Ryan Kalkbrenner didn’t leave fans waiting — and worrying — for long.
On May 1, after briefly testing the NBA draft, Kalkbrenner announced that he would be returning to Creighton for one last dance… and the city of Omaha could exhale. The big man was not done yet, and so neither were the Bluejays.
This year’s team will look a lot different than the team that went 25-10 and finished second in the Big East last season. Gone are Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman, who accounted for nearly half of Creighton’s points per game. But Kalkbrenner is among the best two-way players in college basketball and coming off the most productive summer of his career. The fifth-year senior withdrew his name from the NBA draft a month earlier than he did in 2023 so that he would have more time to focus on improving his game. It was the first offseason that he wasn’t either rehabbing or busy with other obligations. Instead, Kalkbrenner spent a full three months in the gym and in the weight room — and the results are apparently striking.
“You see changes in his body that are positive,” head coach Greg McDermott tells Hoops HQ. “I think he’s added significant upper body strength. His conditioning is as good as it’s ever been. And the three-point shot is part of his arsenal now, so he’s got the green light to shoot those, much like he did at the end of last year. But I think you’ll see him take a few more of those this season. He spent the time on it and I’m confident in his ability to knock those down.”
“This offseason is the most I’ve ever seen him shoot,” adds junior forward Mason Miller. “He’s been in the gym after every single practice getting shots up.”
The 7-1 Kalkbrenner adding a reliable three-point shot feels like an unfair advantage. He averaged 17.3 points per game last year with most of his buckets coming deep inside the paint. If he can take his offense to another level this season, Kalkbrenner could very well end up winning the Wooden Award — because he is already the most dominant defensive player in the country.
No one protects the rim better than Kalkbrenner, who somehow manages to stifle opponents and stay out of foul trouble. He has never fouled out in his collegiate career and didn’t have a single game with more than three fouls all of last season. Kalkbrenner has been named Big East Defensive Player of the Year three times — a feat only Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning have achieved — and is now stronger than ever before.
“Having him there, knowing that if we do get blown by we’ll have someone like Ryan in the middle to clean all that up, it just makes our job a lot easier,” Miller tells Hoops HQ. “We can run people off the line. We can have a lot more help in the gaps since if our man’s open we can at least stunt a lot better. It just helps everything, really.”
Since joining the starting lineup in 2022-23, Kalkbrenner has averaged 2.6 blocks per game —and Creighton has had a top 25 defense every year.
But one man can’t do it alone. Despite losing their two leading scorers, the Bluejays have built another loaded roster around Kalkbrenner. The team is experienced, balanced and deep, opening the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25. If all goes well, Creighton has the potential to dethrone UConn in the Big East and make another long run in the NCAA Tournament.
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The Purdue coach loves books. He also wins a lot. Not a coincidence.Point guard Steven Ashworth is back to orchestrate the offense. McDermott likes his teams to push the pace and hunt threes; Ashworth excels at both. He is the engine of Creighton’s attack — a career 39 percent shooter from behind the arc and an excellent passer. Expect the fifth-year senior to take a major leap in his second year with the program.
Mason Miller, son of former NBA player Mike Miller, is also an ideal fit in McDermott’s system. He started at the four last season and led the entire Big East in three-point percentage (45 percent), providing more space for Kalkbrenner down low.
To fill the open spots left by Alexander and Scheierman, Creighton signed two veteran transfers. Junior guard Pop Isaacs comes over from Texas Tech, where he averaged 15.8 points per game on 35 percent shooting from the field and 29 percent from three in 2023-24. Concerns about his inefficiency have diminished since he arrived in Omaha.
“His efficiency, at least so far in practice, has been really, really good,” McDermott says. “I think he’s learning where the shots are coming from in our system. That’s different from what he experienced at Texas Tech.”
In the team’s charity exhibition game against Purdue, Isaacs had 24 points — including four threes — and six assists to help lead Creighton to victory. He will have to shoot significantly better than he did last year for this team to be successful, but McDermott is confident in his ability to do so, especially as he gets more comfortable in the system.
Jamiya Neal, a 6-6 transfer from Arizona State, is the other addition to the starting five. Creighton is also betting on Neal, who averaged 11 points per game but shot just 28 percent from three in 2023-24, to be more efficient. The senior forward brings a lot of athleticism and versatility to the Bluejays. Coaches have been impressed with his ability to create his own offense, particularly in end-of-shot-clock situations.
“He’s got enough wiggle in his game that he’s able to get to a spot and get a shot,” says McDermott. “He’s learning our system and the speed of our system, but obviously he’s incredibly fast.”
To compensate for the departure of two high-level scorers, Creighton plans to push the pace even more. The team has better speed with Neal and Isaacs and can find more easy opportunities in transition. It will be a “by committee” approach to replacing Alexander and Scheierman, and McDermott believes this group has enough firepower and shooting to keep the offense humming.
“We have a little different style of play this year. Having Jamiya and Pop in the lineup, we’re a little smaller, but we’re a little quicker,” Miller explains. “We’ll be able to get to the corners quicker with them, and then we’ll open up the floor for Kalk in the middle.”
Since the lineup is smaller, and Alexander and Scheierman combined to average 14.7 rebounds per game in 2023-24, there has been a big emphasis on boxing out. Starting with Kalkbrenner, everyone must contribute more on the glass.
For a team that lost two NBA talents, depth will be a huge factor. Returners Jasen Green, Isaac Traudt, Sterling Knox and Frederick King have all made strides, according to McDermott. Shane Thomas, a walk-on guard from Las Vegas, has earned some rotational minutes as well. The Bluejays have a talented freshman class, headlined by forward Jackson McAndrew, the program’s most highly-regarded recruit in the McDermott era. It is too early to tell what, if any, roles the newcomers — McAndrew and guards Larry Johnson and Ty Davis — will play this year, “but I think before it’s all said and done, a couple of them will be on the floor,” McDermott says.
The possible X factor is 21-year-old Montenegrin Fedor Žugić, who was playing for the German club BG Goettingen before signing with Creighton in August. Žugić, a 6-6 wing, has been a professional in Europe since 2019. At the 2022 FIBA U20 European Championships, he averaged 18 points to lead Montenegro to a bronze medal.
“The overseas play style — he has that exact style,” Miller says. “That slow ball to a mid-range jump shot is really smooth. He has that off-the-ball-screen three ball. And then he has that fadeaway in the middle of the paint. He has the tools to be a really good player — kind of like a Baylor Scheierman, how he played in the paint and how he made shots.”
Žugić has not yet been ruled eligible by the NCAA. “We’re hopeful that we can get something resolved, but that’s in the NCAA’s hands,” McDermott says. “His family and their attorneys are working closely with the NCAA to try to get it resolved.”
Whether Žugić is cleared or not, the fate of the 2024-25 Bluejays rests primarily on Kalkbrenner’s shoulders. McDermott sees defense as the number one key for this team, and Kalkbrenner is the defensive anchor. The strategy on that end will stay largely the same, with others — in particular Neal — needing to step up.
“The reality of it is, if we’re going to get where we’d like to go, defense is where we have to hang our hat,” says McDermott. “We’ve been in the top 25 in defense the last few years, and we’re going to have to repeat that if we expect to reach our goals.”
With Kalkbrenner back, that seems almost inevitable. Ultimately, this team will go as far as the big man takes it. He has already lifted Creighton to new heights, helping the program reach its first-ever Elite Eight in 2023. A trip to San Antonio would be the perfect ending.
