Creighton once again played bridesmaid to another Top 75 prospect on Thursday.
Chris Clarke of Virginia chose Tennessee over Creighton, Virginia Tech, and UConn. Earlier in October, long-time Creighton target Matt McQuaid decided to join Michigan State over the Jays.
Make no mistake about it: losing these two hurt.
Creighton had recruited this pair for over two seasons now and while there is no shame to losing recruits to the Big Ten and SEC, it forces Creighton to re-evaluate options for 2015.
At this moment, Creighton has two open spots for the 2015 class. The Jays received verbal commitments from Omaha’s Justin Patton, who blossomed into a Top-50 player nationally this summer, as well as Iowa’s top lead guard, Marlon Stewart. The Jays were hoping that McQuaid and Clarke would round out the highest ranked class in Creighton history.
It’s now back to the drawing board for Greg McDermott and his staff, but their focus obviously begins to shift from scouting prospects to scouting opposing teams. As recruiting season develops, look for Creighton to be active on the transfer market.
The Jays landed Cole Huff and Mo Watson earlier this year — two players who figure to be cornerstones of the team’s success for 2015-16 and 2016-17. I would not be surprised if the Jays dip back into the ever-growing transfer arena.
I can confirm that Creighton has serious interest in recent Kansas transfer Conner Frankamp.
Kansas Transfer Conner Frankamp
Frankamp alerted KU coach Bill Self that he was seeking a transfer away from the Big 12 powerhouse in hopes of finding “a place where [he] could play a bigger role.”
Frankamp is a lights-out shooter who can also fill in at point guard in a pinch; he saw action last year at the point for the Jayhawks. Frankamp has been one of the elite shooters in the country over the last two years.
Frankamp committed to Kansas early in his high school career — KU was his dream school. Despite being a top 30 player in the nation, Frankamp did not have a lot of interest because it was pretty clear he was going to be a Jayhawk. One staff that did actively recruit Conner hard in 2011 was Creighton head coach Greg McDermott, who has a great relationship with Frankamp’s AAU program KC Run GMC. KC Run GMC is where newest Creighton Bluejay Rick Kreklow played his AAU ball before college.
Rumors quickly sparked this afternoon following the news of Conner’s transfer that Creighton and Wichita State are the two most likely places for the former Jayhawk sharpshooter. It should be noted that Frankamp will finish this semester in Lawrence and transfer at the end of the Fall semester. A decision does not seem imminent.
Look for a number of teams to pick up the phone. Creighton will surely be one of them.