Creighton continues to add shooting to fill the void left by Steven Ashworth

Once Pop Isaacs went down with an injury, nearly all of Creighton’s offense in the 2024-25 season was built around Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth. That two-man game carried Greg McDermott’s Bluejays to the Big East title game and an NCAA Tournament win, but now the longtime head coach has to prepare for life without his two veteran stars. 

This past season, Kalkbrenner became the second player in conference history to be named Big East Defensive Player of the Year four times, joining Patrick Ewing. The 7-foot center’s rim protection gave Creighton a tremendously high floor defensively, while nearly all of the team’s offensive creation and shot-making fell to its 6-foot point guard. 

Ashworth averaged 16.4 points, and 6.8 assists while shooting nearly 40 percent from three in his final collegiate season. Rather than attempt to replace him one-for-one as McDermott did for Kalkbrenner with the addition of center Owen Freeman from Iowa, Creighton is turning to multiple different players to fill the shooting void left by Ashworth’s graduation. 

Greg McDermott lands Miami (FL) transfer Austin Swartz

Charlotte transfer Nik Graves is the best fit to fill the Ashworth role in Creighton’s talented four-player transfer portal class. However, the 17.2 point-per-game scorer has shot just over 32 percent from three in back-to-back seasons and won’t exactly provide the spacing that McDermott requires for his offense to run efficiently. 

For that, McDermott has brought in Josh Dix, Freeman’s teammate at Iowa, and Miami transfer Austin Swartz who committed on Sunday. 

Dix was arguably the best shooter in the portal, the 6-foot-6 guard hitting at a 42 percent clip from distance on nearly five attempts per game. He’s a talented movement shooter, not just taking advantage of shot-up opportunities, and can get his own shot off the dribble. With one season of eligibility left, he’s the short-term shooting solution in Omaha, while Swartz has a longer developmental runway to reach his full potential. 

A four-star recruit, Swartz was thrust into a disastrous situation as a freshman at Miami last season. Head coach Jim Larrañaga stepped down in December as the Hurricanes went 7-24 overall. Still Swartz, considered one of the most talented shooters in the 2024 high school class, averaged 5.9 points a game and shot over 30 percent from beyond the arc. That’s impressive stuff considering how ugly things got in Coral Gables. 

McDermott is still looking to get Creighton to the Final Four before eventually handing the program over to his handpicked successor, Alan Huss. To do that, he’ll need more viable scoring threats than he had last season. After losing Isaacs too much fell to Ashworth and Kalkbrenner and with the way he’s prioritizing shot-making in the portal this offseason, it seems he’s learned his lesson.