For the second straight year, the Creighton men’s basketball team will spend Thanksgiving week in Las Vegas at the Players Era Men’s Championship. And for the second straight year, the Jays will be without a key starter after Jackson McAndrew’s season-ending foot injury.
This is Creighton’s fourth straight year playing nonconference games in Vegas, and Coach Greg McDermott has had his full roster available in just two of the previous six games.
In 2022-23, Creighton lost to BYU and Arizona State in the Jack Jones Hoopfest, with Ryan Kalkbrenner sidelined for both games. In 2023-24, the Jays fell to UNLV in Henderson, Nevada, just outside Vegas. Last season, the inaugural Player Era tournament, Creighton lost to San Diego State with Steven Ashworth sidelined in the opener, got him back for a loss to Texas A&M in game two then lost Kalkbrenner for game three, though they pulled out a tight win over Notre Dame.
“Vegas hasn’t been great to me recently,” McDermott quipped.
This is year two of the NIL-focused Players Era, which continues to evolve. After including eight teams in 2024, the tournament has expanded to 18 teams, with a goal to reach 32 in 2026. The event includes group play games on Monday and Tuesday, with championship, third-place and consolation matchups determined by group play results on Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’ll be fun to go back out there,” McDermott said after Creighton’s win over North Dakota on Wednesday. “I think this tournament sets up better for our fans than last year. Last year, I believe, was Tuesday-Wednesday-Saturday, something crazy like that. I think it allows us to get some more Bluejay fans out there supporting us.
“It’s how you learn about your team. We certainly learned things Friday and tonight, but we learned a lot from Gonzaga, even in the loss. And we’re going to learn a lot, but it’s going to teach us you don’t have time to hang your head regardless of what happens or you don’t have time to celebrate much, because you’re going to turn around and play 24 hours later. Hopefully we can get a few guys healthier, and that our depth can be a factor, potentially playing three games in three days.”
That depth will include freshman Hudson Greer, who burned his redshirt against North Dakota and will look to earn a significant role the rest of the way. Though he didn’t connect on any of his three 3-point attempts against the Fighting Hawks, his athleticism and rebounding popped, and the 6-foot-7 freshman is looking to bring more of that to the table in Vegas.
“I think for me, it’s bringing that defensive intensity that we so much needed,” Greer said. “Coming off of Gonzaga, I feel like that was our one game that was really stiff competition, and going into Vegas with stiff competition, I feel like we just need to show how good of a defensive team we can be.”
After seeing all his minutes at the three or the five in Creighton’s first three games, Jasen Green started the second half in place of the injured McAndrew at the four and logged half his 28 minutes at that spot. He’s likely to start there moving forward, though his versatility allows McDermott to go either big or small depending on who he wants to have on the court. Isaac Traudt’s ability to space the floor becomes even more important without McAndrew, and he could earn more minutes as well when he’s making shots.
Creighton (3-1) is in a half-Big East, half Big 12 group including St. John’s, Baylor and Iowa State. The Bluejays will take on Baylor on Monday before facing the Cyclones on Tuesday. The Red Storm will face the same opponents in reverse order.
The Bears are off to a 3-0 start and sit 21st in KenPom, though they have yet to face a top-50 opponent, with No. 51 Washington their only high-major opponent thus far. Coach Scott Drew has only had eight players appear in the first three games, with Tennessee transfer Cameron Carr leading the way at 23.7 points per game on a blistering 67.6% from the field including 52.9% from 3. The 6-foot-5 guard scored 48 total points in his two seasons as a Volunteer but surpassed that in his first three games as a Bear.
Four other Bears are averaging double figures as well, including freshman Tounde Yessoufou, a five-star recruit ranked in the top 15 of the 2026 class. The 6-foot-5 wing is a powerful athlete, averaging 16.3 points. 5.0 rebounds and 2.7 steals, though he’s only shooting 20% from 3. Senior guard Obi Agbim, a Wyoming transfer, is leading the team with 5.7 assists per game while shooting 38.9% from 3 and scoring 10.7 points per game.
The eight-man rotation Baylor has used is undersized, with 6-foot-8, 230-pound Oregon State transfer Michael Rataj and 6-foot-9, 224-pound Rice transfer Caden Powell the only Bears over 6-foot-6 who have logged minutes thus far.
Like Creighton, Baylor ranks in the top 10 nationally in lowest foul rate. They’re shooting 63% inside the arc and 35.9% from 3, though the Bears are also allowing opponents to shoot 55.2% on 2-pointers against them.
Creighton’s second opponent is a familiar one as the Bluejays and Cyclones played an exhibition in Omaha on Oct. 17. Expect round two to look significantly different than the first meeting, a 71-58 Bluejay win. In addition to the extended rotation and vanilla game-planning, both sides were without key players in Iowa State point guard Tamin Lipsey and Creighton center Owen Freeman (as well as McAndrew, but he’ll miss round two as well).
“I think that we were both kind of just getting our feet under us,” Freeman said. “Obviously, we both have really talented teams, and just being able to go out there and get our feet wet with the first game, we’re not going to show everything, they’re not going to show everything, so we have little glimpses of each other. But we’re actually going to go be able to go out and it counts this time, so just go out there and have a good game.”
Iowa State is 4-0 and ranked 11th in KenPom, though its toughest opponent has been Mississippi State (KenPom No. 70). The Cyclones are sixth in adjusted defensive efficiency and lead the country in opponent turnover rate (28.4%), with the majority of those live-ball turnovers (second in steal rate at 17.2%). Creighton handled Iowa State’s aggressive traps and double-teams well the first time, with only 11 turnovers total including one in the first half, but it’ll be a different beast with Lipsey at the point of attack.
The All-Big 12 floor general is averaging 19.0 points on 57.7% shooting, 5.3 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 3.8 steals. Joshua Jefferson, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward, is right behind him at 18.8 points per game on 67.5% shooting, plus 7.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. Milan Momcilovic, a 6-foot-8 junior wing, is the third Cyclone in double figures at 15.3 points per game while shooting 43.3% on 7.5 3-point attempts per game. He went 0-for-7 from deep in the exhibition against Creighton as Iowa State finished 0-for-14 overall.
Through four games, the Cyclones are second nationally in 2-point percentage at 65.8% while connecting on a solid 35.6% of their 3-pointers. They only turn it over on 12.7% of their possessions (20th) and rebound well on both ends of the floor. Dominating the possession battle has been a big part of Iowa State’s success thus far.
“I feel like Vegas is going to tell us a lot about ourselves, and I feel like we’re going in there with a positive mindset for sure,” Blake Harper said. “We’re going to grind it out on Friday in practice. I feel like this was a good steppingstone, but it’s a long season, so, just kind of paving the way.”
The rest of the teams in the tournament field are Alabama, Auburn, Gonzaga, Houston, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State, Syracuse, Tennessee and UNLV.
Both of Creighton’s group stage games are set for a 1 p.m. CT tipoff on TruTV.
