2025 Big East Basketball Previews: Creighton Bluejays
The most accurate Creighton Bluejays preview written by a staff entrenched in Big East basketball.
Coach: Greg McDermott– 16th year here (350-171). Prev; Northern Iowa 2001-06 (90-63), Iowa State 2006-10 (59-68)
2024-25: 25-11 (15-5), 2nd Big East, second round NCAA Tournament
2025-26 Big East Rank: 3
Returning Starters/Players: 2/7
Returning Minutes (Torvik): 36.7%
*This series was inspired by fellow UConn Report writer Cole Stefan*
Creighton had earned a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament two times before Greg McDermott took over the program ahead of the 2010-11 season. That’s two bids in 65 years.
McDermott has 10 bids in 15 years — and he’s won at least one game on eight of those occasions. He’s also overseen 81% of the weeks that the program has been ranked in its history (119 of 146) and has guided it to its highest ranking (No. 7) in four separate seasons.
To ensure that the consistent success he’s attained doesn’t dry up in Omaha, McDermott hand-picked his successor this off season, Alan Huss (formerly of High Point), to take over after he retires. Consider it a final act of posterity to the program he’s steadily built into a Big East power the last decade and a half.
But McDermott has a team to coach this year, however, one that should again contend for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. It’s one that he reloaded using the transfer portal to make up for the loss of three starters and a band of depth at the end of the bench.
Off Season — Additions and Losses
No loss will have more magnitude for a team in the Big East than Ryan Kalkbrenner’s departure from Omaha after five seasons. Kalkbrenner was a linchpin on a pair of the best teams in Creighton history, helping the Jays to eight NCAA Tournament wins, racking up three All-Big East selections and four Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards in the process.
He’s gone, off to the NBA to play alongside Liam McNeeley for the Charlotte Hornets. Steven Ashworth and Jamiya Neal, two double-digit scorers who started a combined 71 games, are also gone, and with them over 61% of the team’s points from last season.
Rotational pieces Mason Miller (who started in 2023-24) and Frederick King are both off to Murray State after serving primarily as backups in 2024-25.
The team’s fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth overall scorers all return, headed by forward Jackson McAndrew, which gives the Jays a solid nucleus of experience to build around.
Replacing Ashworth and Neal in the backcourt are a pair of highly touted transfers in Nik Graves (Charlotte) and Josh Dix (Iowa).
Graves offers an athletic upside that the Jays didn’t have in Ashworth, while the smooth-shooting Dix brings tremendous three-point pedigree to the room.
Blake Harper will start on the wing after winning the MEAC Player of the Year award as a freshman at Howard. He averaged just shy of 20 points per game and shot above 40% from three.
Owen Freeman will take the place of Kalkbrenner in the low post. Freeman missed the final two months of his sophomore season but reached double-figures in all 19 games he played in.
Sophomore Austin Swartz was the final addition from the portal. The 6-foot-4 guard spent his freshman year at Miami and made seven starts in 29 appearances.
Top 60 prospect Hudson Greer was the Jays only ranked commitment and should make an immediate impact in the backcourt.
Ball Handlers
Ashworth’s ever-so-steady hand helped guide the Bluejays in 70 games the last two seasons. The fifth-year senior notoriously spaced out opposing defenses with deep range only to pick them apart with his conference-leading 6.8 assists per game possessions later.
His uber-consistent play will surely be missed, especially as the primary facilitator in the Bluejay backcourt.
The Jays do return a pair of depth pieces at the point in sophomore Ty Davis and redshirt sophomore Shane Thomas, two players who combined for 34 points and 300 minutes of game time last year. Davis started the lone game that Ashworth missed last season, recording two assists in an 18-point loss to San Diego State. They’ll stay depth pieces.
McDermott set his sights on high-profile transfer Nik Graves to replace Ashworth. Graves, who spent three years at Charlotte, averaged a gaudy 17.3 points per game last season and finished fifth in the AAC in scoring (577 points) and field goal attempts (403).
| YEAR | POINTS/GAME | FG ATTEMPTED/GAME | USAGE % |
| 2022-23 (Fr.) | 1.6 | 1.5 | 15.2 |
| 2023-24 (So.) | 10.4 | 6.7 | 18.6 |
| 2024-25 (Jr.) | 17.5 | 12.3 | 26.5 |
He instantly upgrades the athleticism of the room, which had plateaued the last two seasons following the departure of Ryan Nembhard to Gonzaga. He’s a confident shooter, evident from his 12.3 field goals attempted per game last year, that has become surer handed each of the last three seasons.
How he adapts to being tasked with more facilitating duties and not a primary scoring role could determine the ceiling of the Bluejay offense.
Other Guards
McDermott was tasked with replacing a double-digit scorer at the two for a third consecutive off season after Jamiya Neal exhausted his eligibility this spring.
Neal’s high-flying playstyle will be replaced by the steady shooting of Josh Dix, who arrives in Omaha after three years at Iowa under Fran McCaffery. Much like Graves, Dix has elevated in scoring and playing time each season, reaching north of 32 minutes and 14 points per game last year for the Hawkeyes.
The true senior is revered for his three ball, which he hit 65 times at a mark of 42.2% last season (good for the 94th percentile nationally). Dix drained multiple three pointers in 20 games, including a 7/10 showing in a Big Ten win over Nebraska in January.
He’s also well-respected defender at 6-foot-5, 190 pounds that routinely guarded the opponent’s best scorer in man last season.
He’ll be spelled by four-star freshman Hudson Greer and former blue-chip recruit and Miami transfer Austin Swartz off the bench.
Greer is the second four star to commit to Creighton in as many years (McAndrew) and is the highest rated recruit to ever commit to the Jays out of high school. He’ll add even more shooting touch to the backcourt and a nice driving game that he predicates on his explosive first step.
Swartz started seven games and appeared in 24 others for Miami last year, reaching double-figures on five occasions and shooting 54% from two point range. He struggled to consistently hit on the three pointer, which curved his overall field goal percentage to 37.7%.
Wings/Forwards
The Jays are slated to be one the tallest teams in the Big East, mostly in part to the positionless Blake Harper and mammoth sized Jackson McAndrew, who stand at 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-10, respectively.
The scarier part? Both starting wings shot the three ball above 35% and started over 30 games each last season – as freshmen.
Harper spent his first season at Howard, where he won both MEAC Rookie and Player of the Year awards, led the conference with 19.5 points per game and shot the triple at an alarming 40.4% accuracy.
McAndrew was inserted into the starting lineup in late November of last year, going for 12 points and 14 rebounds in his first career start. He glided along the perimeter for the most part, attempting over 80% of his field goals from behind the arc.
McDermott is expecting a big jump from McAndrew this season, especially after the All-Big East Freshman selection put on 15 pounds of muscle to entrench himself in the four spot.
Depth will be provided by Jasen Green and Fedor Zugic, who both saw meaningful run last season and return as vital bench pieces.
Green surrendered his starting role from last season to Harper but chose to stay in Omaha, perhaps a testament to the culture that McDermott has built throughout his tenure. The burly forward has appeared in 61 career games and brings a needed defensive presence to the frontcourt.
Zugic will stretch the floor on the wing, much like Harper and McAndrew, with a 40% mark from three last season to show for it. Zugic dealt with eligibility issues and was barred by the NCAA for the first 12 games of last season.
Post Players
Replacing Kalkbrenner’s impact as a defensive anchor and off-court leader is impossible.
But Owen Freeman will try. The second of two Iowa transfers grabbed by McDermott this off season takes on the challenge of replacing over 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocks per night as the Jays’ primary post scorer in 2025-26.
It’ll start with getting healthy. Freeman missed the final two months of his sophomore campaign after injuring his finger before undergoing another procedure over the summer to fix damage to his meniscus.
As a true sophomore last season, Freeman averaged the second most points per game among Big Ten centers (16.7) and scored in double-figures in all 19 games he appeared in. He’s a confident – and effective – shooter that can run the floor in transition and facilitate down low.
Six-foot-ten Isaac Traudt could see some run at center. The third-year Bluejay spent most of his time last season at the four, respected for his floor-spacing 38.4% mark from deep and 11 games with multiple three pointers hit.
He’ll need to shore up on the boards for that to become consistent, evident from his 4.4% offensive rebound rate and seventh percentile 0.8 paint points per game.
A trio of inexperienced bigs flank Freeman and Traudt. Aleksa Dimitrijevic and Kerem Konan were late summer imports from Serbia and Turkey, respectively. Six-foot-10 Josh Townley-Thomas appeared in 10 games last year.
Playstyle
Twelve of McDermott’s offenses at Creighton have finished inside the top 50 of KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric. They’ve finished inside the top 10 of two-point shooting percentage 10 times, including a second and third place finish the last two seasons, respectively.
How the unit adjusts to life without Kalkbrenner down low (who bolstered those numbers significantly each of the last five seasons) will be telling of the unit’s ceiling.
Expect the Bluejays to be especially potent from deep. Three players, including two of its starting guards, are career 40% shooters from behind the arc, while only two others shot below 30% last season.
Kalkbrenner was more than a field goal percentage booster, however. He finished his career as one of two players to win the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award four different times, anchoring a surly Bluejay post defense that ranked 39th in blocks per game (4.5).
They’ll need to create more turnovers defensively in his absence; Creighton ranked 361st nationally in turnovers forced per game last year (7.9).
2025 Projection
McDermott has built Creighton into a perpetual contender in the Big East, winning 20 or more games in 14 of his 15 seasons in Omaha.
He refurbished the starting lineup using the transfer portal and welcomed back three vital depth pieces to round out the roster, forming what should be one of the best shooting teams in the conference from behind the arc.
How the Bluejays fair defensively will depend on how Freeman and Co. fill the mammoth-sized hole left by Kalkbrenner down low.
Our call: Between 23 and 25 wins, a trip to the Big East Semi Finals and a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
