With four games left in the regular season, Creighton is closing on another 20-win season — their 10th in a row and 24th time in 26 years. They’ve won 10 of their last 12 games, and while their senior stars Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth have been every bit as great as expected during this surge, the growth of two other starters has been increasingly important as March nears.
Jamiya Neal had 13 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists on Sunday against Georgetown, falling just one assist shy of a traditional triple-double. Neal has improved as a shooter in Creighton’s offense by being more efficient and choosing better shots for himself. A year ago at Arizona State he was 39-of-142 (27.5%) from three, and this year he’s made nearly as many threes (36) on 23 fewer attempts so far (119), raising his shooting percentage to 30.3%.
Those numbers are skewed somewhat by his early-season adjustment period — Neal shot 9-of-36 (25%) in 11 non-conference games, with one game accounting for nearly half of the makes (Notre Dame, where he made 4-of-6). By comparison, Neal has made 27-of-83 (32.5%) in 16 Big East games so far.
He’s improved inside the arc, too. Last year he shot 96-of-183 (52.5%) on two-pointers. This year he’s made nearly as many (91) on 18 fewer shots, raising his shooting percentage to 55.2%.
But it’s his shot creation for others that has been transformative for his offensive game. Last year at ASU, his assist rate was 11.0, meaning he assisted on 11% of the made shots when he was on the court. If you prefer traditional counting stats, he averaged 1.8 assists per game. This year? His assist rate has exploded to 24.3, and he’s averaging 4.2 assists per game.
“I’d say the difference here is leadership, consistency, and stability,” Neal said on the postgame radio show after Sunday’s win. “In my last situation, it wasn’t that stable. If we won, we might have not practiced. If we lost, we might have run all day. We’re really process-oriented here, and everybody really likes each other.”
“The coaching staff and Mac, they’re all like, basketball junkies. They’re always watching basketball. They’re always finding new ways to get better,” Neal continued. “The biggest thing is we don’t accept mediocrity here, you know? If you come in here and you don’t want to work, this is not the place for you. Mac and everybody, any of your teammates, are going to hold you to a standard and hold you accountable to be great. I’m happy I chose here and I’m happy I’m around guys that push me to be great and I’m happy we’re doing this together.”
That might sound like a poor review of the culture around Bobby Hurley’s program in Tempe, and maybe it is. But it’s also an honest assessment of what Neal knew he needed to find in order to be the best version of himself — he’s used the phrase “process-oriented” on multiple occasions this season in describing what sold him on transferring to Creighton. And the structure and culture of CU’s program have grown him into a player who will be vital to whatever happens over the next month.
Meanwhile, Jasen Green scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting on Sunday, and had seven of the Jays’ first nine points. Through the first 23 games of the season, Green averaged 2.8 points on 48.3% overall from the field and 28% from three, with 16 total free-throw attempts. Over the past four games? Green is averaging 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and one block per game while shooting 68.2% (!) from the field with a pair of threes and 14 free throw attempts. And remember, three of those four games were against the Big East’s top three defensive teams: St. John’s, Marquette and Georgetown.
Green has clearly taken a big step forward in February. But he’s not complacent: he knows there’s more to unlock.
“I feel like my next step is to hone everything that I’ve been doing currently,” Green said on the postgame show after Sunday’s win. “But I mean, the next step after that would probably be to tighten my handle up so I can take guys off the dribble. And if that doesn’t happen this year, that’s fine. I’ve still got two more years here to make sure that does happen, but I’m feeling pretty comfortable.”
“He’s gotten so much better, and while his statistics defensively don’t jump off the page, he does a great job of shot challenge. He’s in the right place. He knows the scouting report inside and out,” McDermott said. “And his guy seldom gets an offensive rebound, although I’ve talked to Jasen about that — we need him to defensive rebound a little bit better.”
“But he’s improved in every facet of the game. It’s been fun to see. Really, because of the injury last year, this is his first full year. You hope to see that kind of development year over year, but you don’t always see it. Jasen’s really worked at it and he’s worked on the three-point shot so that if they leave him he can knock one down like he did today.”
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DePaul comes into Wednesday’s game on a five-game losing streak, and sits at 11-17 overall and 2-15 in the Big East. Their three-point shooting, once a strength of their team, has fallen off a cliff — they entered the first meeting with CU shooting 37.6% from three and have seen that mark fall to 33.7% in just over a month. They’ve made only 23.8% over the last five games, all losses. Whether Creighton sent them spiraling or the Blue Demons’ slump just coincidentally began with the first game against CU is hard to say. But the Jays’ defense stifled them in Chicago, and what looked in January like a building-block season in Chris Holtman’s first year running their program instead looks like every other DePaul season in recent memory as the calendar turns to March.
Defensively, Creighton held DePaul to season-lows in points (49), three-pointers (3) and field goal percentage (30.2%). The Blue Demons came into the game shooting 37.6% from three for the season, and ranked 13th in D1 with an average of 10.7 made three-pointers per game. They’d made 10 or more in 13 of their 18 games, and their 203 made three-pointers were the most in the Big East. They’ve plummeted to 49th nationally and are now third in the Big East.
They made 3-of-23 from deep in that one. Jays fans know all too well that when you’re as reliant on the three as DePaul is — 47.4% of their shot attempts this year have been threes — you have to live with the ebbs and flows. And when a prolonged slump happens, you need other ways to score and a defense that can keep you in games.
DePaul has neither.
On a team filled entirely with newcomers, CJ Gunn (12.3 ppg.), Jacob Meyer (10.5 ppg.) and Isaiah Rivera (9.9 ppg.) have emerged as the leading scorers. That trio has also accounted for 142 of DePaul’s 262 three-pointers. They all struggled against CU in January — Gunn scored 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting, Meyer had one point and missed all five shots he attempted, and Rivera scored eight on 3-of-10 shooting.
Layden Blocker was the one bright spot, scoring 15 off the bench to lead DePaul in that game, and he’s started every game since. He had 18 against UConn and 23 against Butler, emerging as a not-so-secret-anymore weapon.
- Tip: 8:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: Peacock
- Announcers: Justin Kutcher and Nick Bahe
- Streaming in the Peacock app (subscription required)
- Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Austin Chatman
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 388 as well as on the SiriusXM App
DePaul has the largest KenPom movement of any Big East team this season and joins St. John’s and Butler as the only league teams to have positive movement from the beginning of the season rankings. The Blue Demons also have the largest improvement to date since the end of the 2024 season (171 spots)
The Blue Demons are shooting 41% from three in wins compared to 29.1% in losses.
DePaul enters Wednesday’s game 11 three-pointers away from tying the school single-season record. The Blue Demons are averaging 9.4 made threes per game, for a total of 262 this season.
Creighton’s bench has scored 368 points in 27 games this season, already outscoring last year’s point production of 367 in 35 games a season ago. Creighton has not scored 400 bench points or more since 2020-21 after doing it for 14 straight seasons from 2007-08 to 2020-21.
Kalkbrenner owns 486 points this season and is 14 points shy of joining Doug McDermott (4), Rodney Buford (3), Bob Harstad (3) and Paul Silas (3) as the only Bluejay men in history with three seasons of 500 or more points. Kalkbrenner also has 73 blocked shots this season. He’s now responsible for four seasons of 69 swats or more in his career, while all other Bluejays in program history have four total (three by Benoit Benjamin, one by Chad Gallagher).
This is Creighton’s 10th straight season with multiple Top 25 wins, and 14th time overall (and 11th time under Greg McDermott). This year is the eighth time in the last nine seasons with three or more Top 25 wins, something that had never happened even once in program history prior to 2016-17.
Creighton has won 26 of the last 27 meetings (including 21 straight) with DePaul to take a 31-16 lead in the all-time series. Creighton is 24-1 in the series since joining the Big East, and 10-1 in the Omaha meetings since joining the league. Twenty-three of the last 25 meetings in the series have been decided by double-figures, including all 13 meetings in Omaha since 1986.
Earlier this season, Creighton blew out DePaul 73-49 in Chicago. DePaul’s 49 points tied the third-fewest allowed by Creighton in a league play since joining the Big East in 2013. And their 19 first-half points scored were the fewest by a conference opponent in a Bluejay road game since Feb. 13, 2011 (Southern Illinois), which was in Greg McDermott’s first year at Creighton.
On February 26, 2011, the Jays picked up a 63-55 win over Northern Iowa in Greg McDermott’s first season as head coach.
Here’s some of what Ott wrote the next day:https://whiteandbluereview.com/otts-thoughts-wrapping-up-a-frustrating-regular-season-with-hope-on-the-horizon/
“Creighton’s most important player, Antoine Young, picked up 2 fouls within the first 5 minutes of the game, and the junior point guard went to the bench for the final 25 minutes of the half. Echenique joined him shortly thereafter, as the starting center logged only 7 minutes during the first half.
Without the team’s court general and enforcer on the floor, the Jays struggled. CU turned the ball over 7 times, lost the rebounding battle at half 16-11, and looked generally uninspired in what amounted to a tune-up game against a team the Jays will play again in less than a week. But is that really an excuse for missing free throws, throwing the ball away, and not guarding the paint? The Panthers outscored the Bluejays 18-8 in the low post in the first half, without Lucas O’Rear on the court.
I’m not privy to what was said at halftime, but I’m sure Greg McDermott reminded his guys they were playing for their seniors, and playing for numerous streaks the program is proud of. But maybe it was simpler than that. Perhaps it is as easy as telling his guys that Northern Iowa has no one who can consistently defend Creighton’s post players, nor score consistently against them. The Jays came out of halftime, immediately fed Echenique the ball in the paint, and he scored and was fouled. Sure, he missed the free throw — I’m honestly surprised the Jays shot 45% from the free throw line for the game, as it seemed so much worse than that sitting in the stands — but during the next trip for UNI the big Venezuelan blocked a shot attempt by Kwadzo Ahelegbe and the Jays turned it into a 3-pointer by Young on the other end thanks to the rebound, the push, and the assist by Jahenns Manigat.”
The Bottom Line:
If Creighton can defend the perimeter well enough to make sure that DePaul’s inevitable regression-to-the-mean game from three-point range happens against someone else, they should win this one convincingly. The Jays are favored by 16.5 in Vegas and by 16 on KenPom; ESPN’s BPI gives them 93.2% odds of winning.
Creighton 83, DePaul 63