What Greg McDermott said about Gonzaga after Creighton's blowout loss to Zags

Bluejays head coach broke down what went wrong for his squad in blowout loss to the Zags

Creighton Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott. | Photo by Myk Crawford

The first 20 minutes of Tuesday's showdown between Gonzaga and Creighton featured couple of top 25 teams battling it out in a back-and-forth affair from McCarthey Athletic Center.

Then, what was a 6-point lead for the home team quickly snowballed into a disaster for Greg McDermott's Bluejays.

While struggling to knock Graham Ike out of rhythm, Creighton's offense sputtered under immense pressure from Gonzaga, which scored 27 points off 18 turnovers and held its opponent to just 7-of-25 from the field after halftime.

A 19-0 scoring run ultimately sealed the Bluejays' fate, as the Bulldogs jumped out in front by as 32 points in the second half before coming away with a triumphant 90-63 victory. Ike, who crossed the 2,000-point threshold for his career, finished with a game-high 20 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.

Here's what McDermott had to say after the game.

On adjusting Creighton's strategy after Ike made three 3-pointers early on

"We had to pull out and guard him a little bit more the second half. But we still had enough help behind to do what we needed to do. But you know, that certainly impacted the early part of the game."

On Jalen Warley's impact

"Jalen Warley really changes this team. I recruited him out of high school, and we talked again when he left Florida State. I've always loved the way he played. I think he's a winner. He doesn't shoot the ball great, but he impacts the game in so many ways and they can smash you with the two bigs, with Huff and Graham, and then when they go small, their defensive pressure just seems to go up a notch."

"He's so active on the glass and attacking the rim, and what he's able to do defensively; he can really guard one through four. So I just I felt when I watched the Oklahoma game, he changed that game, and I thought he really impacted this game in a huge way as well."

On Gonzaga's point guard play

"I thought Braeden's pace was really good. He didn't turn it over. We weren't able to speed him up."

"I thought Mario was really good versus Oklahoma, and I thought he made great decisions again tonight. We got out played at that position without question."

On his relationship with Mark Few, scheduling home-and-home series with Gonzaga

"Mark and I've known each other a long time, obviously, and I've got tremendous respect for what he's done and what he continues to do. And part of it, in this world of revenue sharing, and NIL, a lot of teams are going to neutral site games because there's maybe a financial benefit to that. But at the same time, we're also asking our fans and our boosters for more and more and more every year, and if you're going to do that, they deserve to watch good games at home."

"So we added this series starting this year and we have K-State at home this year, then we'll flip that next year. So I think we owe it to our fans to play good games. And I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Obviously, I've got a very new team that we're trying to figure out a lot of things. But when you come into an environment like this, you're going to get exposed one way or the other and while I don't like the result of the game, it's going to be some great teaching opportunities for us."

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