In typically low-key fashion, we learned Tuesday morning that Ryan Kalkbrenner was an early entrant in the 2024 NBA Draft not via social media post from Kalkbrenner, but by a press release from the NBA itself. He’s one of 156 college players on the list, and will head to the NBA Draft combine in Chicago May 13-19 to get feedback on his draft prospects. Should he opt to withdraw and return for one more year at Creighton, he has until May 29 to make that decision; the draft begins on June 26.
Unlike Baylor Scheierman and Trey Alexander, who both appear in most mock draft boards somewhere between the end of the first round and the middle of the second, Kalkbrenner does not. That could change after the combine. He could latch on as an undrafted free agent. Or he could opt to use his Covid year and play one more season for the Jays, and enter the draft next summer.
Whatever his decision, he already has an almost unmatched legacy at CU. Kalkbrenner has played in 11 NCAA Tournament games, more than anyone in Bluejay history; he’s been part of eight wins, which are also the most by any Bluejay. He’s literally rewritten the Bluejay record book for NCAA Tournament success:
Single-Game
- Points: 31 vs. NC State, 3/17/23
- Blocks: 5 vs. Oregon, 3/23/24
Single-Tournament
- Points: 80 in 2023
- Field Goals Made: 32 in 2023
- Blocks: 10 in 2024
Career
- Points: 154
- Field Goals Made: 60
- Blocked Shots: 18
- Games Played In: 11
- Wins Played In: 8
- Tournaments Played In: 4
Against Oregon in the second round, he had 19 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks and a three-pointer, becoming the first player to do all those things in an NCAA Tournament game since Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan vs. Saint Mary’s on March 14, 1997, per research by CU’s Rob Anderson. He also buried this three in overtime:
In his fourth year at CU, Kalkbrenner averaged 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 65.1% from the floor. In Big East games, he shot 64.7% and became the sixth Bluejay in 11 years of Big East play to lead the league in that category (joining Doug McDermott, Geoffrey Groselle, Justin Patton, Christian Bishop, and himself a year ago). He’s the first player to lead the league in that category in back-to-back years since UConn’s Emeka Okafor in 2002-03 and 2003-04. And he owns the career record for best field goal percentage by any Big East player (minimum five shot attempts per game), shooting 64.2% for his career — well ahead of the previous record holder, Patrick Ewing, who shot 60.8% for his career at Georgetown.
Kalkbrenner had 75 slam dunks this past year, the most in one year by any Bluejay during the Greg McDermott era. His 236 career dunks are 115 more than the next closest Bluejay in that span (Martin Krampelj, who had 121 from 2015-19).
No wonder he earned second team All-Big East honors and was an Honorable Mention All-American as voted on by the AP.
He currently sits at 1,771 career points, good for seventh-most in program history. While Doug McDermott’s 3,150 is out of reach, if he returns and replicates his 2023-24 scoring output of 604 points, he would end his career with 2,375 and surpass everyone else.
- 3,150 Doug McDermott 2010-14
- 2,116 Rodney Buford 1995-99
- 2,110 Bob Harstad 1987-91
- 1,983 Chad Gallagher 1987-91
- 1,876 Bob Portman 1966-69
- 1,801 Kyle Korver 1999-03
- 1,771 Ryan Kalkbrenner 2020-Pres.
But of course, his biggest impact has been on the defensive end, where they’ve built their entire scheme around his skillset. He was named the Big East’s Defensive Player of the Year for the third straight season, joining Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning as the only players in league history to win that honor three times.
He’s a shot-blocking machine, swatting 107 shots in his fourth year on the Hilltop after 72 and 89 blocks the two seasons prior. He joined Benoit Benjamin as the only Bluejays to have 100+ blocks in a season, as Benjamin had an absurd 162 in 1984-85 and 157 in 1983-84 and holds the top two spots in the CU record book. Kalkbrenner’s 107 blocks this past year ranks third all-time. His 67 blocks in conference contests were the most by any Big East player since Rutgers’ Hamady Ndiaye had 69 in 2009-10. For his career, he as 193 swats in league games, seventh-most all time. It’s a heckuva list: Patrick Ewing (247), Hasheem Thabeet (243), Etan Thomas (232), Alonzo Mourning (224), Jason Lawson (216) and Emeka Okafor (207) are the six ahead of him, and Kalkbrenner’s 193 is just ahead of Dikembe Mutombo (184).
Even those impressive numbers undersell his impact. It’s tough to quantify exactly how many would-be shots at the rim he deters opponents from attempting, but we can get an approximation by looking at how many more two-point jumpers opponents take versus the Jays compared to everyone else.
38.7% of Creighton opponents’ shots were two-point jumpers this season — the only other Big East team above 30% was Providence at 31.9%. UConn was the next closest at 27.0%.
On the other side of the coin, CU’s opponents took 33.4% of their total shots at the rim, and 12.9% of them were blocked. That was the third-fewest in the Big East; only Providence and Villanova’s opponents took fewer shots at the rim.
It might be a career retrospective reel, or an in-progress package of highlights — we won’t know for sure for six weeks or so. But regardless, here’s a Kalkbrenner highlight reel we put together. Enjoy.