Back on December 19, Creighton men’s basketball stood at 7-5, fresh off a blowout loss at Georgetown and two weeks after losing Pop Isaacs to season-ending surgery. The Jays’ postseason future looked murky.
Three months later, the 24-10 Bluejays saw their name pop up on the video board at C.J. Sokol Arena during the 2025 NCAA Tournament Selection Show, marking the program’s fifth-straight appearance in the Big Dance.
“It’s definitely a little more rewarding when you have to go through a little more adversity to get to this point,” Ryan Kalkbrenner said. “But honestly, it’s just been a blast being a part of this team, going through that, having the rough start, but sticking with each other and staying with the process and ending up where we are now. It’s just It’s been awesome for me to get to experience that my last year college basketball, and I’m looking forward to spending at least one more weekend with these guys.”
The Bluejays will head to Lexington, Kentucky, this week as a No. 9 seed. They’ll face No. 8 seed Louisville (27-7, No. 23 in KenPom) in the first round on Thursday — 75 miles away from the Cardinals’ campus. Creighton will travel roughly 10 times as far.
“Obviously, very excited to be back in the tournament,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “I’ve been doing this long enough and have seen and witnessed the pain of some of my colleagues that don’t get in the tournament or are just missing out by being one of the first teams out. So you have to celebrate when it happens. It’s hard. It’s been, certainly, an uphill climb for us with the way we started the season at 7-5 to get to this point. So really thrilled about the opportunity to continue to coach these guys this week.
“Obviously, we drew a very difficult opponent in Louisville; 18-2 in the ACC is incredible. My guess is they feel like they’re a little bit overseeded compared to where I thought they would probably be, and they probably think that maybe we’re a little bit better than a nine seed as well.”
Steven Ashworth quipped while addressing the fans that attended the program’s selection show watch party that Creighton is sued to playing tournament games in road environments after its run to the Big East Final, an experience that McDermott said will serve the Jays well.
“We played a road game on Friday night against UConn, we played a road game last night against St. John’s and we’re going to play a road game Thursday against Louisville,” McDermott said. “I just think the environment that we experienced Friday, Saturday night is going to prepare us for what’s ahead on Thursday. I think we’ll have a pretty good group of fans follow us to Lexington, but obviously, it’s a quick trip from Louisville to Lexington. I think they’re going to have a lot of people in the building.
“We showed some grit this this weekend, just like we have all season long, and unfortunately ran out of gas a little bit last night. I think we’re going into this week relatively healthy; hopefully, Fedor [Žugić], another day or two, we get him back. But I think everybody else, after a little bit more rest, will be ready to go.”
Žugić rolled his ankle against St. John’s on Saturday and did not return to the game. He was in a walking boot during the selection show.
A familiar face for basketball fans in Omaha is leading the Cardinals this season. Bellevue West product Chucky Hepburn is having a career season after transferring from Wisconsin to Louisville. He’s averaging 16.2 points, 5.8 assists and 2.5 steals and earned first-team All-ACC honors as well as ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
Together with first-year coach Pat Kelsey and a host of other transfers, Hepburn has led Louisville to one of the best turnarounds in college basketball — from 8-24 and a No. 185 finish in KenPom to the NCAA Tournament and a top-25 ranking.
“I was always impressed with Chucky,” McDermott said. “He went to Wisconsin, had a great career there, and then made the decision to move and has really elevated that Louisville program in a hurry. Coach Kelsey has been doing this a long time. He was successful at Winthrop, he was successful at Charleston and now he’s done a great job in year one at Louisville, despite some injuries early in the year. They kind of had to retool, like we did, and then just went on an incredible run through the ACC. So it’s a tough draw.
“Chucky is an elite point guard and a great leader. Fortunately, I have one of those too.”
Creighton and Louisville will face off in the first game of the day on Thursday with tipoff set for 11:15 a.m. CT on CBS.
Other Notes:
>> The bracket reveal was a mixed bag for McDermott’s coaching tree. On the positive end of the spectrum, Al Huss’ High Point squad earned a No. 13 seed and will take on another team with a former Creighton coach on the bench in 4-seed Purdue. Paul Lusk, the primary recruiter for Kalkbrenner while he was with the Jays, is an assistant on Matt Painter’s Purdue staff.
“It’s awesome,” McDermott said of Huss’ team qualifying. “I talked to him this morning, and unfortunately for D-Rock, I talked to him this morning too. I feel really bad for him, really happy for Al. He’s had an incredible two-year run at High Point, and to take them to a place they’ve never been before, you saw the excitement in their building for the selection show. That was really cool to see, I’m wishing him the best.”
D-Rock, of course, is referring to Darian DeVries, the long-time Creighton assistant now running the show at West Virginia. The Mountaineers (19-13) were the first team out.
Oklahoma State (15-17) also made the NIT in Steve Lutz’s first season at the helm in Stillwater.
>> Creighton isn’t the only men’s team in Omaha going dancing. The Omaha Mavericks (22-12) punched their ticket for the first time since moving to Division I by sweeping the Summit League regular-season and tournament titles.
Omaha is a 15-seed and will face a familiar opponent for Creighton fans: No. 2 St. John’s.
“I also want to congratulate Coach [Chris] Crutchfield and Omaha,” McDermott said. “Really cool that two teams from the same city are going to the NCAA tournament. I know their fan base is really excited as well, but a couple teams 30 blocks apart going to the NCAA Tournament is pretty cool.”
>> Ashworth will bump into some familiar faces in Lexington as Utah State is also heading to the Bluegrass State as a No. 10 seed facing No. 7 UCLA. Ashworth, a native of Alpine, Utah, spent his first three seasons at Utah State before transferring to Creighton.
“Mason Falslev and Isaac Johnson were two of my teammates, and then a few of the recruits that were being recruited in my final year there that stayed at Utah State as well, and some other in-state Utah guys,” Ashworth said. “So I’m looking forward to meeting up with them, hopefully, in Lexington, and getting to see them and catch up a little bit and cheer them on against UCLA.”
