. I thought they made those threes out of -- those three threes they made I thought they made two down the stretch that were really huge that kind of put them over the top.
Q. Kevin, Terquavion got the two fouls; I think generally this season you would leave him on the bench the whole half. You made the decision to bring him back. How well do you think he massaged that situation and what led you to make that choice?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, he's a lawyer, and from the time he got the second foul, he's like, oh, I got it. So it was the end of the year, and hey, listen, these two guys have been tremendous. If I'm going to go down, I wasn't going to have him sitting on the bench with two fouls. I made the decision if he fouled out, he fouled out. Luckily he didn't.
But what a -- I haven't said this, but what a special backcourt this has been. You look at two guys that are right over 17 points a game, they trust each other, they fight each other, they compete against each other, they love each other, they hang out with each other. It's been a really special group.
And as a coach you don't get that all the time. You don't get two guys who are really winners who compete the way they do. I'm really grateful that both of those guys decided to come to NC State and play for NC State, because we wouldn't be in the position without those guys.
But I wasn't going to sit him down. We were going to go out, and if we were going to go out and we're going to win the game, it was because of our guard play.
Q. Kevin, when Terquavion dunked on Kalkbrenner, did you have any sense at that point that maybe the tide had turned your way and that you just kind of had to see it out, and did you have that feeling sort of in your gut at that point?
KEVIN KEATTS: You know, I thought we made a couple big plays. I thought the dunk was a big play, the next possession Jack hit, a big three. And then we came down and we couldn't get stops. We went up, we couldn't get stops. The ball bounced a couple different ways. But it definitely shifted our momentum, the momentum towards our way. I thought we did some good stuff. I just thought they came down and made a few more plays than we did.
Q. Kevin, these guys have helped lift this thing back up to the NCAA. The meaning that has to you, the gratitude you have for your team this past season.
KEVIN KEATTS: Yeah, just listen, it's a lot of -- what you guys don't understand, it's a lot of hard works that goes into winning. Winning is not easy. At some point in my career I thought winning was very easy because I was comfortable and we won.
When we had the year last year, I realized that it's not given to you, it's earned, and you've got to earn, you've got to work.
And Boo pushed me to look at everything. Had Chancellor Woodson's support, had both of those guys' support. And I wanted to make sure that I went out and I made some positive changes. The most positive change was probably in myself, looking at myself in a different way that I've never looked at myself.
But I also wanted to get out and find some guys that I felt like were NC State guys. They played hard, they competed. We talk about accountability. We have ART, accountability, relentless, toughness and together. Wanted guys to be able to do this.
I have an elite sophomore who was an elite freshman who decided to come back to school. Didn't have to. Wanted to bring an older guy beside him to be able to help him get where he needed to be.
I am proud -- we did some really great things this year. Maybe one of the best turnarounds in college basketball, and it's because of the people around me and the staff that I put together, and everybody's hard work and everybody's commitment to get us to where we needed to be.
We don't want to go back to that one year. I want to look at it as it was a bad year, and I want to continue for the program to rise.
The biggest thing is like, to be quite honest, with you, I got humbled, and when you get humbled, you look at things a completely different way. And I'm glad I got humbled because you learn a lot through going through some adversity, and that was something that I had never done in my life. But I went through adversity, and it made me look at things in a different light. I'm glad I did because we're where we're at today because of what we went through.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
130675-1-1046 2023-03-17 22:43:00 GMT
