By Aidan Joly
The 2019-20 season was supposed to be the best season during the tenure of Greg McDermott at Creighton, what would have been its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance after a 24-7 season that saw it share the Big East regular season title with Villanova. The 24 wins were the most for the program since 2016-17.
Despite the loss of star guard Ty-Shon Alexander, this year’s squad has a chance to be even better.
Even without the do-it-all guard, the Bluejays still boast one of the best backcourts in the Big East, and possibly one of the best in the country. That charge is led by Big East Player of the Year candidate Marcus Zegarowski, alongside Mitch Ballock.
Zegarowski had a fantastic sophomore season that saw him average 16.1 points and 5.0 assists per game, while shooting 42.4% from behind the three-point line. He flirted with the idea of entering the NBA, but decided to come back for another season. Without Alexander to give points to, Zegarowski will have an even larger role and is destined to be one of the best players in the country this season.
Ballock is great, as well. As a junior last year, he averaged 11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 36 minutes per contest. He shot 43.5% from three, making this backcourt one of the best in the country in outside shooting.
The last spot in the backcourt still has to be decided, between 6-5 swingman Denzel Mahoney and 6-6 combo Antwann Jones. Mahoney averaged 12.0 points per game in 22.5 minutes. He fits McDermott’s style of up-tempo basketball but sometimes takes bad shots, which may make him more fit to play on the bench. Jones, meanwhile, is now eligible following sitting last year after transferring in from Memphis, where he averaged 4.7 points and 3.0 rebounds as a freshman two years ago. Considering Mahoney’s sometimes unpredictable decisions, I’d give the edge to Jones here but they will be sharing time.
Zegarowski and Ballock will get the bulk of the playing time for guards. Off the bench though, you have sophomore Shereef Mitchell and freshman Rati Andronikashvili. They will be able to play in short bursts when the two big names need a quick break.
In the frontcourt, the two starting roles will be occupied by Damien Jefferson and Christian Bishop. Jefferson averaged 9.4 points and 5.5 rebounds in just over 27 minutes per game, while Bishop had 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds. Neither of them are that big, with Bishop being the taller of the pair at 6-7, but McDermott’s teams tend to play small. Both of them figure to see a small offensive boost this year.
When they do need someone big in the middle, they can look to 6-11 bruiser Jacob Epperson off the bench. Epperson has had an injury-plagued career that only allowed him to play in 21 games over the past three years, but his length will be needed in some situations that can make him am important role player. That’s if he can stay healthy, of course.
The rest of the minutes will be battled for between a pair of freshmen. Another 6-11 forward in Ryan Kalkbrenner will be able to add some rim protection. In addition, 6-9 Lithuanian forward Modestas Kancleris will get some playing time as well.
As for how the season will look, they have a deep nonconference schedule and it should be easy for them to get to the 13-game minimum on top of the Big East schedule. They figure to be Villanova’s top competition for the Big East title and a top-10 team nationally. They will be a shoe-in NCAA Tournament team, but now is the time for them to take advantage of that opportunity and make a deep tournament run. They could have done that last year, but COVID had other plans. They have the talent to be a second-weekend team, and that goal is certainly attainable.
AJ Hoops 