In Monday night’s win over Kansas City, Alan Huss fully unveiled Creighton’s new-look defense after teasing it in a pair of exhibitions. The early returns were promising. While they got lost in rotations and had breakdowns in communication, they also had 15 steals (something that only happened five times in 555 games under Greg McDermott) and forced 22 turnovers (something Mac’s teams also only did five times).
Huss said that the transition has not always been smooth.
“Day one was really interesting because we really went from one end of the spectrum to the other,” he told John Bishop prior to Monday’s game. “In Mac’s system, we were always trying to stay out of rotation and in this system we’re kind of constantly in rotation. We had to teach our guys how to communicate and fly around through those rotations.”
They spent about six weeks teaching the fundamentals of the new scheme before pivoting into working on more structural concepts.
“We’re still in the very, very beginning stages of that piece of it,” Huss elaborated. “Talking to some other coaches that have put this type of scheme in, they really said it’s going to be a work in progress until about Christmas, and that’s okay. We’re bought into it. We’re all in on it. We’re going to keep chipping away, and I hope by the time the Big East rolls around, it’s going to be something that’s really difficult for opponents to deal with.”
One of the pieces that could make them difficult to deal with is a player who wasn’t necessarily expected to contribute this year. Trevon Carter-Givens has earned his way into the rotation with an excellent fall, and had six points, four blocks and a steal on Monday night.
Alan Huss said after the game that he initially believed Carter-Givens would need a year or two to add weight to be an impact player at this level. But his intelligence and instincts have sped up the learning curve so rapidly that even at only 190 pounds, he’s forced his way into their immediate plans. And as Monday showed, his physical skills are obvious.
For his part, Carter-Givens knew what the situation was when he signed with Creighton in the spring; Oswin Erhumnwunse was the likely starter, and Jasen Green was likely to get minutes at the five as well. Originally committed to NC State out of high school, he re-opened his recruiting after head coach Will Wade departed for LSU. Ranked 126th in the 2026 Composite rankings by 247Sports, Carter-Givens was expected by many national recruiting experts to follow Wade to LSU. Instead, he chose Huss, who recruited him at High Point. Their sales pitch was a pretty good one: follow in the path of Ryan Kalkbrenner, who came to CU with a similar profile (an elite rim protector who led the Nike EYBL circuit in blocks, whose offensive game was a work in progress, and needed to add weight and muscle to his frame).
He was OK with a developmental year learning from Erhumnwunse and Green, and now Fred King, who was a late summer addition to the roster.
“I would say 50/50, I was kind of (anticipating minutes), kind of not,” Carter-Givens said after the game. “I was just trying to learn as much as possible from those guys, and I feel like they helped me become who I am now compared to this summer. I wasn’t really expecting minutes, but you know, I’m glad it’s happening.”
His chemistry with the Jays’ other freshman, Katrelle Harmon, was apparent when they connected on a lob dunk where Carter-Givens skied well above the rim.
Bringing the BOOM💥
#GoJays https://t.co/NibNx5SLYX
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) November 3, 2026
Speaking of Harmon, he had six assists in his collegiate debut, the most by any Bluejay freshman in their debut since Ryan Nembhard had 10 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 9, 2021. And it was the most assists by a Creighton freshman in any game since Trey Alexander had nine against top-seeded Kansas on March 19, 2022 in the NCAA Tournament. Harmon and Carter-Givens were summer roommates after arriving on campus, have become quick friends on and off the floor, and are poised to be the future faces of Bluejay hoops.
And that future may be sooner than anyone thought.
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Thursday’s opponent is very different from what they saw in Monday’s opener. Le Moyne is in just their fourth year at the Division 1 level, and they look like it: They don’t have much size, depth, or experience, and they don’t play at home much before conference play. For a program from upstate New York on a limited budget, they smartly piggybacked this game with one in Lincoln on Monday (a 106-64 loss), getting two games out of one trip.
Le Moyne returns only two players from last year’s squad, and has a whopping 13 newcomers. 6’9” junior Trevor Roe will be relied on to anchor the frontcourt for a team that only has two guys 6’9” or taller. Roe scored 20 points against Nebraska on Monday night, making 5-of-11 from three-point range. He also had six rebounds, six assists and a block, and was easily the brightest spot in a game they lost by 42 points. He’s more comfortable on the perimeter than he is in the paint, leaving a pair of smaller players to hold down the fort (6’8” Kaden Stuckey and 6’7” Ty Francis).
That lack of size was very apparent against Nebraska, where the Huskers made 21-of-35 of their two-pointers, grabbed an offensive rebound on 35% of their missed shots, and cleared the glass on 80% of Le Moyne’s misses. Stuckey has decent size at 6’7”, 227 pounds, and the VMI transfer is their most physical big man. He struggled to defend without fouling on Monday, picking up four fouls to go along with eight points and four rebounds. Stuckey was efficient, however, making 4-of-5 from the floor.
Francis also scored eight points including a three-pointer, and had six rebounds. Like Stuckey, he’s undersized at the spot they’re forced to use him in against high-major opponents, so they often fronted the post against Nebraska to try to prevent entry passes. It did not work, but it’s their best shot.
Their backcourt is led by 6’2” guard Jayden Teat, who had 14 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal on Monday. He was their primary initiator against Nebraska, and he’s definitely better suited to that role than as a scorer — he shot just 19-of-62 (30.6%) on two-pointers and 25-of-80 (31.2%) on threes for Sacramento State a year ago.
6’4” Damien King rounded out the starting five on Monday, and he gives them good physicality on the wing. He was 2-of-6 shooting with five points and four rebounds in that game, and like Teat, is not a very efficient shooter. A year ago he made just 9-of-40 from three (22.5%) and 33-of-59 inside the arc (55.9%).
6’2” freshman Leandro Gysel was the first guy off the bench, and in 23 minutes he had five assists against just two turnovers. As he gets acclimated to the speed of college basketball he could slot in nicely beside Teat in the backcourt.
6’1 junior Jeremy Clayville weighs just 175 pounds, but he was an excellent shooter two years ago for Saint Francis, making 49-of-133 (36.8%) from three on a team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. He played in just 15 games for NJIT a year ago and struggled, making just 22-of-72 from deep before sitting out the second semester. Clayville played just nine minutes off the bench on Monday and missed both threes that he attempted, but the pedigree is such that when he’s on the floor you need to keep an eye on him.
This is definitely the type of buy game where you should be able to play significant minutes for the bench players, and might be able to get away with not playing Jasen Green at all to give him a few more days to heal before two battles away from home next week (at Kansas State, vs Iowa in Des Moines).
Tip: 7:00pm
Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
TV: ESPN+
Announcers: Jon Schriner and Nick Bahe
Streaming in the ESPN+ app (subscription required) or via the ESPN Unlimited channels on YouTube TV
Radio: Creighton Bluejay Radio Network (1620AM, 106.9FM)
Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 270 as well as on the SiriusXM App
Live Stats:
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Le Moyne College is a private Jesuit college located mostly in DeWitt, New York (just outside of Syracuse). It was founded by the Jesuits in 1946 and named after the Jesuit missionary Simon Le Moyne. Notable alumni are Josiah Gray (current Washington Nationals pitcher), Jim Deshaies (retired MLB pitcher and current Chicago Cubs TV broadcast color commentator), Jeanette Epps (NASA astronaut, just returned from the International Space Station within the last two weeks), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (actress), Rob Manfred (current MLB Commissioner), Neil Olshey (former GM of the Portland Trail Blazers and LA Clippers), and John Zogby (creator of the Zogby Poll).
Why Dolphins when there are not any dolphins in upstate New York? According to the school’s website, the use of the sign of the dolphin became common among Christians of the second century A.D. It was popularly considered to be friendly toward man and represented both love and tenderness. Noted for its grace and swiftness, the dolphin also symbolizes the desire for knowledge. A figure of the dolphin appears on the seal of the bishop of the ancient See of Syracuse (the official seat, center of authority, jurisdiction or office of a bishop) in Sicily, as well as the seal of the Bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse. Rev. Walter A. Foery, the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse, made one of his priorities the establishment of a Catholic college. On April 14, 1945, Bishop Foery purchased the 103-acre Gifford Farm and promptly sold it to the Jesuits for $50,000. The Gifford Farm is now home to the College and Foery Hall is so named in honor of Bishop Foery
Wes Enis scored 17 points in the second half and finished his Creighton debut with 25 points. It was the second-most points in a season-opener by a Creighton newcomer in school history. The only player with more was Charles Kearney, who had 27 points in a 53-21 win over Cotner on Jan. 11, 1918. That is not a typo — Enis scored more points than any Bluejay newcomer in a season-opener than any player in more than a century! Others have been close, though. Bob Gibson scored 19 in his debut in 1954, Paul Silas scored 22 in his debut in 1961 (with 29 rebounds, because of course he did), Cyril Baptiste scored 24 in 1969, Gene Harmon had 21 in the 1971 opener, P. Allen Stinnett had 23 in the 2007 opener, and Marcus Foster scored 19 in his Bluejay debut in 2016.
Carter-Givens is the first Bluejay freshman with four blocks in a debut since Arthur Kaluma had four against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Nov. 9, 2021. CU’s only other true freshmen in the last 22 seasons to record four blocks in any game were Fredrick King (5 on 12/12/22 vs. Arizona State), Ryan Kalkbrenner twice (4 at Providence on Jan. 2, 2021 and 4 vs. St. John’s on Jan. 9, 2021) and Jacob Epperson (5 vs. Providence on March 8, 2018).
BJ Davis had four steals on Monday against Kansas City, the most by a Creighton player in a season-opener since Josh Dotzler had five steals on Nov. 16, 2008 against New Mexico. Going back through box scores, no Creighton newcomer had owned four steals or more in a season-opener since at least 1981.
Creighton and Le Moyne have never met.
On November 5, 2019, Creighton opened the season with an 81-55 victory over Kennesaw State.
Ty-Shon Alexander buried a pair of three-pointers in the first 76 seconds. And when it was followed by a three from Marcus Zegarowski for a 9-0 lead that forced Kennesaw State into a timeout, it looked like we were in for a very different game than the one we wound up seeing.
Alexander and Zegarowski each hit another three ahead of the first media timeout to make it 15-4 Bluejays. But instead of delivering an early knockout, CU scored just 24 points the rest of the half. Leading 39-31 at the break, Creighton took control of the game over the first four minutes of the second. They scored 11 points on their first five possessions, and in roughly two minutes’ time, built a commanding 50-33 lead.
Oddsmakers peg the Jays as 30.5 point favorites in this one, while KenPom thinks it will be slightly less of a blowout, with CU winning by 25. Either way, this one should be under control midway through the second half, if not sooner.
Creighton 92, Le Moyne 60