After dropping the first two games in Las Vegas — including losing to Texas A&M after leading for almost the entire game — Creighton bounced back to get a win over Notre Dame in their Players Era finale.
“I think from a psyche standpoint it was certainly really good for us, especially considering the circumstances,” Greg McDermott told the media on Monday. “We didn’t have Pop, Kalk or Steven in practice for the two days prior, and then to find out Kalk wasn’t going to be able to play the morning of the (Notre Dame) game, we had some other guys that had to step up and they really did.”
The health of Creighton’s roster has been a constant issue over the first eight games. Pop Isaacs missed the season opener, and played through flu-like symptoms in Saturday’s win over Notre Dame. Steven Ashworth sprained his ankle and missed the San Diego State game, then surprisingly returned for the other two games in Vegas (though at something far less than 100%). And Ryan Kalkbrenner suffered a lower body injury that kept him out of the Notre Dame game — and might keep him out of Wednesday’s battle against #1 Kansas.
Kalkbrenner did not practice on Monday, and the Jays ran through their preparations as though they would not have him against the Jayhawks. He’ll likely be a game-time decision.
“We don’t have enough time,” McDermott joked when asked for status updates on his sick and injured players. “I’ll see what we have at practice, and then we’ll go from there.”
The realistic paths to victory for Creighton all run through Kalkbrenner, so his status looms large over this one. Without him, the Bluejays won’t be able to even attempt to defend Kansas’ star big man Hunter Dickinson one-on-one, so the trickle down effect defensively from having to double-team him will open up shots elsewhere. And if Fredrick King gets in foul trouble, the problem is compounded — do you try to go small and stick the 6’8” Jasen Green in the middle, as the Jays did on Saturday against Notre Dame? Or use Isaac Traudt there? The options aren’t great.
“Obviously our rim protection takes a hit with any of those lineups,” McDermott said. “But we’re comfortable with Jasen and Isaac in those situations if we need to do it. I was also very encouraged by Fred’s play on both ends of the floor (against Notre Dame). He did some really good things. He’s got to limit some of those fouls, though.”
And while a small ball lineup could theoretically cause mismatches on offense that offset what you give up defensively, that relies on hitting shots. No one who’s watched the Jays through eight games can feel good about that.
Kansas is preparing as if Kalkbrenner will play, and it would be shocking if he didn’t at least give it a shot.
“You can’t simulate his shot-blocking. He’s a three-time Big East [Defensive] Player of the Year. You’re not going to simulate that in practice,” KU coach Bill Self said on Tuesday. “Offensively, you can’t let him get angles. You can’t let him catch and score from short distances where he doesn’t have to go through defense. Some teams have done a pretty admirable job guarding him, and some teams have done a really poor job guarding.”
Self joked that Kalkbrenner and Dickinson are “two dinosaurs,” alluding to both their massive size and the fact that they’re two of the oldest players in college basketball. “And with both projected to be all-Americans, it should be a fun matchup.”
Kansas has been the top-ranked team in the country since the preseason poll dropped, and has started 7-0 with wins over North Carolina (KenPom #16), Michigan State (#35) and Duke (#4) — three of the bluest of the bluebloods in college hoops. As usual, they’re a deep, star-studded team with seven players averaging eight or more points per game.
Hunter Dickinson, their 7’2” 265-pound fifth-year senior center, leads that group at 15.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. A two-time Consensus All-America Second Team selection at two different schools (he played two years at Michigan before transferring to KU), Dickinson is only the second player ever to accomplish the feat at two different schools. He had four games with 20 or more rebounds a year ago, and had 17 double-doubles. He had 28 points, 12 rebounds, three steals and a block against Michigan State, and 20 points with 10 boards and three assists against North Carolina. He might have had another double-double against Duke (11 points, six boards in just 24 minutes) had he not been ejected after being whistled for a flagrant-2 foul.
“Dickinson is so versatile,” McDermott said. “You know, he’s an elite passer, number one, so if you try to go with too much help he really picks you apart. Beyond that, he can score in the pick and roll, they post him up in isolation, they use him in the short roll a lot in the middle of the floor, and he’s able to really pick people apart with the pass. And he’s a capable enough three-point shooter that you have to respect that. And on top of that, he’s, you know, what, 7’2” 260 pounds? So he’s big and he’s physical.”
Outside of that, no problem.
Zeke Mayo is second in scoring at 11.7 points per game. The South Dakota St. transfer is a native of Lawrence, and he’s playing his senior season for his hometown school. Mayo has struggled from three-point range so far, making just 31.6% (12-of-38) — he’s a career 37.9% shooter from deep. But while his scoring has been inconsistent, he’s done a good job elsewhere — he had six points, 10 rebounds and seven assists against Michigan State, for example. In the win against North Carolina, Mayo led Kansas with 21 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists, and was also 4-for-4 from the line. Down 87-85 with 3:15 to play, Mayo scored four of Kansas’ final seven points in the contest, including a basket with 1:44 left to tie the game at 89-89.
6’7” senior KJ Adams is third in scoring at 10.4 points per game. A consistent, solid player, Adams doesn’t stretch the floor (zero three-point attempts this year) but he can put it on the deck and get to the rim, doesn’t turn it over, and facilitates as a secondary point forward. Excluding UConn’s Alex Karaban, Adams is probably the best ‘4’ CU will see this season, and it will be a big test for the Jays’ platoon of forwards. Will they opt to guard him the freshman Jackson McAndrew, who’s been starting and getting the lion’s share of minutes at the ‘4’? Or do they stick Isaac Traudt or Mason Miller on him?
Adams is also a terrific defender. Against Duke last week, he had eight points, three steals and three blocks while operating as the primary defender on Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg most of the night.
Point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. averages 9.7 points and 6.1 assists per game. His pick-and-roll game with Dickinson is really tough to defend, and in the last two games he has 17 assists (eight against Furman, nine against Duke.) A four-year starter, Harris leads the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.30, which is 16th nationally.
6’7” AJ Storr averages 8.9 points per game, and is shooting 42.1% from three-point range (8-of-19). Creighton has seen Storr before — he played for St. John’s in 2022-23, and scored 32 points in two games. In Omaha, he had 23 points including 3-of-5 from three-point range, though the Red Storm lost 104-76. He’s started the last two games, swapping lineup positions with 6’6” Alabama transfer Rylan Griffen (8.1 points per game) who had started the first five games.
The Jayhawks’ transition game is among the best in college basketball. They’ve grabbed a defensive rebound on 76.5% of opponent’s missed shots, the 18th best mark in D1, which allows them to get out and run. And when they do, they rank in the 95th percentile on transition scoring, shooting 75% on two-pointers and 48% on threes.
Beyond being stronger on the glass than they were in Las Vegas, Creighton simply has to have better ball security in this one. Notre Dame turned 12 Bluejay turnovers into 17 points; Texas A&M turned 15 turnovers into 12 points. Kansas will do a lot more damage off live ball turnovers than either of those teams did.
“They’re really good,” McDermott said. “Obviously their transition game is elite, and you know, defensively they’re very disruptive. Hunter Dickinson and KJ (Adams) inside, it’s a handful with their physicality and size. And Coach Self is one of the best in the business, so it’s going to take our ‘A’ game and then some.”
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Other KU regulars include senior G David Coit (5.6 ppg, 8 3FGs, 14 assists), graduate G Shakeel Moore (2.0 ppg), redshirt-junior F Zach Clemence (1.4 ppg) and freshman G Rakease Passmore (1.9 ppg). Freshman F Flory Bidunga is scoring 8.0 points per game and is 25-for-30 (83.3%) from the field. Bidunga stepped up after Dickinson’s ejection last week against Duke and finished with eight boards and six points.
With the Nov. 12 win against Michigan State, Kansas head coach Bill Self passed Phog Allen as the winningest coach in KU history. Self is 595-143 in his 22nd season at KU. Phog Allen was 590-129 in 36 seasons on the KU sidelines.
Kansas is averaging 32.0 bench points per contest, which is second in the Big 12 and 41st nationally. The highest bench points per game average in the Bill Self era is 25.5 in 2006-07.
Both Creighton and Kansas are playing in the Big 12 – Big East Battle for the sixth time. Creighton is 2-3 in the event, while Kansas is 4-1. Creighton beat Oklahoma (83-73) in Omaha in 2019, lost at No. 5 Kansas (73-72) in 2020, lost to No. 19 Iowa State (64-58) in Omaha in 2021, fell 72-67 at No. 2 Texas in 2022 and last year won at Oklahoma State 79-65.
Creighton is 105-10 in non-conference home games under Greg McDermott and will be taking the CHI Health Center Omaha floor for the first time since losing there on November 22nd. Creighton has lost back-to-back non-conference home games just twice in the last 30 seasons, doing so on Dec. 4 & 14, 2021 and on Dec. 7 & 18, 2004.
Jackson McAndrew had 12 points and 14 rebounds on Tuesday vs. San Diego State, then followed that up with a season-high 16 points vs. No. 20 Texas A&M a day later. McAndrew was the first Bluejay freshman with a double-double since Fredrick King had 16 points and 10 rebounds at Marquette on Dec. 16, 2022. McAndrew is the first Bluejay with a double-double in his first start at Creighton since South Dakota State transfer Baylor Scheierman had 11 points and 10 rebounds on Nov. 7, 2022 vs. Florida A&M.
Kansas has won 11 of 17 meetings all-time, including narrow wins in the 2022 NCAA Tournament (79-72 in Fort Worth) and 2020 regular season (73-72 in Lawrence). The Jayhawks have won the last six meetings since Creighton’s win on Dec. 5, 1949. Wednesday is one day short of the 75-year anniversary of that game.
The Bluejays own a 5-3 edge in Omaha, where the teams have not played since 1951.
Greg McDermott is 0-10 all-time against the Jayhawks. The first eight meetings came between 2006-10 when he was the head coach at Iowa State, while the past two have been as CU head coach. Bill Self is 4-3 in his career against Creighton at four different schools (0-3 as Oral Roberts coach, 1-0 as Tulsa coach, 1-0 as Illinois coach, 2-0 as Kansas coach).
On December 4, 2011 Nebraska was whistled for a personal foul, a technical foul on a player, and a technical foul on their head coach…all on the same play. The Huskers had been trailing the Jays 46-45 in a back-and-forth game played at their pace; by the time Doug McDermott and Grant Gibbs combined to make five of six free throws, the Jays led 51-45, the home crowd had been whipped into a frenzy, Creighton was able to ride the momentum to push the pace faster, and the outcome was never in doubt again.
The Bottom Line:
Just eight games into the season, Creighton’s 5-3 record — and the Big East’s underwhelming resume as a conference — leaves them very little runway left. With games against Kansas and Alabama in the next week, the Jays really need to do their March selves a favor by winning at least one of those games.
Vegas favors Kansas by 3.5, and ESPN’s BPI gives the Jayhawks 61.0% odds of victory. KenPom predicts a five-point Kansas win.
If Kalkbrenner plays, I think Creighton wins a squeaker 73-70. If not, Kansas wins 75-67.