Creighton Basketball: 2017-18 season preview for the Bluejays
By Bryan Mauro
Creighton basketball has consistently been one of the premier teams in the Big East since joining the conference back in 2014. What is to be expected this year?
Coach Greg McDermott has been very solid in his time with the program, especially when his son Doug was on the team. They have made the NCAA Tournament several times, but they are yet to make a deep run.
Creighton loves to take and make threes, which makes them a matchup nightmare for most teams they play. The BlueJays will be going into the 2017-18 season looking to replace two key pieces from last year’s team in Justin Patton and Maurice Watson Jr.
The Bluejays are backed by an exceptional recruiting class that looks poised to make a deep run into March. They are adding one key transfer and have an older core, which should help the team as they reach conference play. Villanova is still the class of this league, but Creighton will be competing with a myriad of other teams for the second through six slots in the conference. A loaded roster should help that.
Projected Starters
Marcus Foster
Foster showed the country why he was one of the premier transfer targets in 2015. Foster and recently graduated Maurice Watson Jr. composed one of the premier backcourts in the country. Foster is going to get the keys to the Creighton offense this year, and he will do just fine with that. Foster is a premier scorer as an off-ball guard and should improve upon his career-best 18 points per game a season ago. If Foster continues to play at an extremely high level, like he did last year, Creighton should be just fine offensively.
Khyri Thomas
Thomas is a three-year starter for the Bluejays. The Omaha product has gotten better each year. This year should be his biggest leap. Not only can Thomas score the ball, but he is coming into the year as the reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year. Thomas is a coach’s dream as he never has to come off the floor. Thomas has one more facet of his game that makes him one of the premier players in the Big East. He is a good passer and finished in the top-10 in the Big East with 3.5 assists per game. Thomas is irreplaceable to Creighton and if anything happens to Thomas over the course of the season, it may be devastating to the Bluejays season.
Kaleb Joseph
Joseph is a Syracuse transfer who took the redshirt year to learn the Creighton system and become a better player. Joseph was already one of the Orange’s best players before he decided to transfer. Joseph is a good passer and it seems that Creighton is going to have a boatload of riches on the offensive end of the floor. They have numerous guys who can score the ball, many guys who can pass, and lots of rebounding. Creighton is also a team who seems to thrive when they are playing positionless basketball. Joseph will enable Creighton to spread the floor against anyone and give coach Greg McDermott the confidence to give the ball to anyone.
Davion Mintz
Mintz was able to get quality minutes last year when Maurice Watson Jr. was lost for the year and he should see some quality minutes this year as well. Mintz did not score much last year, as most of the scoring burden was placed on other players, and that will likely remain the same. Mintz is a good shooter from deep and Creighton values the guys who don’t turn the ball over and can shoot.
Toby Hegner
Hegner is finally able to start after three successful years in the Creighton program. Hegner can be an interesting shooter for a big ma. He is not very good when playing in the post as he is more comfortable stretching the floor. Typically, Greg McDermott coaches this style of play and wants his teams to shoot a lot of threes. McDermott also understands that sometimes you need to pound the post and get the ball inside. He has two other players on the roster who are true post players. One is a transfer in Manny Suarez and the other is freshman Jacob Epperson. The nation should be aware that when Hegner is on the floor, he is going to shot and make threes.