Women’s Basketball
Jim Flanery’s team kicked their summer sessions on Monday. Their full roster for the upcoming 2019-20 season — including freshmen Mykel Parham, “Dee Dee” Pryor, and Carly Bachelor — were active for the workout. A rare, but welcome sight for the coaches and returning players after an injury-riddled 2018-19 season. The Jays honed in the fundamental parts of their system for the most part, but ball pressure was a newer wrinkle that appears to be something the coaching staff wants to integrate into their style for next season. With a group comprised of mostly hard-nosed, active, athletic guards and wing players it’ll be interesting to see how much of a jump they can in that department after finishing last season dead last in the Big East in turnover margin.
Notes:
- Sophomore guard Payton Brotzki looks to have made some strides with her strength and conditioning since the end of her first season in Omaha. She missed the Big East Tournament with an ankle injury, but looks leaner than she did last year. And she hasn’t lost any of that shooting touch that made her a 41.5% 3-point shooter as a freshman.
- Freshman forward Mykel Parham showed off some advanced moves in the post. Granted it was a against an assistant coach with pads, but most newcomers are top heavy at this stage of their careers and use their shoulders to create space. Parham had a good, solid base, and used her hips to get to the rim. Day one legs led to a few more missed layups than she probably would have liked, but she wasn’t alone in that department on Monday.
- Carly Bachelor, the other incoming forward from the 2019 recruiting class, impressed her coaches, and probably annoyed a few of her teammates in the process, during a 3-on-2 transition drill. She was on the short-handed side of that drill, but still managed to win three straight 50/50 balls against more experienced players.
Men’s Basketball
The men’s team got their first summer workout in on Tuesday night. It was a light workout after a long day of basketball camp with local youngsters, so not much to report. Sophomores Marcus Zegarowski and Jacob Epperson were obviously limited, but they did participate in some ball-handling drills as they each work their way back from offseason surgery to repair injuries sustained last season. Memphis transfer Antwann Jones had a strong first day, showing off shooting range, athleticism, and finishing ability in various drills throughout the session.
Notes:
- The NCAA approved a rule change for next season that will extend the 3-point line to 22 feet, 1 and 3/4 inches after experimenting with it during the 2019 NIT. Only four players that will be on Big East rosters in 2019-20 shot better than 40% on at least 100 attempts from 22 feet to 27 feet during their previous season of eligibility. Two of them will play for Creighton next season. Sophomore guard Mitch Ballock led the league from the range at 44.3% (78 of 176), while junior guard Denzel Mahoney shot 40.5% (49 of 121) during his sophomore season at Southeast Missouri State before in 2017-18 before transferring to CU. The other two Big East players to meet that criteria were Butler’s Sean McDermott and Marquette’s Markus Howard.
- Creighton has three visitors scheduled to be on campus this weekend:
- Ryan Kalkbrenner, a 7-foot, 225-pound center from St. Louis, Missouri will be in Omaha from June 12-15.
- A visit from Idaho State grad transfer Kelvin Jones will be next up on June 14-15. The 6-foot-11, 230-pound center averaged 9.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 29 games for the Bengals last season.
- The third visit will come from Kiyron Powell, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound forward from Evansville, Indiana, on June 15-17.
- Kalkbrenner and Powell are both 2020 prospects, while Jones is eligible to join CU’s incoming 2019 class and play right away after Martin Krampelj decided to forego his final season in Omaha and keep his name in the 2019 NBA Draft.