INDIANAPOLIS — Tommy Jay Ashworth is probably sleeping, feeding, or crying back in Omaha because babies almost always do one of those. Meanwhile, in Hinkle Fieldhouse, his father works on a triple-double for Creighton.
Smack in the middle of the sometimes wandering saga of Creighton Bluejays basketball this season is Steven Ashworth, a 24-year-old senior guard, the nation’s leading free throw shooter, 17 points-a-game scorer, husband of a wife named after a famous quarterback and new father of a seven-month-old.
That’s a full plate for a guy who has taken 63 free throws this season and missed two. Who, minus his injured running mate at guard, must do most of the serious ball handling for Creighton. And who missed a triple-double by one assist in the Bluejays’ 80-76 victory over Butler here Saturday.
Nice game, nice win. Then it was time to go back home and help with the baby, who isn’t much attuned to the demands of a Big East season. It didn’t matter much to Tommy that his father missed a free throw Saturday to end a streak of 38 made in a row. The diapers still have to be changed.
“He has no care in the world whether it’s game day or it’s an off day,” Ashworth says afterward. “Even this week. We started sleep training the baby and there wasn’t a lot of sleep going around this week.” There’s just some difficulties on a week-to-week basis that everyday college athletes aren’t dealing with.
“There’s only 24 hours in the day, right? I really have to make sure I’m spending my time wisely on and off the court.”
Ashworth says all this while working in the room at Hinkle Fieldhouse. He has hands to shake and old friends to see. He might be from Utah and play in Nebraska, but Indianapolis is where he spent a Mormon mission in 2019 and ’20, going from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, talking about the faith and working on service projects. So many people want to say hello after the game on this wintry Saturday. “Coming over here and seeing the snow, “ he says, “this would have been a day that me and the missionary friend I would have been with would have been shoveling the walks.”
AP POLL BREAKDOWN: Andy Katz Q&A, reactions to college basketball rankings (01/06/24)
One day back then, he wanted to see the famous Hinkle Fieldhouse he saw in the movie Hoosiers, but the doors were locked, so he walked around outside to at least get a look. Saturday, he was inside and scored 22 points with 12 rebounds and nine assists.
The season has been something of a winding road for Creighton. Started 4-0 and ranked as high as No. 14 in the Associated Press poll. Remember Ryan Kalkbrenner’s 49 points in the season opener? Then the Bluejays lost three in a row to Nebraska, San Diego State and Texas A&M. Then thumped top-ranked Kansas 76-63 with a big 27-point performance from guard Pop Isaacs. Then Isaacs needed hip surgery and was lost for the season. The Bluejays had good wins at home against Villanova and St. John’s but took some beatings on the road, including Alabama and Marquette, and by 24 points at Georgetown.
Put that together, and they arrived at Butler Saturday with a 9-6 record from an arduous schedule and no true road wins. Until Saturday, and this wasn’t easy with 15 lead changes and Creighton needing not only Ashworth’s numbers but 26 points from Kalkbrenner.
“I think today was a crucial step forward for us,” Ashworth says.
“We’re certainly not a finished product. We’re running a lot of guys in and out of there trying to find a combination that works,” coach Greg McDermott mentions. “Guys have had to adjust and maybe play a role that they weren’t anticipating they were going to play and that takes a little bit of time. But we’re getting better, and that’s the important thing. We’re in a league where it’s hard to win; I don’t care who you play. Just turn on the TV and there’s a lot of close games. We understand he’s (Isaacs) not coming back, so we forge forward.”
Ashworth must help lead that forging. “We don’t get to take pressure off of him very much,” McDermott says. “He takes a beating and keeps coming back. He’s been an unbelievable leader for this team, as is Kalkbrenner. They’re the reason we’re still in the fight.”
The near-triple double was even more challenging than it looked for Ashworth. Listen to his pre-game routine on Saturday:
“We had smoothies before the game. Next thing you know, I was hurling in the trash can about a minute before the game started. And then I went out and played 40 (minutes), so apparently it’s going to be a new tradition maybe. I hope not because it didn’t feel good in the moment.”
McDermott thinks it might be stomach flu. Whatever, Ashworth has a big day and says that he didn’t realize until he was told afterward how close he was to a triple-double, which would have been only the second points-rebounds-assists triple in school history. But he did know about the 12 rebounds, including his first four offensive boards of the entire season. That, a 6-foot guard would notice.
“Becoming a new father has been a huge blessing on my perspective,” Ashworth says. “I think it’s allowed me to play even more free on the basketball court because it’s put so much of life in perspective, which maybe a lot of people don’t think about when they’re out there competing.”
His partner in this experience is his wife, Peyton. Yeah, just like the quarterback. Big Manning fans in that family. “I don’t even know if they found out whether Peyton was going to be a boy or girl before she was born,” Ashworth says. “They liked Peyton, and they were kind of going to go with it either way.” Anyway, Peyton, the wife, not the quarterback, helps Ashworth get his rest for games. Not many college basketball players have to worry about 2 a.m. fussiness. “She feels like she sleeps better if she knows I’m getting a good night’s sleep,” he says. “Some nights, if he’s sick or not sleeping well, she’ll take him into a different room and stay with him. Peyton is to thank for that.”
New fathers are usually in for surprises. So…..?
“There’s some things that I just never understood until it was me,” Ashworth says. “Especially, are you really willing to put everything down for what he needs? Anything you want in life really becomes secondary to what he needs in life. You really are on-call and it allows you to be thinking less of yourself throughout the day, which I think is always a great thing in life, to be more focused on others. I didn’t necessarily expect that becoming a father.”
But he must also be concerned about Providence coming up and then trips to hostile places such as Connecticut and Villanova. Creighton, No. 54 in the latest NET ratings, will have to hurry a little for a fifth consecutive NCAA tournament bid. The tension of the bubble might be ahead, and the Bluejays will need a strong finish from their veterans, including Ashworth, who, between Utah State and Creighton, has played in 148 college games. But only 16 of them were as a father.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
