Greg McDermott reveals how Big East Tournament helped Creighton beat Louisville
03/20/2025 05:04 PM
In theory, every game in the NCAA Tournament is supposed to be played on a neutral court, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Top seeds are generally placed in regional sites that are geographically favorable. Impartial members of crowds often get behind underdogs and turn neutral site matchups into road games for favorites. And some schools just historically travel better than others. But in Creighton’s case, their opening round matchup with Louisville was about as close to a true road game as you could imagine in the NCAA Tournament.
A “neutral site” game between the 8-seed Louisville Cardinals and 9-seed Creighton Bluejays felt like a Louisville home game, and that’s because the game was played at Rupp Arena in Lexington, which is just a short 75 mile drive from the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, giving the 8-seed a notable edge in the crowd. But if you watched the game on mute, you would’ve had no idea that Creighton was playing in hostile territory. They didn’t blink. They weren’t fazed at all. And they played one of their best games of the season, earning an 89-75 win.
After the game, Creighton head coach Greg McDermott was asked about the hostile environment his team needed to combat, and he revealed that the experience of having to play at a crowd deficit against the likes of UConn and St. John’s at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament helped prepare his team.
“Once you figure out who you’re playing, you forget about whether you got a good draw or a bad draw. You wanna advance, you gotta figure it out,” McDermott told Ana Bellinghausen of CBS Sports. “I really believe that our experience Friday night and Saturday night in New York prepares you for what happened today. Not many teams have to play a road game like that in the NCAA Tournament, and we figured out a way to get it done.”
Led by Jamiya Neal’s historic 29 point, 12 rebound, 6 assist performance, as well as steady outings from Ryan Kalkbrenner (14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks) and Steven Ashworth (22 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists), the Bluejays picked up a Round 1 win for the fifth straight postseason. They’ll take the floor in Lexington again on Saturday to play for a spot in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year.
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