Creighton vs Florida A&M: 2023-24 college basketball game preview

The Creighton Bluejays open the season against Florida A&M of the SWAC. Should the Big East program be on upset alert this week?

Creighton opens the 2023-24 season in Omaha on Tuesday, November 7th against Florida A&M out to the SWAC. Head Coach Greg McDermott is heading into his 14th year leading the Bluejays and is looking to improve upon his team’s trip to the Elite Eight last season. The Rattlers on the other hand are looking to improve upon their 11th place in the SWAC and build on the win total of seven games from last season.

Creighton is projected to be one of the top teams this season, entering the year win a top-ten ranking. The Bluejays bring back a ton of talent from last year’s team as well as adding some important pieces from the transfer portal. Built on the back of perennial Defense Player of the Year candidate Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton is one of the more complete teams in the country. Along with returning starters Trey Alexander and Baylor Sheierman, the Bluejays should get huge production this year from newcomers Steven Ashworth from Utah State, Isaac Traudt from UVA, and Johnathan Lawson from Memphis. You can read more about this in Jerran Anderson’s season preview of the Bluejays.

Defensively Creighton shouldn’t have any problems shutting down a bad FAMU offense. Last season only California averaged fewer points per game than the Rattlers. To make matters slightly worse Dimingus Stevens is the only returning Rattler to average more than six points per game. With Kalkbrenner towering near the rim, points in the paint are going to be hard to come by. Away from the basket, Creighton should be able to apply pressure and force a ton of turnovers and bad shots. FAMU was one of the worst three-point shooting teams last season. There should be plenty of rebound opportunities, one of the many areas where Creighton excels as they averaged 37 rebounds per game last season.

Offensively, the Bluejays should be able to put this game out of reach early in the first half. Last season Creighton made nearly 47 percent of all shots. I have a hard time envisioning FAMU being able to get many defensive stops. When Creighton isn’t feeding Kalkbrenner in the post they are letting it fly from behind the three-point arc. With the addition of Steven Ashworth, who shot an impressive 43.4 percent from three last year, the Bluejays should be improved in an area of the offense that was already pretty good.

Overall, this shouldn’t be much of a game. Creighton should walk to a win in this one pretty easily and the backups should see a ton of minutes in the second half. The Bluejays are a very good basketball team and should look like one from the tip in the matchup.