Following Notre Dame’s losses to Rutgers and Houston this past week, the Fighting Irish now have a meeting with the number 21 ranked Creighton Blue Jays on Saturday. The Irish enter the matchup riding a three-game losing streak that dates back to Nov. 22 when they fell to Elon. As they close out the inaugural Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, Notre Dame is looking to pick up a big time win as they head into the next ‘several weeks’ without their star player, sophomore guard Markus Burton.
Photo by The Irish Tribune
The Blue Jays enter the game on a three-game losing streak of their own after falling to Nebraska, San Diego State and Texas A&M all in the last week. In those three losses, Creighton is averaging 63 points per game while giving up an average of 74 to opposing teams.
Junior guard, and Las Vegas native, Pop Isaacs has been the leading scorer for the Blue Jays in all three of those games, averaging 22.6 PPG on 37.7% shooting along with 4.0 assists, 1.0 steals. Isaacs has taken a liking to the three-ball during Creighton’s skid, shooting 32 shots from beyond-the-ark, only knocking down 12. It’s going to be important to ensure that there is a hand in Isaacs face and someone on the perimeter to make him uncomfortable. Senior guard Matt Allocco will be the man for the job when defending Isaacs and keeping him on the outside of the three-point line.
Down low, the Blue Jays’ best player Ryan Kalkbrenner has been in an unusual slump during the losing streak. During the first four games, the 7’1” senior center was averaging 25.8 PPG, including a 49-point performance against UT Rio Grande Valley in the opening game of the season where he shot 20-22 from the field.
Compare that to the last three games, Kalkbrenner is averaging just 8.0 PPG, putting up just 18 shots and converting nine of them. Despite this, it will be important for guys like junior Tae Davis to keep Kalkbrenner at bay especially on the glass. He’s averaging 8.6 RPG on the year and has collected 38 in his last four games. Too many of those, more specifically on the offensive side of the glass, will nix any chance the Irish have at winning this game. Expect Davis and junior forward Kebba Njie to split responsibilities on Kalkbrenner, with Davis getting more time.
That leaves fifth-year senior guard Steven Ashworth who is averaging 15.7 PPG, 5.5 APG and 3.7 RPG in his second season with the Blue Jays. This will be sophomore guard Braden Shrewsberry’s assignment with help from fellow sophomore guards J.R. Konieczny and Logan Imes. Ashworth missed the first game of the Players Era Festival with a “badly sprained ankle,” however he did play Wednesday night against Texas A&M where he finished with 14 points on 4-11 shooting.
Most of his shot attempts come from three-point land, like Shrewsberry himself. He averages 9.8 shots per game with 8.5 of them going from three, knocking down 41.2% of them. If Shrewsberry can keep him contained and hold him to less than 15 points, the Irish will be fine in that department.
Shrewsberry’s impact with Ashworth will not only come on the defensive side of the ball, but also his ability to answer back. On the year, he’s been very up and down, averaging 15.1 PPG on 32.8% shooting from three. He has seen a rise in not only his three-point shots per game from 6.4 last year to 8.3 this year, but also has been focused on getting inside the three-point line. Last year, 72.7% of Shrewsberry shot attempts came from three, while only 63.3% of have been from deep thus far in his second season. Shrewsberry is going to be a huge part of this game with the Irish needing a win in the worst way as they head into a stretch without Burton.
If Notre Dame keeps Allocco on Isaacs, a tandem of Davis-Njie on Kalkbrenner and Shrewsberry-Konieczny-Imes on Ashworth, the Irish are going to be in a great spot. It would be interesting to see the Irish take an approach like Nebraska who allowed Kalkbrenner to put up just one shot in the entire game. This would allow both Isaacs and Ashworth to put up more shots, however you would rather be beat by them than Kalkbrenner.
The game will tip off at 1 p.m. EST on truTV and will be for seventh place in the Players Era Festival.
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