Omaha isn’t just known as a Peyton Manning audible anymore.
The Nebraska city is also home to the Big East leader nearly one-third of the way into the conference season, and the league’s all-time record-holder in 3-pointers made in a regular-season game.
Monday night was a coming-out party for Creighton, the former Missouri Valley Conference school that made the jump to the Big East last March.
The Bluejays (16-3, 6-1) moved into first place in the conference after their impressive 96-68 vanquishing of the fourth-ranked Wildcats at the Wells Fargo Center, a stunning 3-point shooting display that quieted the home crowd.
“We’re sending a message to the country that we can play with anyone,” Creighton star Doug McDermott said.
Led by stretch forward Ethan Wragge’s nine 3-pointers — tying a school record — Creighton made a conference record 21 3s in 35 attempts, breaking the mark previously held by West Virginia and Notre Dame. McDermott, the national player of the year candidate and NBA prospect, had 23 points, five rebounds and three assists, along with five 3-pointers of his own.
“That’s just what our team does, we share the ball and shoot open 3’s,” said Wragge, who scored a season-high 27 points. “If teams are going to defend Doug down low in the post like that, our job on the outside is to make sure we make them pay for helping out on Dougie.”
When Creighton joined the Big East, the move hardly drew headlines. In fact, it didn’t make a ripple compared to the noise made by the departures of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Louisville.
Yet as the calendar nears February, the Bluejays are making major waves on the court, responding to their first league loss at Providence on Saturday with a shocking dismantling of Villanova (16-2, 5-1). Creighton led by as much as 41 points, 28 in the first half and was up 21-5 just 4:09 into the game.
“That was unreal, never seen or been a part of something like that,” McDermott said. “We talked before the game, you got to have with it, and that’s what you saw.”
The league’s coaches showed Creighton a fair amount of respect in the preseason, picking the Jays third, in part due to the return of McDermott.
Monday night, McDermott — who is second in the nation in scoring at 24.9 points per game — didn’t even lead the Bluejays in points. That designation belonged to Wragge, who set a season-high in the first half alone. The 6-foot-8 forward rarely takes shots other than 3-pointers — he has made two field goals from inside of the arc all year — and all 14 of his attempts against Villanova came from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I’ve said to a lot of people I think he’s as good of a shooter as there is in the country, and maybe people will believe me,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.