The Micah Peavy Game: Hoyas dominate Creighton to open Big East play
Micah Peavy and the Georgetown Hoyas did something that the Hoyas have not done since late 2018: win their Big East conference opener. And they did it in STYLE, crushing the Creighton Blue Jays at Capital One Arena on Wednesday night. The Hoyas completely outclassed the Blue Jays in all facets of the game and continually snuffed out any glimmer of momentum Creighton tried to build.
Ahead of the game, Creighton was favored but 3.5 points. Most of the crew outside of Miller Lite Mike and Hainesy took Creighton to cover in our group Big East pool, with good reason. Creighton was missing Pop Isaacs and Ryan Kalkbrenner still seems bothered by an abdominal injury, but the Hoyas hadn't beaten Creighton since the Big East Championship in 2021 and Creighton beat Kansas earlier this year and only lost to Alabama by 8 a few days prior.
Then, news broke from Hainesy in the arena during warmups that Malik Mack was in street clothes and wouldn't be playing, which turned out to be due to a "lower body injury" that has him day-to-day. ("Lower Body Injury? What, is this hockey now?" - Uncle Dad.) Miller Lite Mike inquired about changing his pick, but both he and Hainesy held their ground and stuck with the Hoyas, choosing to ride vibes rather than reason. Caleb Williams replaced Mack in the starting lineup.
The Hoyas were active and sharp right from the tip. They jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead on two buckets from Thomas Sorber and a three from Jayden Epps, all assisted by Micah Peavy, who was all over the place right from the start. Creighton got two threes to make it 9-7, but the Hoyas steadied themselves, got a bucket from Peavy and another three from Epps off of another assist from Peavy, and played good defense going into the under 16 timeout.
It was at this point that Uncle Dad turned to Hainesy and said, "That was the best 6 minutes of basketball I've seen this team play in some time." It really only got better from there for the Hoyas. They pushed the lead to 25-18 at the under 8 timeout on the backs of some great play from both Caleb Williams and Curtis Williams, Jr. The Hoyas continued to pass it well and mostly force tough looks for Creighton while making just about everything they looked at for the first time all season.
Coming out of the under 8 timeout, Creighton did go on a run that in past years would have signaled the end of the fun part of the game as Georgetown's offense went cold and Steven Ashworth and Jackson McAndrew (who looks like he's 16 and is almost certain to be a problem for the Big East for at least two more years after this) staked Creighton to a 28-26 lead with two minutes to go in the half.
However rather than fold, the Hoyas closed the half on an 8-0 run as Curtis Williams and Jordan Burks both hit threes and Caleb Williams hit a tough layup off a nifty offensive rebound with 10 seconds to go. This quick stretch was pivotal to keeping the momentum with the Hoyas going into the half and proved to be a sign of things to come in the second half.
The second half was pure fun for the Hoyas and the gang present (Niv, Hainesy, Uncle Dad, Dustin, Miller Lite Mike, and, in the second half at least, Patrick) kept remarking how it had been so long since we'd enjoyed a game as much as we did Wednesday. The Hoyas offense continued to be sharp, they continued their strong shooting, and had an answer for every Creighton bucket. Important note here: after that mini run in the first half, Creighton never had back-to-back buckets the rest of the game. The Hoyas literally had an answer for every Creighton bucket in the second half.
But the real story of the second half was the Hoyas' defense and Micah Peavy in particular. Peavy had Steven Ashworth IN HELL for a long stretch of the second half. Ashworth had a good first half and ultimately finished the game with 21 points on 7-17 shooting, including a fairly efficient 5-12 from three point range. But, after a three pointer at the 18 minute mark of the second half, he went scoreless for more than 10 minutes during which time the Hoyas lead ballooned to 23. Peavy had 4 steals in this timeframe alone (7 for the game), all of which led to Hoya transition buckets. Jayden Epps added a steal, while Curtis Williams forced another turnover drawing a frustration offensive foul on Ashworth.
Ashworth looked well and truly cooked during this stretch. Peavy had him completely blanketed and was chirping at him and bodying him up during restarts. Creighton's depth players did not play particularly well in this game and Peavy took Ashworth completely out of the game for more than 10 minutes and it absolutely crushed the Blue Jays. The Hoyas defense in the second half was outstanding top to bottom, but it was Peavy who set the tone. It was as devastating a defensive performance as we've seen from the Hoyas in a long, long time and if they play defense like that moving forward they will be in more games than not. It was deeply fun and the vibes in the arena from the small but energetic crowd were excellent.
Overall, the Hoyas shot 33-60 (55%) from the field and 10-16 (!!!!) (62.5%) from three. They had 17 assists on those 33 field goals, but that percentage is skewed a little by the 6 or 7 unassisted runout dunks off of steals that they had in the second half. The dominated the boards 39-25 and had 32 points in the paint to 16 for Creighton. It must be noted that Creighton have two-time reigning Big East defensive player of the year Ryan Kalkbrenner at center, injury and all. It was a dominating second half of a dominating game for the Hoyas and they deserve a ton of credit for how they executed against the Blue Jays.
And the postgame atmosphere in the Section 104 WhatsApp and at Clyde's was OUTSTANDING. Let's go to the roundtable before we get to the game notes.
VINCI
The best part of the Section 104 series will be the vibes story arc (TBD if positive or negative) of the year when we wrap up. Already have the low point following the ND point to high point of Hainesy calling for a top 4 BE finish.
HAINESY
SMUCKER
What I’m amazed by is that we got more offensive rebounds while shooting almost twice as well as Creighton did. That’s a really good sign. Please be a theme… please be a theme.
MILLER LITE MIKE
Here’s to me and Hainesy being the only believers who have “I told you so” cred.
MATTY (reacting to 62.5% from three)
I say this with all love…but what the actual fuck?! How did this happen?!😂
NIV
Defensive effort just absolutely excellent. Peavy game. Curtis Williams, Jr. game.
MILLER LITE MIKE
I'm gonna wind up subscribing to KenPom and forgetting it
MATTY
How was the home attendance? Fun atmosphere?
MILLER LITE MIKE
Attendance was bad. But the vibes were good. The folks who were there were enthusiastic. Mostly us TBH.
ED NOTE: As stated above, Niv, Hainesy, Uncle Dad, Dustin, Miller Lite Mike, and Patrick were all in attendance. Patrick, fresh off bragging about getting his Big East predictions in on time a) did not make a pick before tip in the betting pool and b) did not show up to this game until halftime. His editor's jokes will continue accordingly.
VINCI
ESPN says just over 4,000…not great
SMUCKER
Will the crowds come back this year if they keep this up?
NIV
We are gonna have a problem in January but that's a January problem.
ED NOTE: This is in reference to our seat location being near the student section and how this team winning is going to cause some fairly significant student overflow near our seats.
HAINESY
Winning fixes everything. Just win baby.
MILLER LITE MIKE
Feels good man.
Oh my god
HAINESY
Ed Cooley was right. The food is GOOD.
ED NOTE: This is in reference to our section motto and our t-shirts for the season and stems from this quote from Coach Cooley last season.
MILLER LITE MIKE
Holy shit jumped to 66 in KenPom.
VINCI
Hainesy’s pre-season bubble watch prediction is coming quickly
HAINESY
As I’m fond of saying: watch this space.
MILLER LITE MIKE
Screams “work to do.” I love it.
Look at this!!!!!! Incredible.
HAINESY (from the bar)
We got into a fairly spirited conversation with (former Georgetown player who will go unnamed) in response to this text at Clyde's FWIW. He was initially unimpressed with us quoting the stats until we talked about the hell Peavy had Ashworth in.
UNCLE DAD
We were civil and deferential, but he was wrong.
NIV
The lad doesn’t understand stats and I bet he thinks Ed thinks the same as he does and I bet all the money in my pocket Ed would hear what we said and nod along vigorously.
UNCLE DAD
I missed all this discussion with him. But I think it’s a win for us that a former player eavesdropped on our takes. Wait until he learns about Kyle Tucker.
All-in-all it was an extremely celebratory evening at Clyde's and on the WhatsApp thread.
GAME NOTES:
- Micah Peavy led the way in this game and Jayden Epps led the team in scoring but Caleb Williams was really important in his biggest minutes yet against the best opponent he's played in his young career. Especially in the first half, he played a crucial connective role on both ends that was even more obvious in the stretch that he sat during the first half, which is when Creighton went on their big run.
- The Hoyas's rotations and sub patterns in this game were outstanding. Obviously, not having Mack and with Kayvaun Mulready and Julius Halaifonua both hurt as well, a few guys not accustomed to heavy minutes (both Williamses and Drew McKenna) saw an increase in minutes and acquitted themselves mostly well in their increased action. But, importantly, Coach Cooley really timed his subs well, giving guys extra rest ahead of TV timeouts and trying to save fouls before stoppages. In particular, he pulled Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy like a minute or so before TV timeouts to avoid them getting key fouls and giving them an extra minute or two of rest before inserting them back in the lineup coming out of the timeouts. It really played well for them. And as Miller Lite Mike pointed out, the sub packages played well together and even though Drew McKenna still looked a little uncomfortable in his minutes, he generally held serve too.
- Jordan Burks continues to ride high on the vibes train. He just always looks to be having fun and keeps the energy extremely high for this team. His energy and excitement is as important to this team as his play and his play has been pretty good so far.
- Curtis Williams, Jr. had an outstanding game. His length and engagement was really important on defense and he finally got hot on offense. If he can hit shots moving forward, this team can be dangerous.
- Jayden Epps had another outstanding game. His defensive improvement from last season has been remarkable and the recent stretch of play where he's mostly played as an off-ball scoring guard offensively really makes the Hoyas flow better on that end.
- In the first half, Epps and Sorber executed a pick and roll that was a thing of beauty. Epps soft pedaled the drive just enough to draw Kalkbrenner out to him and delivered a deep pocket pass to Sorber for an easy layup. It was the sort of thing that Matty has been clamoring for FOR YEARS.
Seton Hall is up next. It's a very winnable game for the Hoyas, and they need to stay locked in because the Big East schedule really kicks up after that. This was an excellent start and hopefully a harbinger of things to come, but it's only a start and they have to maintain this level of engagement in order to compete in the Big East.