Ninth-seeded Creighton men’s basketball saw its season end in the Round of 32 with an 82-70 loss to overall No. 1 seed Auburn at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday night.
The Bluejays finished 25-11 overall, won a program-record 15 conference games and picked up a win in the NCAA Tournament for a fifth-consecutive season, another Creighton record.
“The journey has been incredible with this group, and especially where we started in December,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “Our margin for error was gone because of a lot of things that transpired in November and December, and we played really well in a good league, and in the tournament. To take that decision, there was no decision on whether Creighton was going to be in the NCAA Tournament. Then we fought a great team for 30-some minutes before it kind of got away from us.”
Here are three takeaways from the 2024-25 season finale.
Heavyweight Fight
Through 26 minutes, Creighton-Auburn was looking like the best game of the first weekend. The Bluejays gave as good as they got, trading jabs and going blow-for-blow.
The first half saw 13 lead changes and two ties, with both teams leading for more than eight and a half minutes. Auburn’s longest run was eight straight, while Creighton’s was 6-0. The largest lead for each team was four points. Each team got there in dramatically different ways, but the Jays took a 37-35 lead into halftime.
Creighton’s way was vintage “Let it Fly” Jays. Their first six buckets were all from beyond the arc and they went 9-for-14 from deep with four different players connecting. Ten of their 14 field goals were assisted. Auburn, on the other hand, scored 22 points in the paint, executing a good game plan to minimize Ryan Kalkbrenner’s rim protection by putting bodies in his way and make it tough for him to slide over in help.
The Tigers put the pressure on the Bluejays to start the second half, but Creighton pushed back. Five more ties and three lead changes followed in the first six minutes.
Creighton led 50-48 after a pair of free throws from Kalkbrenner at the 14:13 mark… and then the Tigers delivered the knockout blow. Auburn put together two 10-0 runs sandwiching back-to-back buckets from Kalkbrenner — on two well-executed plays in a half short on them from Creighton’s side — to turn a two-point deficit into a 14-point lead with just over six minutes to play. Creighton went more than six minutes without scoring.
The Bluejays didn’t roll over. They fired back with a 7-0 run to cut the lead in half before the final media timeout, then trimmed it to six with 1:39 to go, but they ran out of time and firepower as the Tigers put the game away with a three-point play from Denver Jones.
Between Kalkbrenner and Jasen Green primarily, Creighton held National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome to eight points on 4-of-13 shooting. Miles Kelly, who led Auburn with 23 points and seven 3-pointers in the first round, scored five points on 1-of-8 shooting. However, 23 points including a flurry of tough shots from talented freshman Tahaad Pettiford and 19 second-chance points were too much for the Jays to overcome.
“We lost to an outstanding team,” McDermott said. “We recognized we were going to have to play a pretty perfect game if we expected to win. While we weren’t perfect, I certainly applaud our effort. We game into the game trying to make it tough for Broome and I think we did that. We didn’t want Kelly to get a lot of clean looks, and we were able to accomplish that. [Chad] Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones and Pettiford absolutely got us, got us in space …
“Really proud of this group. Proud of these four seniors. They’ve been selfless. They’ve done so much for this program in their own ways, and it’s absolutely been a pleasure to coach this team. This has been a great ride that they’ve taken us on. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
While the outcome wasn’t what Jays fans were hoping for, Creighton took its best shot at one of the best teams in the country.
Leaving a Legacy
Saturday was the final game for Creighton’s four seniors: Kalkbrenner, Steven Ashworth, Jamiya Neal and Sami Osmani. That quartet combined for 5,453 points, 2,214 rebounds, 1,203 assists and 447 blocked shots at the collegiate level.
Kalkbrenner finished with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds. Ashworth lit Auburn up in the first half before forcing the Tigers to adjust their game plan to lock in on him even more, creating more opportunities for the big man inside. Ashworth finished with 13 points, three triples and eight assists. Neal, the star of Creighton’s first-round win over Louisville, shook off a rough start to finish with 13 points, two shy of reaching 1,000 for his career.
After the game, McDermott spoke in depth about each of his seniors. The underlying theme of his message? Immense pride.
“A lot of teams throw the word family around,” McDermott said. “Some of it’s B.S.; it’s not here. These guys have just been selfless, from Sami for five years knowing you’re not going to play to show up every day with the right attitude and get that scout team ready to go, and Jamiya, just the growth in one year. You don’t see one-year players make the strides that he’s made from when we watched him play in those first few games in November to how he’s played in March. It’s been very rewarding to see that.
“And Steven, everybody is worried about what are we going to do without Ryan Nembhard and I think the best compliment I can give Steven is, what are we going to do without Steven Ashworth? His fingerprints are all over the last two years. His positive leadership — he has a way of talking to his teammates and helping correct them that makes them feel good and that’s quite a trait to have …
“And then Ryan — we live if an era of self-promotion, and that dude has no agenda for himself, zero. You hear guys talk about building their brand. The only brand he cares about is that name on the front of his jersey. That’s all he’s ever cared about. As I told him in the locker room, I remember watching him in that gym in St. Louis, tripping over himself, and wondering, can we make a player out of this guy? Just to see what he’s done and how he’s done it, and how his leadership evolved and his confidence has evolved, for two years he wouldn’t even ask a girl out on a date, let alone thinking about marrying somebody. Now he has a wonderful wife in Rachael. It’s been an absolute pleasure.”
Saturday marked the end of a prolific five-year career in Omaha for Kalkbrenner — a rarity in modern college basketball. He passed on pursuing a professional career and didn’t even entertain seeking the highest bidder in the transfer portal. He had already established himself among the pantheon of Creighton greats with his first four years, but the additional season put him in rarefied air as a four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year and the winningest player in program history.
For Kalkbrenner himself, though, this year was more about the overall experience than anything he accomplished on the court.
“This year in particular has been a really, really fun and rewarding year,” Kalkbrenner said. “This team has been such a joy to be around. When I made the decision to come back all the way in the summer, you think you’re making the right decision when you make it, but you don’t know for sure. Sitting up here today, obviously the season ended a little bit sooner than we wanted it to but, it was definitely the right decision, mainly for all the things that happened off the court with this team and how we bonded together. Family for life with them.”
Ashworth wasn’t a career Bluejay like Kalkbrenner, but he packed a lot into his two years in Omaha. The Alpine, Utah, native plugged a big hole in the lineup when he first arrived then grew into an All-Big East player, a team leader and a father in year two.
“I think the first word would have to be gratitude for the experience and the opportunity to put on this uniform and represent a brand and a tradition like this and play for Coach Mac,” Ashworth said. “Can’t do any of this without my teammates and the incredible brothers that they’ve become, and the uncles that they’ve become to my son Tommy, and all the joy, like Kalk said, off the court. It’s sad that it’s over but at the same time we can be happy that it happened.”
"I hope I'm remembered as someone who gave it their all."
After spending two seasons at Creighton, @stevenAsh_15's career comes to a close. @AnaBellMedia spoke with Ashworth after the second-round loss to No. 1 Auburn. pic.twitter.com/TtgGXVhqGK
— Hurrdat Sports (@HurrdatSports) March 23, 2025
Unlike the others, Neal only got one season with the Bluejays. However, he certainly created some memorable moments for Creighton fans, and as McDermott said, his growth from when he first set foot on campus to where was by the end of the season was remarkable, especially when you factor in the midseason role change. The basketball fit is why he chose Creighton, and he had a career year playing within McDermott’s system. However, he wasn’t expecting everything else that came with being a part of this team.
“Obviously only being there one year, I feel like I just got here and now it’s already over,” Neal said. “That’s what I was thinking when the seconds were going down … Just meeting Coach Mac, I was like, I didn’t know he was that tall. Now he’s been a father figure to me, somebody that I’ll always call on, not just on basketball but advice on being a man. When I become a dad, I will probably call Steven and ask him how he started. Just little things like that. The bonds I’ve built here, they’re going to last forever.”
Hope for the Future
The 2025-26 season is a long way off, and the only guarantee at this point is next year’s team will look dramatically different. However, a pair of first-year Bluejays ended the season on a high note, giving fans hope for what the future might hold.
Freshman Jackson McAndrew nailed four triples in the first half, showing no fear against the tournament’s top seed. A slight bit of daylight was all he needed to let it fly, and he made as many as he missed. McAndrew finished with 12 points on 4-of-8 from 3, six rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.
No freshman has made more 3s in his debut season at Creighton than McAndrew as the Wayzata product passed another Minnesota native in Ethan Wragge during the game. He finished with 69 3-pointers, one more than Wragge made in 2009-10.
McAndrew also scored in double figures in the first round, totaling 11 points and shooting 3-of-7 from deep. Trey Alexander and Arthur Kaluma are the only other Creighton freshmen to score 10-plus in back-to-back NCAA Tournament games.
McAndrew made the All-Freshman Team in the Big East, starting 31 games and averaging 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds. McDermott spoke highly of McAndrew’s defensive growth throughout the season to go with his perimeter prowess at 6-foot-10. Strength and conditioning this offseason will be the key to achieving more consistency and diversifying his game.
"It's going to light a fire in us."
Freshman @JacksonMcAndrew speaks to @AnaBellMedia about the impact of the seniors on his life and the experience he'll take with him to next season. pic.twitter.com/bFBm1V8ljA
— Hurrdat Sports (@HurrdatSports) March 23, 2025
McAndrew wasn’t the only first-year Bluejay who scored in double figures. Fedor Žugić contributed 10 points and three assists off the bench, shooting 2-for-2 from deep and 4-for-6 from the line. His step-back 3 sparked the 7-0 run late in the game that kept Creighton alive, and he played 20 minutes as McDermott rolled primarily with a six-man rotation.
His delayed eligibility and attempt to integrate himself midseason significantly limited his overall impact this year, but by the stretch run he turned himself into a valuable asset for the team. He averaged 7.7 points on 64% from the field including 52.9% from 3 in 16.1 minutes per game over his last seven games (excluding the St. John’s game in which an ankle injury knocked him out four minutes in). He also earned at least one trip to the line in every game, shooting 13-of-18.
Žugić’s ability to both knock down perimeter shots and put pressure on the rim set him apart from pretty much everyone else on the roster. With another full offseason of work (and no uncertainty surrounding his eligibility), Žugić could be a key piece for the Bluejays next year.
