The first summer for Alan Huss as head coach of the Creighton men’s basketball is flying by faster than he anticipated. After a break for the holiday, the Bluejays tipped off the second half of summer workouts on Monday.

“The guys are working,” Huss said ahead of Tuesday’s practice. “We’re asking them to do a lot of things that some of them are familiar with, and some things that they’re not. They’re really eager to learn, working diligently, and I think we’ve made some solid progress, but like every coach, we want more.”

Making the transition this summer easier for Huss is that he retained nearly the entire coaching staff from a season ago under Greg McDermott. Mitch Ballock, Derek Kellogg, Trey Zeigler, Mike Nesbitt and Steve Merfeld are all back this season, and Huss hired former Bluejay graduate assistant Corey Edwards to fill the vacancy left by his own elevation. Edwards spent two seasons as an assistant under Huss at High Point then remained on staff there when Huss returned to Creighton last offseason.

“It’s so nice having guys we’ve worked with, worked with both here and at High Point,” Huss said. “We’re trying to continue so much of what we were doing, especially on the offensive end, with what Coach Mac did, so it makes it a lot easier that everyone’s not trying to learn something new. Especially with Mitch and Coach Kellogg who are doing the offense, just having the ability just to say, ‘Hey, let’s do x, y, and z’ that we’ve done 1,000 times in the past without any type of real explanation has been a nice crutch to lean on.”

Justin Carter and Julien Berry returned as graduate assistants as well, with Barry Jones and Justin Hendrick joining them. Creighton also hired Tom Ostrom as general manager. He stepped in as interim GM for St. John’s from March to June, helping Rick Pitino assemble a top-25 roster, and has also worked with former Bluejay coach Darien DeVries at Drake and West Virginia among his other stops.

Huss ran the majority of the workouts a year ago as associate head coach, so this summer hasn’t required too much of an adjustment for the returners.

“It’s pretty similar to kind of the stuff we were doing last year, but it’s a lot of conceptual things, figuring out exactly how we’re playing defense, exactly how we’re playing offense, what that looks like, and kind of how it feels with five guys on the court,” Jasen Green said. “Obviously, you can talk about it, but putting it into action is obviously way different. So we’ve been working a lot on our defense, and obviously on our offense as well as we go along.”

Newcomer BJ Davis, a San Diego State transfer, said Huss’ attention to detail has brought out the best in the team this summer.

“I think he’s just really not letting us take shortcuts, and really just being honest every day, not letting us slip on the little things, because if we slip on the little things, then it’ll translate to other areas,” Davis said. “He really hammers in how you do one thing is how you do everything.”

Green, a redshirt senior, said his body is feeling good after playing through a shoulder injury for much of the 2025-26 season.

“I’ve always had a bunch of nagging injuries throughout my career, but I feel like right now, I’m probably the healthiest I’ve ever felt throughout,” Green said. “Healthiest, strongest, quickest, all of the above, and I feel like that happened just working with Jeremy [Anderson], working with Ben [McNair], making sure that I know what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Huss has seen the work Green’s put in manifest on the court with the way he’s attacking things and spoke highly of the Omaha native on Tuesday.

“Jasen’s been amazing,” Huss said. “He’s really stepped into some new space this year, not only from a leadership standpoint, but physically, he’s got his body in a place where he’s able to absorb contact and deliver a blow. He’s really worked on his outside shooting to make it more consistent. Maybe the most impressive thing with him is really, his voice is louder. He’s got a little bit more confidence in that leadership role. After a year of kind of stepping into that space sporadically last year, he’s more consistent there this year.”

Green has played the three, the four and the five during his Creighton career, and fans could see him play all three positions again in 2026-27. However, with the additions of Oswin Erhunmwunse, Wesly Rose and Trevon Carter-Givens, Creighton won’t need the 6-foot-8 forward to play the majority of his minutes at center moving forward.

“[My role] going to be a little bit similar to last year, except I’m not going to be at the five as much,” Green said. “It’s going to be more me at three, four, and then maybe a little bit of the five here and there, depending on matchups, depending on what the coaches see and where they think I can really thrive at.”

Other notes:

>> Jackson McAndrew was a full participant in practice on Monday and Tuesday after saying he was close to 100% in early June.

Austin Swartz was the only Bluejay who did not participate as he continues to recover from the surgery that cut his season short and prevented him from playing in the College Basketball Crown. Instead, Swartz worked with Jeremy Anderson off to the side as he continues to rehab.

>> Creighton released its full nonconference schedule on Tuesday, which includes exhibition games at Iowa State (a return game from the Cyclones visiting Omaha last season) and at home against Minnesota as well as marquee matchups with Kansas State in Manhattan and Iowa in Des Moines as well as Nebraska and Gonzaga at home. Adding the players Era Men’s Championship to that mix (with an opening-round meeting with reigning national champion Michigan) and the Bluejays should have plenty of opportunities to put together an NCAA Tournament resume.

“That’s what it all comes down to,” Huss said. “We have a desire to be an at-large team in the NCAA Tournament, and in order to accomplish that, we’ve got to play the best people in the country, and I think we’ve done exactly that. We’ve got an elite schedule with some opportunities that — you never know from year to year exactly who’s going to be Quad 1, Quad 2, Quad 3, but at least on paper, it certainly looks like we’ll have a number of opportunities to test ourselves. I think that’s why we’re doing all this work this summer, is to prepare ourselves, and hopefully we put our best foot forward in those matchups.”

>> Huss is expecting some competitive position battles, including in the backcourt. Among those battling for playing time is freshman point guard Katrelle Harmon, who Huss brought up unprompted and said has “been as good as any guard that we have this summer. He’s stepped right in seamlessly as a freshman.”

Huss said the Seattle native’s feel for the game is what has stood out most during live action this summer.

“He’s physically pretty gifted, which a lot of players are, but the space between his two ears is what makes him elite,” Huss said. “The game goes really slow for him. He sees things that other guys don’t see, similar to like a Baylor Scheierman, where he just has an elite feel for how to play the game.”

Harmon showed off both his playmaking and his shot-making ability throughout the day on Tuesday, and he also showed off his ambition. At one point during live action, the 6-foot-4 freshman tried to dunk on one of the Big East’s best shot-blockers in Erhunmwunse, a Providence transfer. The 6-foot-10 center turned back the dunk attempt, but Harmon’s lack of fear was impressive regardless.

>> South Florida transfer Wes Enis really stood out during Tuesday’s practice, and not just because the lefty with a sweet stroke shot the lights out throughout the 90-minute practice. He was also vocal, directing traffic on offense and making sure his teammates did the right things during drill work. He initiated the offense a fair amount and created for himself and others after doing most of his damage at South Florida as a spot-up shooter.