Big East Basketball Power Rankings: Butler, DePaul keep rising

Creighton is a very difficult team to figure out right now. While the Bluejays have already secured a pair of KenPom top-100 wins, neither victories over Louisiana Tech nor Texas Tech holds a ton of weight right now. This is especially true with the latter of those teams dropping their first three games against high-major opposition this season. With that said, though, they are still solid wins for Creighton, who is also yet to suffer a bad loss (SDSU and Michigan are top-25 teams).

Additionally, their playing style makes it hard to project results moving forward as well. If the Bluejays are able to get consistent stops, they will be a very strong team due to their high-powered offense and backcourt contributions. Excelling on the defensive end, though, is not typically Creighton’s strength.

Through the first few weeks of the season, head coach Greg McDermott’s team is ranked at 20th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 122nd on defense. There should be no question about their ability to score but their lack of size in the frontcourt is proving to be an issue on the other end.

I know it must feel as though as I say the same things about Creighton every single week but it is the truth. Creighton’s ceiling this season depends on its defense much like the past few seasons. The difference right now is that the Bluejays’ current defensive rating would be the lowest since 2015, when they went 14-19 (4-14 BE), if this level of play continues.

Can they figure it out defensively and make a push into the middle of the league? For the time being, Creighton should be lumped with the bottom four rather than the top six.