Creighton Basketball: Bluejays land former Duke guard Alex O’Connell

Shortly after the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled, Former Duke Blue Devil Alex O’Connell announced he would be leaving the team. After a few weeks, O’Connell finally decided he was going to join another top program.

Alex O’Connell announced Wednesday afternoon he was committing to Creighton Basketball via his twitter page.

"First off, I’d like to thank each and every school that reached out to me and expressed interest during the recruitment process. It’s been an incredible experience. With that being said, I’ve decided to end my recruitment and officially commit to Creighton University. Thanks to Coach McDermott and his entire staff for believing in me and giving me this incredible opportunity-Alex O’Connell (@Alex_OC11) April 8th, 2020"

Alex O’Connell surprised a lot of people when he decided to join another hefty Duke recruiting class. According to 24/7 Sports, O’Connell was just the 101st rated player in the 2017 recruiting class which is typically pretty high for a Duke commit.

The 6’6 shooting guard was widely known as a sharpshooter in high school. For whatever reason O’Connell’s three-point percentage preceded to diminish every year at Duke. During his Junior season, O’Connell shot a lousy 27% from deep. O’Connell managed to put together a few good performances in his junior year. O’Connell five double-digit scoring games including a 14 point outing vs Brown to close out the non-conference schedule.

O’Connell will be joining a Creighton team coming off an excellent season. Creighton finished 7th in the AP poll and earned the one seed in the Big East tournament. Creighton will be returning all five starters from last year including guards Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski, who made up one of the best backcourts in the nation. Creighton finds themselves in the top 10 of virtually every “Way too early top 25.”

O’Connell’s has a chance to play this upcoming season if he can graduate this summer. If not he will have to sit out a year and wait til the 2021-2022 season. There are pros and cons to both situations. Supposing that O’Connell plays next season his role will be very similar to his at Duke. Coming off the bench on a Final Four hopeful team. Granted if O’Connell sits one he will be playing a bigger role on a team that is losing a ton of talent.

Whether O’Connell plays next season or decides its best to sit out and learn his new system, Creighton hopes that they can tap into all that potential talent.