The two main questions that Creighton’s coaching staff was tasked with answering this offseason was who will playing center and point guard next season. Last week’s addition of Iowa transfer Owen Freeman helped filled the void in the starting lineup left by departing 4-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year winner Ryan Kalkbrenner. Now it appears the Bluejays have added an option to replace his pick-and-roll partner Steven Ashworth after gaining a verbal commitment from Charlotte transfer Nik Graves.
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The left-handed combo guard out of Durham, N.C. entered the transfer portal on March 24 and quickly received interest from 16 power conference programs, including Creighton. He had official visits set up to check out CU, LSU, and Missouri, but made his decision after his first day in Omaha on Monday. Listed at 6-foot-3, 195 pounds, Graves is coming off of his best individual season with the 49ers after leading the team and finishing fifth in the American Athletic Conference in scoring at 17.5 points per game.
Although Charlotte struggled with an 11-22 overall record as a team in 2024-25, Graves played his best ball down the stretch averaging 19.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists while shooting 38.5% from 3-point range over the final 13 games of the season. During that stretch, he had a better than two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio, eclipsed the 20-point mark six times, and knocked down at least three 3-pointers in eight of those contests.
For the season, he averaged 0.962 points per possession as the ball handler in pick and rolls. That was good enough to rank 38th out of the 276 players who had at least 125 possessions in that action this season. He ranked right behind Marquette All-American guard Kam Jones and several spots ahead of other notable dynamic playmakers such as Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis, North Dakota’s Treysen Eaglestaff, Houston’s Milos Uzan, Rutgers’ Dylan Harper, as well as the man he’ll be vying to replace next season in Steven Ashworth.
Graves was also an elite scorer in isolation situations. Among the 286 Division I players who isolated a defender at least 40 times this season, his 1.185 points per possession on isos ranked 10th overall, while his 54.0% effective field goal percentage was good for 28th.
The additions of Owen Freeman and Nik Graves out of the transfer portal puts Creighton at 10 players in the fold for next season at this point. The Jays are expected to return two starters in Jasen Green and Jackson McAndrew as well as reserves Fedor Zugic, Isaac Traudt, Ty Davis, Shane Thomas, and Josh Townley-Thomas. The aforementioned portal acquisitions join consensus Top 50 freshman wing Hudson Greer in the ever-growing group of newcomers.