What Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said ahead of matchup with Gonzaga

Mark Few and the Gonzaga Bulldogs don't often get ranked teams to come play them at the Kennel, which makes Tuesday night's matchup with the No. 23 Creighton Bluejays a special one.

Fresh off a win over Oklahoma on Saturday at the Spokane Arena, Gonzaga has a chance to begin the season 3-0 if it can secure a win Tuesday night. The game is slated to tip off at 7:00 PM PT and will be broadcast on ESPN with Dave Flemming and Sean Farnham on the call.

Creighton is 1-0 on the year after securing a 92-76 win over South Dakota last Wednesday, although coach Greg McDermott was disappointed with his team's effort in the second half, particularly on the glass.

McDermott talked about needing to improve on the boards in a major way coming into Tuesday's game against Gonzaga, after giving up 21 offensive rebounds to the Coyotes.

McDermott also discussed Gonzaga's dynamic frontcourt duo of Graham Ike and Braden Huff, scheduling such a tough road game this early in the season, the health of Creighton big man Owen Freeman, and more:

On what he's looking forward to against Gonzaga

"I think we're going to learn a lot regardless of what happens. Obviously it's a very difficult place to play against an outstanding team. Extremely well coached. You don't know how you're team is going to react to that, especially when you have this many new guys. So it's going to be a day of growth for us one way or another."

On how Creighton practiced this past week

"We were able to work on ourselves last week and then turned our attention to Gonzaga on Sunday. I think we cleaned up a few things and I'm hoping that will show itself [on Tuesday]."

On scheduling Gonzaga so early in the season

"Sometimes when you schedule those, it's what date works. And with our game with Nebraska in December and what we have in Vegas over Thanksgiving, this was probably the best time for that. We wanted one right before conference play and we wanted one here. So we have Kansas State there and the Zags here. You find out a lot, fortunately, we played two tough exhibition games. Hopefully, we're ready for it."

On Owen Freeman and matching up with Gonzaga's bigs

"I wish he was back in shape and 100%. Clearly he's not there yet and he probably won't be for a while. It's going to be a test for our front line. It's two of the better passing bigs in the country and they just happen to be on the same team with Ike and Huff. So that provides a lot of challenges. They have a lot of different ways to try to get the ball into the paint and we have to do whatever we can to make those catches difficult."

On Gonzaga's experienced backcourt

"[Adam] Miller really shoots it. [Braeden] Smith was terrific at Colgate before he transferred and he really runs the team and is great defensively. [Tyon] Grant-Foster is such a good slasher and he can take it off the rim, he can lead the break, he gets his back cuts, and works on the offensive glass. and then [Jalen] Warley really changes the game too because he's totally different and he can switch some ball screens and provide a little more pressure defensively for them...They can give you a lot of different looks. You talk about the two bigs a lot but at the end of the day, they are probably only on the court together 12 to 15 minutes and the rest of the game you're dealing with a smaller, more athletic lineup."

On the importance of big early season games

"Well it's a Quad 1 game so you have an opportunity to help your resume. At this point, with this team, we have to grow and we have to learn and we have a long ways to go before we are ready to tackle the Big East. This is another step in that direction and hopefully we can put our best foot forward."

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