Creighton Basketball: 3 key storylines heading into 2020-21 season

1. Who will replace Ty-Shon Alexander for Creighton Basketball?

Ty-Shon Alexander was the star of the Creighton Bluejays last season; he averaged 16.9 PPG, 5.0 RPG and made the All-Big East 1st Team. The former Oak Hill Academy standout was also a phenomenal defensive player holding Marquette star and First Team All American Markus Howard, who averaged 27.6 PPG, to 13 and 18 points in their two matchups. Meanwhile, he also held Big East Player of the Year and First-Team All-American Myles Powell, who averaged 21 PPG, to 12 and 15 respectively. Alexander is an elite player, so who can Creighton look to fill the void.

In terms of offensive production, I’d expect Mitch Ballock and Damien Jefferson to step up. Ballock averaged 11.9 PPG and shot over 45% from three; Jefferson only averaged 9.4 PPG but shot 53% and is much more of a slasher than a shooter. With both playing widely different styles offensively, they’ll be the main two expected to fill the void at the SG/SF positions, while Marcus Zegarowski plays a similar style to what he did this season. There are some other younger guards that could play a role, but we’ll elaborate on the next slide.

In terms of defensive production, neither Jefferson nor Ballock have shown themselves to be star defensive players, but rising sophomore guard Shereef Mitchell did average 0.7 STL while only playing 13.8 minutes per game. He could be the expected defensive stopper in the backcourt.

Next up, we look at the newcomers and depth of this Creighton squad next year.