No. 23 Creighton officially will begin life after Ryan Kalkbrenner on Wednesday when it hosts South Dakota in the team’s season opener in Omaha, Neb.
Replacing Kalkbrenner, a four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, wasn’t the only assignment for head coach Greg McDermott. He also saw the departures of Steven Ashworth, Pop Isaacs and Jamiya Neal from a team that recorded 25 wins for the second season in a row and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the fifth consecutive year.
The cupboard is far from bare, however. Creighton, which was picked to finish third in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll, likely will rely heavily on Iowa transfers Owen Freeman and Josh Dix, Charlotte transfer Nik Graves and sophomore Jackson McAndrew this season.
Freeman, a forward, was selected to the preseason All-Big East first team after averaging 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds last season with the Hawkeyes. Although he’s been battling a knee injury since last season at Iowa, Freeman returned to the court on Saturday and scored six points in 13 minutes during a 76-64 exhibition win over Colorado State.
“This is just the next step for him just to put the uniform on and get some of those jitters out,” McDermott said. “To his point, he hasn’t played in a game since January. He’s not anywhere near where he is going to be at some point, but that’s also going to be a process. You’re not going to see the Owen Freeman that played in Iowa until maybe until January or February just because it’s a long road back. But there are things that he brings to the table that are going to be valuable for us.”
Dix was named to the conference’s second team and is on the preseason watchlist for the Jerry West Award, given to the nation’s top shooting guard. He shot at least 42% from 3-point range in each of the last two seasons with Iowa.
Graves made three 3-pointers versus the Rams and finished with a team-high 15 points. He joins McAndrew in being tabbed for the conference’s third team. McAndrew is Creighton’s top returning scorer and rebounder from a season ago.
South Dakota opened its season with an 81-79 overtime setback to Utah Tech on Monday in Vermillion, S.D.
Summit League preseason first-team selection Isaac Bruns scored 17 of his career-high-tying 23 points in the second half. He is the league’s top returning scorer after averaging 14.6 points per game in 2024-25.
Evan Anderson scored 10 points off the bench and Vince Buzelis added eight to go along with 11 rebounds for the Coyotes (0-1), who were picked to finish fifth in the Summit League preseason coaches’ poll.
“The press in Year 2 is going to get better. (The players), they’re in better shape,” South Dakota head coach Eric Petersen said, per The Daily Republic. “I would say our press is much better, and we were able to fix situations much quicker, which was our issue last year.”
–Field Level Media
