Busting Brackets
Fansided

Creighton Basketball: 3 keys to beat Kansas Jayhawks in Round of 32

By Chris Thedinga

Dec 14, 2021; Omaha, Nebraska, USA; Creighton Bluejays guard Trey Alexander (23) celebrates a score with center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) and guard Alex O'Connell (5) in the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first half at CHI Health Center Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 14, 2021; Omaha, Nebraska, USA; Creighton Bluejays guard Trey Alexander (23) celebrates a score with center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) and guard Alex O'Connell (5) in the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first half at CHI Health Center Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
Trey Alexander Rati Andronikashvili Creighton Basketball (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Trey Alexander Rati Andronikashvili Creighton Basketball (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /

Creighton Basketball takes on the number one seed Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday afternoon to advance to the Sweet 16.

Where: Dickies Arena (Forth Worth, TX)

When: 1:40 pm CT

Channel: CBS

You can breathe now, Jays fans. What an absurdly awesome game for Greg McDermott and Creighton last night. Seemingly down between six and nine points the entire night, the Bluejays hung around and found a way to get the game to overtime, where they outlasted San Diego State.

Creighton had FIVE scorers in double figures against the second-best defensive team in the country. That is only the second time in the entire season that SDSU has allowed a team to have five double-digit scorers. There were so many worries about the identity of this team after Ryan Nembhard’s injury. Well, I’ll tell you their identity in two words: unselfish and tough.

But, the win didn’t come without consequence. Ryan Kalkbrenner went down with an injury during the overtime period and was in a wheelchair postgame. The Creighton coaching staff confirmed it was a knee injury — not good news for the 7-footer, or for the Jays. Kalkbrenner’s interior dominance was perhaps Creighton’s one mismatch in their favor over Kansas in this second-round matchup. Alas, the Jays continue to be plagued by injuries.

Creighton players currently out for the year due to injury:

Ryan Nembhard, 6’0 Guard

Shereef Mitchell, 6’0 Guard

John Christofilis, 6’3 Guard

Ryan Kalkbrenner, 7’1 Center

Four rotation players injured on the already youngest team in all of college basketball. Yet, Greg McDermott has Creighton one of the 32 remaining teams in the NCAA Tournament. He won’t get the national credit deserved for this masterpiece, but wow, what a job he has done under these circumstances.

Alright, on to Kansas, who beat the brakes off of Texas Southern, 83-56 on Thursday night. Kansas comes in as the number five team on KenPom, while Creighton is 54th. The Jayhawks are lead by Ochai Agbaji (19.4 ppg), however, Kansas runs nine deep and all can score at a pretty high level.

Here are three keys for the Bluejays to hang around, and potentially knock of the Kansas Jayhawks.

Home/Big East