Like thousands of other Creighton Bluejays fans, I received my men’s basketball season ticket renewal package in the mail last week. Not once since I started squirreling away cash for tickets have I toyed with the notion of not renewing. But flipping through the collateral, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of remorse.
I’m not taking anything away from Austin Chatman, Avery Dingman, Devin Brooks, and Will Artino, the guys gracing the front of the renewal folder. But the absence of Doug McDermott, not to mention guys like Ethan Wragge, Jahenns Manigat, and Grant Gibbs, was a well-timed reminder that for as great a run as has been experienced on the Hilltop the past few years, next season will bring something completely new.
And that’s OK.
It is one of the main reasons I love college hoops. In the ‘real world’, turnover carries (sometimes exorbitant) costs. In college basketball, turnover gives fans the chance to witness development, to discover new players being put in different positions than they’re accustom to.
Sure, Life After Doug will test my theory. You just don’t replace the best player and one of the most successful senior classes in school history without missing a beat. But the next two seasons could potentially be the bridge to a seismic shift in the national perception of Creighton basketball.
A mix of redshirt contributors, proven transfers with collegiate experience, and highly touted recruits will give Greg McDermott arguably his most talented roster since he started his CU tenure.
It is clear that kids around the country want to play for Coach Mac and his staff. No matter the combination of character traits and basketball smarts, you can’t argue with the statement. Something special is happening on the Hilltop, and Jays fans have McDermott (and his boss) to thank.
In the past five weeks, Boston University’s Mo Watson and Nevada’s Cole Huff have spurned other suitors and selected Creighton as their chosen destination in the next phases of their basketball lives. Both were heavily recruited, and both specifically mentioned CU’s style of play and a connection to Coach Mac as key reasons for choosing to join the Jays.
The latest transfer, Cal’s Ricky Kreklow, is a guy who is willing to pay his own way to walk on at Creighton instead of take an athletic scholarship at another school. He has one season left of college hoops, and he wants to play at a special place, for a special coach.
Watson and Huff won’t play in a meaningful game for Creighton until November 2015. Yet they’ll challenge next season’s squad every day in practice, a role familiar to last year’s redshirts James Milliken and Toby Hegner. Again, two guys unknown to the majority of CU hoops fans, but players who now get the chance to step into the spotlight vacated by guys like Dougie McBuckets, the Canadian Red Bull, and the Lumberjack. Kreklow will be along for the ride, too, hoping to bring a completely clean bill of health to the Bluejays for his final season of college hoops.
Then there are the two true freshmen, Leon Gilmore III and Ronnie Harrell. Both are among the nation’s top recruits according to multiple services, for what that’s worth. Whether they play right away or sit out a season to gain strength and experience, they are fresh faces that Creighton fans will see for the first time, moving the fanbase one step further into the exciting unknown of L.A.D.
The Hilltop continues to excel in the ongoing Arms Race that is facility construction in collegiate sports.
It started more than a decade ago, with a move to the Qwest Center. Along the way there have been improvements to the Vinardi Center and the completion of buildings on East campus like Morrison Stadium, Sokol Arena, and the Rasmussen Center.
But the most important structure for the future of Creighton men’s hoops will open soon. The Championship Center is a smartly designed, tastefully developed replacement for the venerable Vinardi Center. It will be the permanent practice facility for Coach Mac’s team while also providing student-athletes of any type access to physical training and academic resources.
Nestled cozily adjacent to Sokol Arena and Fortress Morrison, the Championship Center marks another red-brick building that signals the capital investment in Creighton athletics.
In the race to secure the best recruits in the country and develop their skills both on and off the court, the Championship Center is an appropriately named bet on the future. If the building “works,” the trophy cases will surely fill to the brim while plenty of players leave the Hilltop hoisting valuable diplomas.
The second year of a reimagined Big East Conference promises improvements, with nowhere to go but up in more than a few cases.
Change is hard. There are always hiccups, roadblocks, whatever metaphors you want to use. We’ll experience some as we live L.A.D., just as surely as the 10 members of the Big East suffered some of the growing pains of being quickly shuffled into a basketball-centric league just 8 months from the start of another hoops season.
But for all the weird scheduling situations, the new media partnerships, and a few coaches grumping or leaving the league all together, the second season of Big East basketball 2.0 should be an improvement over the first. With 2013-2014 as their benchmark, the league and its teams will go back to the drawing board to address issues and set the league up for continued success. The coaches are doing their part; there are dozens of top recruits committed to the league’s 10 teams this fall and next. If Val Ackerman and her office can smooth out some wrinkles and reimagine a few other critical topics, there’s no reason that the future of Big East hoops won’t be as exciting and prolific as its oft-discussed past.
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As spring melts into summer and the next wave of players hit campus to work out and prepare for 2014-2015, I can’t help but be bullish on the future of Bluejays hoops. There will be tough times, certainly. There will be another reality check moment when Doug McDermott leaves the NBA Draft property of a professional squad. But I truly believe that things will be better than OK, more quickly than some might think.
What do you think? Hit the Bluejay Underground community to discuss the future of Creighton hoops with other die-hard fans.