No. 22 Creighton, Xavier battle for second in Big East (Feb 04, 2017)
OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton and Xavier both still have visions of winning the Big East Conference regular season title and securing the top seed for the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Once the Bluejays (20-3, 7-3 Big East) and Musketeers (16-6, 6-3) finish their pivotal 2 p.m. CST showdown Saturday at CenturyLink Center, only one team will remain within a game of first place Villanova.
Bluejays coach Greg McDermott hopes No. 22-ranked Creighton is that squad. McDermott knows that, at a minimum, the Jays must hold serve in their remaining four home games.
"We have no margin for error left," McDermott said. "If we're going to compete for a championship we're going to have to win a ton of games here, because I just don't see Villanova losing one or two more.
"If anybody's going to catch them, they're going to have to go on an unbelievable hot streak. We just need to take care of business one game at a time."
Unless the No. 4-ranked Wildcats are upset Saturday night by St. John's, the Xavier-Creighton winner will remain one game behind Villanova (21-2, 8-2) in the league standings.
Xavier coach Chris Mack said in a video posted on goxavier.com that trying to avenge the 72-67 loss to the Bluejays at Cintas Center Jan. 16 won't be an easy task in front of a raucous Creighton home crowd.
"It's going to be a tough environment against an equally tough opponent," Mack said. "We had 'em on the ropes last time; we did our job defensively.
"We allowed a couple of tip-ins at the end of the game that really determined the game. We've got to do a better job of when we switch on ball screens."
Both teams have lost their starting point guards to the identical injury as Creighton's Maurice Watson and Xavier's Edmund Sumner were lost with torn ACLs in their left knees.
Watson and Sumner, who also both redshirted in 2014-15 and were leading their respective teams in assists, were preseason All-Big East selections.
It was that game in Cincinnati last month where Watson went down while Sumner was lost in a Jan. 29 road game at St. John's. Freshman Quentin Goodin moved into the starting role for the Musketeers but was getting a decent amount of playing time -- roughly 14 minutes per game -- when Sumner was healthy.
"He was part of their rotation," McDermott said. "Not always at the point guard; sometimes he was playing on the wing. Obviously it's a blow to their depth, and you can't take a guy who's a likely first-round draft pick off your team and not feel any ill effects of that."
"Xavier's one of the best teams in our league," McDermott said. "They have been the last few years, and that certainly hasn't changed this season."
Guards Davon Mintz and Tyler Clement are getting more comfortable with additional playing time created by Watson's absence. After struggling mightily from the field against in a 71-51 loss Jan. 25 at Georgetown, the Jays rediscovered their shooting stroke in a 76-67 win Jan. 31 at No. 16 Butler.
"We also made some shots, which was good to see," McDermott said. "It's been a while since we've had a shooting game like that. Haven't had many of those in the conference portion of the schedule."
