Grading Creighton For The 2014-15 Season

Ever since Gonzaga burst onto the scene as one of college basketball’s mid-major darlings in the late 1990s, various small programs from around the country have hoped to join the club of respected, non-Power 5 programs.

At one time, the Creighton Blue Jays found themselves right in the thick of such discussions. Those days seem long past in Omaha these days however as coach Greg McDermott’s team has made a largely seamless transition from the Missouri Valley Conference into the Big East within the past few years.

How did the Blue Jays fare in 2014-15? Considering the massive personnel losses Creighton endured from their magical 27-8 campaign of 2013-14, the Blue Jays’ 14-19 record is a bit misleading. Between Doug McDermott, Ethan Wragge, Grant Gibbs and Jahenns Manigat, Creighton had to replace nearly 50 points and 16 rebounds per game.

Starters:

When a team loses four of five starters, there are going to be bumps in the road. And Creighton found that out first hand by dropping nine straight games between Dec.21 and Jan. 25. As a team, The Blue Jays had 10 players start at least seven games in 2014-15, meaning their lineup was in a constant state of flux.

Of those 10 players, five were seniors with only Austin Chatman starting all 33 games. Chatman, the lone holdover starter from their 27-win team of 2013-14, emerged as the team’s leading scorer at 11.5 points per contest.

From there, balance was the name of the game as the Blue Jays had seven players average between 5.4 and 9.6 points per outing. In other words, Creighton lacked a dominant offensive presence and instead relied on an offense-by-committee approach.

As a team, the Blue Jays shot just 42 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from three-point range, numbers that will certainly need to improve in 2015-16. But the 2014-15 season wasn’t simply about wins and losses for Creighton. Rather, the Blue Jays’ focus was on building for the future and Creighton’s younger players figure to benefit from it in coming years.

More from Busting Brackets

During the 2014-15 season, James Milliken, Isaiah Zierden, Toby Hegner, Geoffrey Groselle, and Zach Hanson – all of whom figure to return for 2015-16 – combined to average 157.1 minutes per game. In 2013-14, they only played an average of 19.3 minutes per outing.

While there were plenty of struggles for that young group, the Blue Jays ultimately laid down the ground work for better days ahead. Any evaluation of Creighton’s starters should take such circumstances into account.

Grade: B

Bench:

With their starting lineup constantly changing, the Blue Jays’ bench was a bench in name only. Without a set group of five starters, Creighton spent a great deal of time tweaking things while searching for the right combinations. Circumstances being what they were, the Blue Jays’ reserves grade out similarly to their starters since the two were virtually interchangeable for the majority of the season.

Grade: B

Coaching:

Gregg McDermott undoubtedly realized the severe challenges his team faced heading into 2014-15. It would have taken a minor miracle for Creighton to continue piling up wins considering the vast personnel changes the program needed to navigate from 2013-14. To McDermott’s credit, he remained patient and allowed his players to succeed, fail, and therefore learn from this season. Hopefully, McDermott’s patience will pay big-time dividends in future years.

Grade: B

Final Team Grade: B

Next: Grading Villanova's 2014-15 Season

More from Busting Brackets

Home/Big East