Creighton Basketball: Can Bluejays shoot their way through March?

Claim: No Sweet 16 for Creighton

On the surface, this seems like an obvious attempt at a ‘hot take’ that has a sole purpose to solicit controversy in the comments section, however, one needs not do much research to come to an agreement. Currently, the Bluejays are not in the top-20 of the NET, and their exclusion by the Selection Committee when the top 16 were revealed on Feb.13, 2021, is a clear indication that the Bluejays are sitting on the five-line at best.

If the tournament were to start today, the Bluejays’ five seed would be parlayed into a field of 32 games versus one of the No.4 seeds that consist of Iowa, Texas Tech, Texas, or Missouri according to the Selection Committee. The NET would add Loyola Chicago, USC, and Florida State as potential opponents, all of which provide no respite for the Bluejays.

In order to have any success in the tournament Coach McDermott will not only need to be able to rely on the nine players who average double-digit minutes, but more importantly the five starters that average between eleven and fifteen points per game. The Bluejays have put together the third highest-scoring offense in the Big East with the same average as last season when they were the highest-scoring team in the Big East.

An impressive feat despite returning nearly 73 percent of their scoring, yet losing Ty-Shon Alexander (16.9 ppg) a year early to the NBA Draft.