After months of workouts, weeks of official practice and a pair of public dress rehearsals, Alan Huss’ debut as the head coach of Creighton men’s basketball has nearly arrived with Kansas City set to visit CHI Health Center Omaha Monday night.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a coach who feels like his team is ready for its opener. Consider Huss among the masses in that regard. When he spoke with media ahead of Thursday’s practice, his checklist was still longer than he’d like it to be — with two big items at the top.
“More than anything, we’ve got to get a healthy, one,” Huss said. “We’ve got to get fully bought all the way in to sustained unselfishness, and I don’t know that either one of those is going to be solved here before the first game. We’re very much still going to be a work in progress.”
Part of that is the nature of a coaching change, but the injuries have certainly slowed that process. Creighton hasn’t suffered any significant long-term injuries during the offseason, but a number of players have missed time or operated on a pitch count of sorts with practice reps.
“It seems like every time we add a new piece, two more have a little nick or a bruise or a kind of sickness or whatever the case may be,” Huss said. “Just getting 15 guys out there to practice in a day … We’ve got some that are doing kind of load limitations, but just getting those guys all out there to feel each other and interact with all their groupmates, I think that’ll be the first one.”
The sustained unselfishness aspect showed up in the second half of the Iowa State exhibition in the form of stagnant off-ball motion, poor shot-selection, lack of defensive intensity and missed opportunities to do the hard things. That was the focus in practice over the past week.
“I think it’s just the things that don’t take any type of talent and the things that you can control every single day and every single moment,” Wes Enis said. “If you can control your attitude, effort, and energy every single play and every single second of the game, that’s how you stack up those wins. Once you let up off those things, it kind of shows. We got a little less tough in the second half, of course.”
Huss is still looking for his team to fully buy into the defensive end of the floor, particularly when things aren’t flowing offensively. At times in the exhibitions, things looked exactly like they should with effective traps, furious rotations and turnovers galore, especially in the first half against Minnesota. However, there were far too many busts as well, with uncontested layups on backdoor cuts or drives with no one close to the rim in help. Again, “sustain” is the key word moving forward.
“I think we turned over Iowa State a fair amount,” Enis said. “I think we turned over Minnesota a fair amount early in the game, and I think that’s when our good stretches happen. Right now, we’re just playing in stretches, but I think it’s good that we showed we can play at this high level. Now can we sustain it? …
“I think it’s just, simply put, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and great things take time. If there’s something quick, it’s probably not good, so you’ve just got to believe in that and believe in the process every day.”
Creighton went 2-0 in its public exhibitions. It also went 2-for-2 in blowing big second-half leads (19 at Iowa State, 18 against Minnesota). That offered the Jays opportunities to operate under pressure and execute in late-game situations, and it also taught the group a lesson.
“Once we get up, we can’t allow teams to have confidence,” Enis said. “Once you allow teams to get confident, get comfortable, they may start hitting shots that they don’t normally hit. You can’t let your foot off the brakes, especially at this this level and the teams we’re going to play night in and night out. You can’t let up for one second, or it shows like in the second half against Iowa State, that teams are good enough to come back. You have to put your foot on their neck, and you’ve got to keep it on their neck.”
The injury issues have impacted Huss’ game planning and lineup decisions as well. He started the same group in both exhibitions: BJ Davis, Enis, Austin Swartz, Jackson McAndrew and Oswin Erhunmwunse. Jasen Green came off the bench against Iowa State — logging 18 minutes split across the three, four and five positions — then didn’t play against Minnesota. Huss said he’s still evaluating what lineups will serve the team best.
Fredrick King (34) celebrates converting an and-one during an exhibition game against Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, in Omaha, Nebraska. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
“I’m trying to figure it out now,” Huss said. “Part of the problem is Jasen just hasn’t been a full participant for the last few weeks. Trying to script those minutes out has been a little bit of a challenge with him kind of stuck in that 15-to-20-minute range. I don’t know exactly yet … He’s probably the determining factor of whether we go big or small.”
Swartz, the nominal three in the three-guard lineup, averaged 16.5 points and shot 43.8% from 3. Davis has operated as the primary ball-handler when freshman Katrelle Harmon isn’t on the floor and came alive in the overtime periods against the Golden Gophers. Huss views Enis as the team’s best defensive guard, its vocal leader and someone who won’t shy away from the moment late in games. Green, probably a natural four, had his breakout season playing primarily the five last season but also started at the three for Creighton’s NCAA Tournament team two seasons ago.
Green’s minutes at the five this season should be more strategic than necessary, especially with news Friday that the judge in Kentucky had denied the NCAA’s request for emergency relief against a temporary injunction granting plaintiffs, including Fredrick King, the opportunity to play while the case continues. He’ll be eligible heading into the season, and Huss plans to play him. King logged three points, a rebound and a block in six minutes against Minnesota.
“He’s in better shape,” Huss said. “Obviously, the judges are on his side in his case, so for now, he’s eligible, and we’re going to proceed as if he’s going to be eligible. The big thing for him has been getting healthy and in shape so he can play a little bit more. The goal is to play him as we move forward, and it’s been great because Trevon [Carter-Givens] has been a little nicked up since then, so we need him.”
Whether Huss feels Creighton is ready or not, the jays will open the season on Monday against an overhauled Kansas City team featuring a new coach in mark Turgeon and a new roster. The Roos went 4-27 last year under Marvin Menzies, but this isn’t that squad.
“They do a couple different things defensively,” Huss said. “They get out and hard hedge on some ball screens, they do some switching — two things that we haven’t spent a ton of time working against thus far this season. It’ll be nice to see a little bit of a different defensive strategy.
“But more so than anything, they’re a really talented team. They’re not the Kansas City of the last few years. Coach Turgeon’s come in there, they’ve retooled their roster, they’ve got some high major experience and they’re super talented. They’ve clearly invested in their team and in their program, and that’s a team that’s going to be at or near the top of the Summit League.”
Kansas City enters the season projected 293rd in KenPom and picked to finish eighth in the Summit League. Jaylen Smith, a 5-foot-11 point guard, leads a group of five transfers and nine freshmen looking to turn things around for the Roos. The East Tennessee State transfer, last year’s SoCon Sixth Man of the Year, put up 20 points and four assists in a 64-54 exhibition win over preseason Big Sky favorite Montana State. He averaged 9.1 points and shot 34.4% from 3 for the Buccaneers last year.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+ with Jon Schriner and Nick Bahe on the call.
Huss may not feel ready, but his players do.
“I’m super, super ready,” Enis said. “I’m super excited. All this hard work that this group of guys has done and our coaches have done and athletic trainers and everybody, I think we’re all excited to kind of put that work to fruition.”
