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Pregame Primer: Kalkbrenner, Ashworth, Neal and Osmani Set for Senior Night Against Butler

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Ryan Kalkbrenner began his career in 2020-21 as a supporting player on a team of veterans — Marcus Zegarowski, Damien Jefferson, Denzel Mahoney, Christian Bishop, and Mitch Ballock were the starting five on a team that advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1973-74. The next wave of Jays — Ryan Nembhard, Arthur Kaluma, Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman — took them to the Elite 8. And after Nembhard and Kaluma departed, Steven Ashworth came in and the Jays went to another Sweet 16.

Along the way, they beat six Top 10 teams, including victories over No. 1 UConn last year and No. 1 Kansas this year. Creighton has also spent 51-of-94 weeks in the Top 25 of the AP poll, including 16 weeks in the Top 10. The Bluejays are 115-53 (.685) since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, tied for the nation’s 21st-most victories. Its 68 Big East wins in league play over the past five years lead the league.

The one constant in all that success has been Kalkbrenner. He changed the identity of the program almost by himself, with his elite defense and rim protection serving as the foundation for the best defensive units of McDermott’s tenure at CU. Their defense ranked 58th, 83rd, and 78th in adjusted defensive efficiency the three years before his arrival; they’ve ranked 32nd, 19th, 14th, 24th and 36th in his five seasons.

Ryan Kalkbrenner, One of Creighton’s All-Time Greats, Set for his Final Curtain Call in Omaha

He’ll take his final curtain call in Omaha on Saturday on what promises to be a memorable, emotional night. But he’s not alone.

Ashworth has been a Bluejay for two years, and while he was a complimentary piece a year ago on a team with Alexander and Scheierman, he’s become irreplaceable this year — especially after the loss of Pop Isaacs to a season-ending injury in early December. Ashworth has played 92.4% of the available minutes in Big East play, and increased his effective field goal percentage (from 52.4 to 53.3), assist rate (from 22.3 to 36.5, which ranks 22nd best in D1), and three-point shooting percentage (from 34.9% to 37.5%) while drawing more fouls (from 2.8 per 40 minutes to 4.1 this year) and increasing his free throw percentage (from 90.7% to 93.7%).

His bank-shot game-winner from the corner with five seconds left to beat Villanova is likely to be his most famous shot as a Bluejay (depending on what happens in March).

But he’s proven a worthy successor to the Jays’ legacy of logo three-pointers, picking up where Ethan Wragge, Mitch Ballock and Baylor Scheierman left off. His threes against #1 UConn last February are legendary.

This year, he’s orchestrated the offense and perfected the lob pass to Kalkbrenner — something they missed last year after Nembhard’s departure.

“Kalkbrenner’s awesome,” Marquette’s Shaka Smart said after their loss to the Jays in Omaha last month. “I’ll be sending him a graduation present when he finally leaves. But Ashworth makes Kalkbrenner so much better with his passing and with his cutting and his ability to use ball screens, because what happens is he gets you behind, and then now Kalkbrenner’s sprinting to the rim. He already was bigger than the guy we had on him, but now if we end up having to switch because we’re behind on Ashworth, now he’s even bigger…So Ashworth, to me, was the MVP of the game because he orchestrates their offense.”

It’s a sentiment other coaches (and their own) have echoed: the two players complement each other so well.

“We’ve got kind of the gentle giant that doesn’t say much, then the little point guard that doesn’t shut up,” McDermott joked on Friday. “They’ve been perfect for each other.”

Jamiya Neal has played just 30 games in a Bluejay uniform, but the transformation from the player he was in the Purdue exhibition back in October through now is stunning. Neal has improved as a shooter in Creighton’s offense by being more efficient and choosing better shots for himself. 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 24.1, and he’s averaging 4.2 assists per game.

That transformation has shown itself in multiple ways over the last week. Against Georgetown, their offense was flat early in the game until Neal sparked a comeback with five straight points. One of them came on this crazy shot where he spun multiple times to create space before throwing up a fallaway jumper.

But it was his defense on Micah Peavy that made the biggest impact. Peavy was coming off of a 30-point performance in a win over Providence, and scored 18 points in the first 12 minutes of Sunday’s game. He made 7-of-9 from the floor to start, including 4-of-5 from three.

Then McDermott made an adjustment, switching Neal onto him. And Peavy made just one more shot the rest of the game, a layup with four minutes left in the game after the outcome was more or less decided. In between he missed 10 consecutive shots — after 18 points in 12 minutes, he finished with 20 in 40 minutes; after starting 7-of-9 from the field, he went 1-of-11 to finish it, ending with a 8-of-21 line.

The defensive impact continued Tuesday in Newark. Neal held Seton Hall’s best player, Isaiah Coleman, to 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting while Neal was in the game chasing him around. That alone would have been enough — but though he only took one shot in 38 minutes, he had four points, five rebounds, six assists, and two steals.

“We wanted to try to take Coleman out of it, and I thought it was the best defensive game Jamiya Neal has played in a Creighton uniform,” McDermott said afterward. “He was incredible. He was beating him to spots the entire game and without having a field goal, he had his fingerprints all over the ball movement on the offensive end and taking care of the basketball. [I’m] really proud of him.”

The fourth senior is walk-on Sami Osmani, who has been an invaluable member of the scout team during this run of success. He’s gotten into seven games this year, and scored his lone basket in the home win over DePaul.

“Senior Days are different than they used to be because of the amount of movement in college basketball,” McDermott noted. “But the four guys that are gonna be out there tomorrow night have impacted our program in a huge way.”

The opponent for their final home game is Butler, who comes in with a 13-17 record and not a lot to play for other than pride. They’re 6-13 in the Big East, and 2-7 on the road with the two wins coming against the two worst teams in the standings (DePaul and Seton Hall). But they have plenty of pride, and have been extremely competitive down the stretch.

“We’ll need our A-game,” McDermott said on Friday. “They’ve been very competitive except for the Xavier game, and Xavier’s kind of doing that to everybody lately.”

Butler is coming off a 91-78 loss to Xavier on their own Senior Night. They boast a top-50 KenPom offense in adjusted efficiency (46th) and 3-point shooting (38th), and matched their season-high with 12 made three-pointers against Xavier. Butler has made 10 or more three-pointers in three of the team’s last four games after making 10 or more only six times in the first 26 games of the season.

Their Big Three are Jahmyl Telfort, Pierre Brooks II and Patrick McCaffery; the trio takes 58.5% of Butler’s total field goal attempts. During Big East games, they’re averaging a combined 45 points per game in Butler’s six wins and 39.5 per game in Butler’s 13 defeats. They scored 44 against the Jays in the first meeting. McCaffery scored 21 in that game on 4-of-6 shooting inside the arc and 3-of-7 from three. Brooks added 14 on 7-of-10 from two-point range, and Telfort had nine. But Finley Bizjack and Boden Kapke combined for 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting off the bench.

Butler’s interior defense has been a big weakness. 7’1” Andre Screen and 6’11” Boden Kapke split time at the ‘5’, and they had no answer for Kalkbrenner in the first matchup. He scored 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting, including making 3-of-5 from three-point range. He also had nine rebounds, six blocks and three steals, scoring in transition by beating Butler’s bigs down the floor, in the post by beating Butler’s bigs for position, and from the perimeter when they dared him to beat them from somewhere else. Oh, and like this: taking the ball at the top of the circle and dribbling four times on his way to the rim for a dunk.

His second half was spectacular, with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, seven rebounds, five blocks and a steal while playing the entire 20 minutes. And while his defense the entire half was great, it was a pair of huge plays in the final minute that helped seal the win — blocking a layup by Brooks, and closing out hard on a McCaffery corner three to force a miss.

Xavier’s Zach Freemantle called out those interior defensive problems after the game. “We talked about that all week. No offense to Butler, but they are 11th in the Big East out of 11 teams in terms of protecting the rim and shot blocks,” Freemantle said. “It was a big gameplan to go inside.”

That could be a recipe for a huge home finale for Kalkbrenner.

With a win, Creighton assures themselves of the two-seed in the Big East Tournament, where they’d play the winner of Georgetown-DePaul in the quarterfinals. If they lose, they would end up as the three-seed (playing) the winner of Villanova-Seton Hall.

https://twitter.com/mjhackman/status/1897515402785067032

  • Tip: 5:00pm
    • Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
  • TV: FS1
    • Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe
    • In Omaha: Cox channel 78 (SD), 1078 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 620 (SD), 1620 (HD)
    • Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
    • Satellite: DirecTV channel 219, Dish Network channel 150
    • Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
    • Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
  • Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
    • Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
    • Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
    • Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 385 as well as on the SiriusXM App

The Bulldogs average 16.1 made free throws per game, which is 48th nationally. 21.6% of their total points have come from the line. CU’s defense did what they do best in the first game — defend without fouling — committing just nine fouls. That meant Butler attempted only 12 free throws, half of their average. They made eight. It left them with 10 points to make up for from somewhere else, and they didn’t get it.

Finley Bizjack is shooting 32-for-68 (47 percent) from three-point range over the last 12 games; he is averaging 14.5 points per game during that stretch, scoring in double figures in 10 of the 12 games.

In Big East games only, Butler offensively ranks second in both points scored (75.0 points per game) and field goal percentage (making 46.6 percent of attempts from the field). On the defensive end, Butler’s three-point percentage defense ranks second in the conference as Bulldog opponents are hitting only 31.4 percent of their attempts from behind the arc.

With a win, Creighton would win its 15th Big East game, setting a team-record in its 12 seasons in that league, and equaling their most-ever wins in any league — the 2002-03 squad finished 15-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Creighton would also set or tie program records for most conference wins in a one-year span (15), two-year span (29), thee-year span (43), four-year span (55), five-year span (69), six-year span (82) and seven-year span (91).

Creighton can win its ninth Big East home game of the season, tying the program-high done when the 2013-14 squad went undefeated (9-0) in league home games as well as the 2022-23 team that was 9-1 at home.

Creighton is 26-3 in the last 29 years in its final home game of the regular-season, losing only in 2002 to Drake (when it had no seniors), in 2015 in the final seconds to Xavier, and in 2022 to Seton Hall by five points.

Creighton is 19-12 all-time vs. Butler in a series that dates to a 27-22 Bluejay win in 1933. The home team has won 11 of the last 15 meetings not played on a neutral site. Creighton is 11-3 all-time in Omaha against the Bulldogs, including a 9-2 mark since the schools became Big East rivals.

The Jays won the first meeting 80-76 in early January, led by Ryan Kalkbrenner’s 26 points, nine rebounds, six blocks and three steals.

On March 8, 2014 — 11 years ago, if you can believe that — another group of Bluejay seniors took their final bows at home.

How do you pick a favorite moment on a night like this? Memories were being made everywhere from the moment the players came out onto the court for warmups. There was Warren Buffett, festooned with Bluejay temporary tattoos on his face, having a one-on-one discussion with Doug McDermott during shootaround. There was the standing ovation as the Creighton players left the court after shootaround, a louder noise 30 minutes before the game than you used to hear during actual games seven or eight years ago. There was “Oh Canada” being played before the US national anthem, as an obviously touched Jahenns Manigat sang along, choking back both tears and a giant grin. There was public address announcer Jake Ryan introducing Manigat as “The Canadian Red Bull” and Ethan Wragge as “The Lumberjack” and Doug McDermott as…something inaudible, as the roar of the largest crowd to witness any event ever at CenturyLink was so loud no one could hear anything.

And that was before the ball was even tipped.

Once the game started, the memories kept coming. Ethan Wragge’s final three-pointer at home, fittingly a long-range three from in front of the visiting bench. Jahenns Manigat playing the most inspired defense of his career, holding the Big East’s second-leading scorer Bryce Cotton to just three shots and no points in the first half. Doug McDermott’s breakaway slam dunk early in the second half. The roar every time the scoreboard showed an industrious fan who had made a sign with updated point totals tracking Doug’s distance from 3,000 points. The anticipatory roar when that sign was shown during a timeout and “2,998” was next to Doug’s name. Doug surpassing 3,000 points on an absurd step-back three-pointer from 28 feet, holding up three fingers as he ran down court to the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in a sporting venue. The timeout after the next possession when the standing ovation was still continuing, oblivious to the action on the court, so that Coach Mac — Dad — could give Doug — his son — a hug. A determined Doug coming back into the game, intent on setting the arena scoring record, then ratting off nine more points to come within a whisker of breaking Colt Ryan’s record. The crowd singing “Sweet Caroline”, serenading Doug with an acapella version while he shot free throws. A having-the-time-of-his-life Doug yelling to radio analyst Nick Bahe in the middle of the next possession “Here comes Dakota!”, telling him that they were about to run a play they’d executed countless times over the last four years.

The curtain calls. My goodness, the curtain calls. One by one, Greg McDermott subbed out his seniors, getting each of them their own well-earned final standing ovation from the 18,800 fans in attendance, none of whom had departed early. Wragge, the final player on the roster not recruited by Coach Mac, getting a long, emotional hug from his head coach. Manigat getting down on his hands and knees to kiss the Bluejay logo at center court before leaving it for the last time. Gibbs following suit. McDermott exiting for the final time as grown men openly wept. The speeches after the game, with four well-spoken young men articulating so well what Creighton has meant to their lives and how thankful they are to everyone that helped them along the way.

Favorite moment? Can the entire night be a favorite moment?

The Bottom Line:

KenPom favors the Jays by eight; there was no Vegas line as of the time we published. ESPN’s BPI gives the Jays 82.9% odds of victory.

Creighton 81, Butler 71

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