We are profiling each member of the 2013-14 Creighton Bluejays men’s basketball team. Check in daily leading up to Creighton’s regular season opener against Alcorn State Nov. 8 for an introduction to this season’s Bluejays, from newcomers to seniors. Check out all the previews here.
Avery Dingman (#22 / G / 6-6 / 215 lbs / Jr.)
The Creighton Bluejays backcourt is a known commodity at this point in the 2013-2014 season. Grant Gibbs is back (somehow), ready to right the ship night in and night out using his savvy and basketball IQ (yay sports jargon!). Jahenns Manigat begins his senior season fresh off a junior year spent playing 27.9 minutes per game. And Austin Chatman took over the point from Antoine Young before last season and played a team-high 32.0 minutes per game as a sophomore.
Then comes Avery Dingman, a 6-6 swingman who averaged 13.8 minutes per game and saw action in all 36 of Creighton’s contests last season. He scored in double figures three times a sophomore, two of which efforts came before Missouri Valley Conference play. The highlight for Dingman came against Tulsa in Omaha. He connected on 8 of 9 shots from the field, including 5 of 6 three-point attempts, and scored 21 points to go with 3 steals and 3 rebounds in 23 minutes.
Just a few games before, fellow guard Josh Jones would suffer a heart ailment that would force him to give up his basketball career. It seemed Dingman would naturally slide into many of Jones’ minutes. Immediately thereafter, during a 10-game stretch from a win against Akron to a loss at Wichita State, Dingman played 20.2 minutes a game.
Then came Creighton’s loss at Drake, during which Dingman played just 8 minutes. It started a stretch of 12 games, up until Arch Madness, that saw him average just 10.3 minutes per game. With coach Greg McDermott leaning heavily on a backcourt of Chatman, Gibbs, and Manigat down the stretch of the MVC slate, Dingman’s playing time suffered.
So where does Avery Dingman fit in this season? Fellow swingman Nevin Johnson and Andre Yates, another guard, left the Jays. Incoming freshman Darian Harris seems destined for a redshirt. Surely Dingman could find more time, right? It isn’t that easy. The return of Gibbs likely cuts into playing time Jays fans considered Dingman a lock for this season, his third at CU. The CU coaching staff also brought in Devin Brooks and James Milliken, junior college transfers looking to push for minutes in the Bluejays backcourt. Milliken might redshirt, but Brooks certainly won’t. That leaves Brooks, redshirt freshman Isaiah Zierden, and Dingman pushing the three returning starters for court time.
We caught up with Dingman at Creighton’s Media Day: