NOT EXACTLY HOW DUTCHER DREW IT UP
San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher called timeout with 6.7 seconds left and drew up a play for his team to win the game.
Creighton saw the alignment, perhaps recognizing it from their meeting last year in the NCAA Tournament, and called its final timeout to adjust its defense.
Dutcher grabbed the whiteboard and scribbled a new play, one they had seen Michigan run and liked and installed in practice for this exact situation.
And …
It didn’t work.
And … the Aztecs won anyway.
“Like I always say, March is for players,” Dutcher said. “No matter what you draw up, someone is going to make a play.”
Darrion Trammell did, getting the ball and driving left into the lane. Official Lee Cassell ruled he was fouled by Creighton’s Ryan Nembhard, and Trammell made one of two free throws with 1.2 seconds left for a 57-56 victory that sent the Aztecs to the Final Four for the first time in school history.
The play, as diagrammed: Micah Parrish was supposed to come off a screen, then turn and get rescreened in the opposite direction.
“If they’re switching (screens),” Dutcher said, “sometimes you turn your head and the guy coming back is open for a shot. It didn’t happen.”
Why Parrish?
He was 0 of 6 in the game and is 2 of 14 (with one of the makes being a banked-in 3) since scoring 16 points last Saturday against Furman.
“He’s made a ton of big shots in practice, and they all get opportunities,” Dutcher said. “It was just Micah at that time.”
The next option was for Aguek Arop, after setting the initial screen for Parrish, to screen Trammell heading down the sideline toward the baseline. That wasn’t open, either.
Arop is considered the release in that situation, or last resort. He flashed to the ball and caught the inbounds pass from Lamont Butler, then briefly turned and faced the basket. And yes, he thought about it.
“I looked to see if there was a (driving) lane to the basket,” Arop said, “but then I remembered there were 6 seconds left — plenty of time. So I got it to Darrion. I trust him more than me.”
Dutcher is sometimes honest to a fault, admitting after Butler’s buzzer-beating 3 to win at New Mexico in late February that the play was actually designed to get Butler to the basket.
“It was, get the ball, go downhill and get a layup,” Dutcher said. “He got the ball and shot a pull-up 3, and it went in. Credit to the players. As much as you think Xs and Os and stuff you draw up will work, sometimes players decide games, win or lose.”
Decisions, decisions
SDSU had the ball with just over 30 seconds left, and Creighton had a decision: Play defense and maybe get the ball back with a couple seconds left, or use its last non-shooting foul to blow up SDSU’s plans to take the final shot.
Creighton coach Greg McDermott opted for the latter, instructing Trey Alexander to foul Lamont Butler with 6.7 seconds left as he prepared to dribble off a ball screen. That turned off the shot clock and essentially gave the Aztecs the last shot before overtime.
“I just felt with seconds left, we kind of knew what they had in their bag from a side out-of-bounds situation,” McDermott said. “Had there been four seconds or more (between the game clock and shot clock), I probably wouldn’t have done it. We thought with under three (seconds), that was probably the right play (to foul).
“But, you know, it’s coaching. Sometimes what you decide to do is right. Sometimes what you decide to do is wrong.”
Bum wrist
Creighton point guard Nembhard left the game midway through the second half holding his right wrist, which he broke late last season and caused him to miss the NCAA Tournament. He returned with 8:53 to go, still shaking the hand in pain, but never was the same.
He attempted only one shot, a miss in the lane, over the rest of the game and had no assists.
Asked if it had any effect, he said: “I mean, yeah, I’ve got bumps and bruises, but everybody has got bumps and bruises. It’s late in the year. Everybody is hurt. Everybody is hurting. So I’m not going to say that is a reason we lost. Things happen. We fell short to SDSU.”
Another first
In a day filled with firsts, here’s another: According to Omaha media, Arop becomes the first player who grew up in Nebraska to reach the Four Four in 37 years. Arop attended Omaha South High School and was Nebraska’s prep player of the year in 2016 after leading his team to a Class A state title.
“I mean, it’s special,” Arop said. “I grew up watching Creighton go to (the) tournament and play, and just being a fan of Creighton. I’m from Omaha, but I don’t feel that bad for Omaha. This is for San Diego. The people that are with me, all the people from south Omaha, all my family, all my close people, they were supporting me, they were behind me. That’s all that mattered.”
Notable
Trammell, who had 21 points Friday against Alabama and 12 against Creighton, was named the most outstanding player of the South Region. Butler, who had 18 points Sunday, also made the five-man all-region team along with Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Baylor Scheierman and Princeton’s
Tasan Evbuomwan.
• Sitting directly behind the Aztecs bench was Jordan Schakel, who scored 1,034 points during his SDSU career and now plays for the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate in Santa Cruz. His season in Santa Cruz ended Saturday, and he and his mother rushed to the airport to catch a red-eye to Louisville.
• The parents of Adam Seiko and Creighton’s
Arthur Kaluma did not sit in either rooting section but in a neutral section between them, wearing white T-shirts with their son’s names and numbers, but both the Bluejays and Aztecs logos.
• The officials: Michael Irving, who regularly works the Mountain West but only had the Aztecs in the conference tournament final against Utah State; Lee Cassell, who was on their game against Ohio State at the Maui Invitational; and Joe Lindsay,
who worked two Creighton games in Maui (but not SDSU).
• As the higher seed, SDSU wore its home whites and Creighton was in all blue.
• Creighton typically does not go deep into its bench because it doesn’t have to, rarely getting in foul trouble. Through the first 18 minutes Sunday, the Bluejays had committed one. Both teams finished with 11. The 22 total were the fewest for a Division I game this season involving SDSU.
• For the second straight game, SDSU held its opponent without a fast break point.