The themes of the first two months of the 2024-25 season for Creighton men’s basketball have been adversity and missed opportunities.
The adversity has been well documented — a season-ending surgery for a key starter and short-term injury and illness affecting multiple players throughout the season. As for the missed opportunities, Creighton is 1-5 in NET quadrant one games, with the most recent loss coming at Marquette last Friday.
The Bluejays built an eight-point lead, surrendered a 26-3 run then rallied to make it a one-possession game before coming up short on a night when the team’s two best players combined to shoot 8-for-29 from the field. Jamiya Neal said he likes Creighton’s chances if the Jays can replicate that effort moving forward knowing Steven Ashworth isn’t likely to shoot 1-for-13 from 3 and Ryan Kalkbrenner isn’t likely to go 4-for-11 around the rim again.
“Those types of losses, to me, it kind of hurts more than getting blown out, just knowing we were right there, we should have won, and that was a game that we really could have used,” Neal said. “So that will definitely fuel us, and at the end of the day, we have to pick up these wins now. Unfortunately, we let one get away there, and now we have to make a run here.”
After the loss, Creighton got a week off from competition to prepare for that run. Coach Greg McDermott gave the Bluejays a few days to heal up and recharge before spending Tuesday’s practice working on themselves.
“I think the bye week is always nice to get a little rest, but also nice to work on some things that we need to work on,” Kalkbrenner said. “Because once you get in the heart of Big East season, you’re prepping for the next team every single day. So it’s nice to get little rest and then work on some of our stuff.”
The area Kalkbrenner identified as most in need of improvement is ball security. Creighton ranks 297th in turnover rate (19.5%), including 350th in live-ball turnovers (12.7%). The Marquette game was a step forward in that regard. After committing 19 turnovers against St. John’s (the Big East’s top turnover-forcing defense), Creighton cut that number to 12 against Marquette (who ranks second behind the Red Storm in opponent turnover percentage).
“Obviously, Steven did an incredible job,” McDermott said. “Having Stevie Mitchell chase him all night and only turn it over one time is a credit to him and the things that he learned coming off that St John’s game to prepare for the Marquette game. I thought we were just a little bit more sure with our passing, catching, and didn’t take as many chances, which you can’t do against a Marquette team that’s so aggressive like that. I think that’s the reason we had a chance to win, plain and simple. We turn it over 17, 18 times like we did against St. John’s, we’re going to be in big trouble.”
A big part of the turnover problem is the absence of Pop Isaacs, whom Creighton has been without for a month now. Jamiya Neal has taken on more ball-handling responsibilities in the six games since Isaacs shut it down and has 33 assists and 16 turnovers (including four in the past three) during that span. McDermott is hoping the now-eligible Fedor Žugić will be able to help Ashworth and Neal over the second half of the season.
“We’re getting there,” McDermott said. “Obviously it’s not easy. Anybody that watches us play, from a ball-handling perspective we’re one short. We have to get Fedor a little bit more comfortable in what we’re doing. This week, hopefully, will help in that regard as well. Coming off a long layover, not really practicing with the with the top team, and then you get St. John’s and Marquette as your first two games, that’s not an ideal situation.
“So hopefully this week in practice, we can nudge him a little bit more forward, and he can give us a little bit of that ball-handling we need.”
Up next for Creighton is a trip to Butler on Saturday. Last season, the Bulldogs and Bluejays split the season matchups, with each team winning on the road. Creighton will look to win its third straight at Hinkle Fieldhouse against a Butler team that enters Saturday on an eight-game losing streak. The Bluejays aren’t taking their opponents lightly, however.
“Butler’s lost six or seven in a row, but outside of the North Dakota State game, if you look at the rest of it, they’ve played heck of a schedule — Houston, Wisconsin, Marquette, Villanova, St. John’s,” McDermott said. “So they played really good teams and they’ve been right there in most of those games. Some of the games they lost have been very similar to ours, where we’re right there and we just can’t figure out a way to finish it. But we’re going to play a desperate team on Saturday … We’ll have an electric crowd, and it’s a really big game for both teams.”
The Bulldogs are 7-9 including 0-5 in Big East play and rank 83rd in KenPom. The Bulldogs’ strengths offensively are 3-point shooting (37.6%, 36th nationally) and getting to the free-throw line (46.3% rate, eighth). Defensively, Butler is 31st in effective field goal percentage allowed (45.7%), but the Bulldogs don’t force turnovers (11.6% rate, 361st).
Butler’s top two scorers are returners, Jahmyl Telfort and Pierre Brooks. The 6-foot-7 Telfort is averaging 15.9 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 39.3% from deep. He went off for 26 points in Omaha last season, but the Jays held him to 2-for-12 shooting in round two. Brooks, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound guard, isn’t far behind at 14.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 39% from 3.
Butler’s third double-digit scorer is Iowa Transfer Patrick McCaffery, a 6-foot-9 forward averaging 12.8 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 41.2% on 6.1 3-point attempts per game.
Tipoff on Saturday is set for 11 a.m. CT on FOX with Jason Benetti and Robbie Hummel on the call.
