The Creighton men’s basketball team is back in the lab preparing for Coach Alan Huss’ first season at the helm, with summer workouts beginning this week.
Week one back at the McDermott Center culminated in the annual Creighton Abilities Camp on Friday, putting an exclamation point on the team’s return to the grind.
“First weeks are always interesting, because there’s so much energy,” Huss said. “Everybody has a good first week, so we’re excited about our group, but it’s important to have perspective, understand that everybody’s excited about their first week. Everybody has a good first week for the most part. Now, the challenge is moving forward. How do we sustain the effort, the enthusiasm, the communication that we’ve established this first week? That’ll be the challenge moving forward.”
Leading offseason workouts is nothing new for Huss — junior Jackson McAndrew quipped that Greg McDermott was usually off golfing this time of year anyway — but he’s still adjusting to everything else that comes with being Creighton’s head coach.
“I have a greater appreciation for what Coach Mac did,” Huss said. “I already had a pretty strong one, but as you step over into someone else’s shoes, it’s amazing all the little nuances that he was able to navigate daily, and it just probably has given me a greater respect for what he was able to accomplish. I don’t know that I’ve necessarily wrapped my head all the way around it, but I think we’re moving the right direction. We’ve got some pieces in place now, now we’ve just got to attack it.”
Many of those pieces are returners, including McAndrew, Jasen Green, Hudson Greer, Austin Swartz and Isaac Traudt. Retaining that group was the first big win for Huss at the helm and gives the Jays vital continuity.
“I think when it comes to Creighton men’s basketball, Creighton basketball, Creighton athletics, we love the fact that our guys want to be here,” Huss said. “We had a whole series of players this year, even some of the guys that didn’t return that would have probably liked to have returned if we could have figured all the things out. It’s why I like being here. So many of these guys had opportunities other places, to not even take a look, so many of these returners, it says a lot about the university, a lot about the athletic department and the program that Coach Mac and the staff have established over the years.”
Former Creighton Bluejay Baylor Scheierman talks during their yearly abilities camp on June 5, 2026, in Omaha, Nebraska. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Speaking of guys returning, a familiar face was back in the gym on Friday as Boston Celtics wing, Aurora, Neb., native and former Bluejay Baylor Scheierman took advantage of the practice facility to get a workout in, with his Celtics head coach, joe Mazzulla, by his side. Huss called that another sign of the culture surrounding the program and the city — and said it’s also valuable for the current squad to be around those who have succeeded before them.
“It’s fun,” Huss said. “We had Baylor here, Khyri [Thomas] here yesterday. Baylor’s been working out. It’s fun to have those guys be around. Their experience, their perspective to our guys is invaluable as we try to have those guys understand what it looks like to go forward, and also just to kind of validate the methodology that we use day in and day out.
“Summertime at Creighton, it’s not a super vibrant campus life. Most of the stuff is happening online. We’re an in-person school during the season, but the summertime is pretty slow around here, and so it’s all basketball, and it can get a little bit monotonous sometimes. So it’s nice to have some of these older guys that have been through this process, and it’s worked for them. It’s nice for them to be able to pass that on to our players.”
Huss and his staff also welcomed a newcomer class that included transfers Oswin Erhunmwunse (Providence), Wes Enis (South Florida), B.J. Davis (San Diego State) and Kayden “Bugg” Edwards (TCU), junior college transfer Wesly Rosa and high school recruits Katrelle Harmon and Trevon Carter-Givens.
“I think, most importantly, we wanted guys that wanted to be at Creighton,” Huss said. “When you look at our transfer class in particular, our high school class, we talk about a lot of guys with long relationships with Creighton, several that we recruited the first time around and it didn’t work out for us. So, I think that’s probably got to be the most important ingredient for a portal class, for a high school class, for us, is guys that want to be here, want to be in Omaha, want to be at Creighton University.
“It’s our belief that if we get kids that really want to be here, families that really appreciate the value of Creighton University, that it’s going to be significantly easier on the back end then to retain those players, so long as we’re able to be effective and live up to the promises we’ve made in recruiting processes.”
McAndrew said he had met the newcomers previously when they visited campus, but he’s enjoyed getting to know them more now that they’re on campus and settled in.
“I think it’s a lot of guys who want to work and want to get better, and also guys who are bought in — and not that last team wasn’t, I think they were for sure — but it’s just exciting,” McAndrew said. “You get new group and it’s a chance to try to make the pieces of the puzzle fit. I like that part of it. They’re unselfish, they’re good basketball players, they’re great people off the court, so it’s just exciting for sure.”
The Jays are still in the early stages of piecing that puzzle together. Currently, they’re mostly doing skill work, with the team split into two groups to get their work in. The Jays are laying the foundation for down the road when the full-team work begins.
“We’re working on parts right now, and then once you see it go together — I’ve already seen it,” McAndrew said of Huss’ vision for this team. “Guys are running quick too, picking things up, so it’s definitely going to be a good vision, and I think we’re going to do well with that.”
Creighton currently has 13 players on the roster, leaving two spots open. Huss said that they’re talking to a foreign player or two and are considering filling the open spots with incoming freshmen on a developmental track, but it’s also possible they stand pat.
For now, though, Huss and the Jays already on campus are focused on putting in the necessary work to get Creighton basketball back to its winning ways after a down 2025-26 season.
“Obviously, the goal, I think, every year is not only making the tournament, but a deep run,” McAndrew said. “I want to be in the Final Four, I want to do all those things; I know our team does too. So falling short of that, falling short of how I thought we could do in the Big East tournament, it’s all definitely going to be used as motivation for this year, and trying to get back to that standard that Creighton is.”
