No. 15 Creighton men’s basketball opened the 2024-25 season with a monster performance from Ryan Kalkbrenner in a 99-86 win over Texas-Rio Grande Valley Wednesday night.
The Vaqueros made Creighton earn it down the stretch, just like they did to Nebraska on Monday, but the Bluejays survived a barrage of 3-pointers to start 1-0 at CHI Health Center Omaha.
Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs missed the game with an undisclosed injury, but Coach Greg McDermott said he was “cautiously optimistic” that Isaacs will be ready to go for Sunday’s game against Fairleigh Dickinson.
Here are three takeaways form the game.
Big Fella Burped
Kalkbrenner said during the preseason he knew the team needed him to be more aggressive this season.
How’s nearly half a hundred in the opener sound?
The 7-foot-1 fifth-year senior came one bucket short of tying Bob Portman’s single-game program scoring record of 51, set in 1967. Kalkbrenner finished with 49 points, shattering his career-high of 31 and setting a new arena record. He shot 20-of-22 from the field (breaking Creighton’s single-game made field goals record) including 2-of-2 from deep and 7-of-8 from the line.
Kalkbrenner added 11 rebounds (five offensive), 3 blocks and two assists to his stat line in 36 minutes.
“I wasn’t thinking about it much,” Kalkbrenner said. “We kind of went into the game with a plan to establish me in the post, and we just kind of went with that and it just kept working. But I wasn’t really thinking about what happened on previous plays, but just trying to make the next one … It just kind of was in the flow of the game, and by the end, I looked up and it was pretty good game.”
Kalkbrenner scored Creighton’s first eight points on four post ups, then scored 10 straight for the Jays later in the first half. He scored 20 in the first half and just kept going in the second half.
Only four of his 20 field goals were dunks; the rest were a mix of hook shots and other post buckets, many of them self-created after multiple dribbles. Left block, right block, high-low seal… Kalkbrenner went to work from every angle.
“Talk about a statement — it wasn’t a bunch of dunks, it was right hand, it was left hand, it was spin moves, it was a couple 3s, it was making your free throws …” McDermott said. “He’s one of the best players to ever play here, and there’s been some really good players that have played here, but if you don’t have him in the conversation, you’re not paying attention.”
Fans began to boo down the stretch as UTRGV fouled players not named Kalkbrenner to extend the game while the Bluejays looked to run out the clock instead of trying to get him the record-tying bucket. The arena then serenaded him with MVP chants as he checked out. He didn’t miss a shot in the second half.
Creighton needed every point to secure the win with Isaacs out of the lineup. Steven Ashworth added 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, setting a new program record for most free throws in a game without a miss with 17 of them.
“That was an incredible performance by Ryan, and obviously Steven was rock-solid, handling the ball and making free throws, and that’s why we won,” McDermott said. “We had two veteran players that played like it. Having said that, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Fool’s Gold?
Creighton has scored 82, 93 and 97 points in its first three contests — the closed scrimmage against Iowa State, the charity exhibition against Purdue and the opener against UTRGV — but the Jays have also allowed 83, 87 and 86.
Creighton knew the Vaqueros wanted to fire away from deep as 41 of their 62 field goal attempts against Nebraska on Monday came from the 3-point line. Even so, they got loose to the tune of 14-of-35 from 3, making the game much closer than it should have been with Creighton’s 50 points in the paint.
“We’ve got to get healthy, and then we’ve got to get tougher,” McDermott said during his opening statement. “Our attention to detail defensively has not been there. It wasn’t there at Iowa State, it wasn’t there at Purdue and it wasn’t there tonight. We’ve just outscored people, and that’s fool’s gold. So we’re going to hit the film room, guys are going to listen and they’re going to learn, and then we’re going to have a spirited practice Friday to try to get ourselves some better habits on the defensive end.
“Obviously you’re playing for real for the first time and the game’s going up and down. They’ve assembled an unbelievable group of shooters; all their bigs could shoot it so it pulls Kalk away from the basket. Happy to get the win, but disappointed in what we’re doing defensively.”
Ashworth said toughness is the key to making the strides Creighton needs to make in order to accomplish its goals.
“Coach Mac talked about it, we’ve just got to be tougher mentally, we’ve got to be tougher physically, and also we’ve got to recognize who we have back there and where we can be a little bit tougher on the perimeter knowing that you’ve got a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year waiting for it,” Ashworth said. “That all comes with watching the film to see places where we can just increase that toughness on both sides of the ball, really.”
McDermott said the start to the season will test the team’s maturity. Winning has a tendency to cover up some failings whereas a loss brings them to light promptly. Will Creighton learn the message before their bad habits catch up to them?
Straight into the Fire
Fedor Žugić is still waiting for word on his eligibility and Larry Johnson joined him in street clothes for the game, but there won’t be a redshirt this season for Jackson McAndrew or Ty Davis.
McAndrew checked in at the 10:23 mark of the first half, and Davis followed a couple minutes later. Add in redshirt freshman walk-on Shane Thomas and four players made their Creighton debut in the first half as Greg McDermott went 10-deep.
Davis had some ups and downs on defense, but his hustle made a difference as he routinely pushed the pace with hit-ahead passes. He grabbed three rebounds, dished out two assists and scored his first points on a reverse layup.
Early in the second half with Creighton up by eight, Ashworth picked up his third foul and spent roughly four minutes on the bench. When he checked back in, the Jays were up by 12. Davis ran the point during that stretch alongside Jamiya Neal. McDermott also went back to the freshman alongside Ashworth and Neal down the stretch to get more ball-handling on the court. He secured a key contested rebound and helped the Jays stretch a five-point lead out to nine before checking out with 1:21 to play.
Davis finished with two points, five rebounds, two assists and just one turnover. Creighton was plus-16 in his 18 minutes on the court.
“Ty’s a really heady guard,” Ashworth said. “He learns quick. Him and Jackson both are not afraid of the moment, they want the moment, which is a great thing to have in young freshmen. And so I wasn’t worried at all.”
McAndrew, Creighton’s highest-rated commit in the recruiting websites era, missed both of his 3-pointers and grabbed three rebounds in eight minutes. Thomas played five minutes, throwing down a dunk shortly after checking in as Kalkbrenner found the 6-foot-3 guard wide open under the basket.
“This is invaluable for them, to have this film and have a victory, but not be perfect,” McDermott said. “It’s going to be really good for them to watch film the next couple days.”
Creighton men’s basketball will return to CHI Health Center Omaha on Sunday to host Fairleigh Dickinson for a 4 p.m. CT start.
