Saturday night, Creighton fans got their first glimpse of the 2015-16 men’s basketball team at the annual “Bluejay Madness” event. After an intense intra-squad scrimmage earlier in the day, the players showed obvious signs of exhaustion during the Bluejay Madness scrimmage (even by exhibition scrimmage standards, the defense was shabby). Still, there were plenty of offensive highlights. Here’s a collection of the best, courtesy of the @BluejayMBB Twitter account:
Malik Albert got Bluejay Madness off to a great start with this steal & dunk! http://t.co/9kSYQmz6Ve
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Martin Krampelj finds Toby Hegner with a nice pass inside to give Blue a 17-10 lead. http://t.co/orzr1G3h5W — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Maurice Watson Jr.’s behind-the-back pass leads to an easy lay-up by Ronnie Harrell Jr. Blue leads, 21-10. http://t.co/UctW0N1ixU
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Freshman Justin Patton’s 3rd dunk of the night gets the White team a little closer as the 1st half winds down. http://t.co/vHF8LifxkK — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Maruice Watson Jr. scores in the final seconds of the half, and Toby Hegner then steals the inbounds and hits a 3. http://t.co/JvNlAKoHeq
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Blue wins the first half, 32-16, behind 8 points from Watson and 4 each by Groselle/Clement. Patton led the White team with 8 points. — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Maurice Watson Jr. gets the steal, then feeds Martin Krampelj for the alley-oop! #BluejayMadness http://t.co/WpdYJrQRrU
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Redshirt freshman Ronnie Harrell Jr. throws down the dunk! White team leads 7-4 this half. 7:30 left. http://t.co/6Eptt6WZbu — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Geoffrey Groselle throws down the dunk! http://t.co/TjdOqfYPy5
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Ronnie Harrell Jr. with the steal and then he leads the break and dishes to Toby Hegner for the dunk! http://t.co/gboYc8wWuO — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Cole Huff dunks in transition at #BluejayMadness. http://t.co/dBCXysaXeO
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Malik Albert beats everyone down the court and throws down a dunk! http://t.co/6ozEjMNwSS — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
Statistically, the “Blue” team won the first half 32-16 thanks to 10 points from Maurice Watson Jr. and seven from Toby Hegner, while Justin Patton had eight points — six of them coming courtesy of a trio of dunks. In the second half, Martin Krampelj rained in eight points, including a pair of three-pointers, while Khyri Thomas led the “White” team with 10 points.
Afterward, Coach Greg McDermott addressed the crowd:
Creighton @BluejayMBB‘s @cucoachmac thanks the best fans in the country. http://t.co/P9iVHzTQtp
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 17, 2015
And then introduced a skit that some of the players put together, poking a little fun at their coaches. The night concluded with a slam dunk competition, featuring Krampelj, Thomas, Patton and Malik Albert. Here again, courtesy of @BluejayMBB on Twitter, are their first round dunks:
Justin Patton’s dunks at Bluejay Madness. http://t.co/G9h47kp6NV — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
Khryi Thomas dunks at Bluejay Madness http://t.co/27ozE6mAwG
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
Freshman Martin Krampelj shows off his athleticism with these dunks at Bluejay Madness http://t.co/hJvXklbgWq — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
Malik Albert throws it down at Bluejay Madness! http://t.co/FwuBZ3kE9H
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
Krampelj and Thomas advanced to the final round, where the Slovenian won over the crowd with a patriotic dunk featuring him donning his country’s flag as cape.
Martin Krampel gets patriotic with his Bluejay Madness dunk! Martin & Khryi advance to the finals. 1 made dunk each. http://t.co/RbDk5yK7B1 — Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
Martin Krampelj soars for his finals dunk, and he’s your winner as Khyri Thomas misses his finals attempts. http://t.co/s3gY7p51Pr
— Creighton Basketball (@BluejayMBB) October 18, 2015
While Khyri Thomas failed to connect on any of his finals dunk attempts, this is the dunk he was trying to throw down — courtesy of @NebraskaHSHoops.
