Another piece of the schedule puzzle has been revealed, as Creighton’s opponents for the 2016 Paradise Jam were released on Thursday morning. The Bluejays will open their trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands on November 18th with a game against Washington State, which will tip at 7:30pm Omaha time. Their second-round game will be against the winner of Montana versus North Carolina State; if they’re in the winners bracket, that game will be at 7:30pm Omaha time on November 20th, while if they’re in the losers bracket, their next game is on the 19th at 5:00pm.
The third game of the trip is on November 21, with tip times between 11:30am and 7:30pm Omaha time dependent on how they fare in the first two games. The other half of the bracket features first-round matchups between Loyola (Chicago) vs Saint Joseph’s, and Oral Roberts vs Ole Miss.
Washington State is coached by former Oregon coach Ernie Kent, and they went 9-22 a year ago — including a hideous 1-17 in Pac-12 play that featured 16 consecutive losses in conference action and a first-round exit in the Pac-12 tournament to end their season on a 17-game losing streak. They almost can’t help but be better than that this year, and got a bit of a boost when all three Cougar players who declared early for the NBA Draft without hiring an agent (Josh Hawkinson, Conor Clifford, and Ike Iroegbu) were not invited to the combine and thus are probable to return. Hawkinson averaged 15.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game last season as a junior, ranking 11th in the nation in rebounding. Iroegbu averaged 3.6 assists a game to lead the team, and Clifford (7’0″, 269 pounds) gave them a formidable space-eater in the paint who shot a Geoff Groselle-like 65% from the floor (82-128).
NC State finished 16-17 a year ago to miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years, and like WSU they struggled in conference play, going 5-13 in the ACC. They had zero seniors in 2015-16, but are going through some major roster upheaval nonetheless, with just six players currently on scholarship. Leading scorer Cat Barber declared for the NBA Draft and hired an agent, twin sophomores Caleb and Cody Martin (a nearly identical 6’7″ and 210 each) opted to transfer out, and Abdul-Malik Abu and BeeJay Anya both declared for the draft without hiring an agent (though Abu’s return is questionable). The Wolfpack will be a vastly different team this coming year, but whether that’s a good or a bad thing remains to be seen.
Montana, the Jays third potential opponent, doesn’t have the major-conference cache or the name recognition of the other two, but is the only one to have notched a winning record last year. The Grizzlies finished 21-12, including a 14-4 record in the Big Sky, and advanced to the CBI where they lost 79-75 to Nevada. They return the bulk of that team in 2016, but the one departing senior is a big loss — Martin Breunig, who averaged 18.9 points and 9.0 rebounds a game to lead them in both categories.
TV information has not been released for the 2016 Paradise Jam, but CBS Sports Network televised most of last year’s event, with the other games streamed free on ParadiseSports.com, and it’s a good bet the same will be true this year.