Bluejays Review

[OmahaGuy]

The Creighton Bluejays' 2015-16 squad had a very up and down year this season and it came to a close against a good BYU team. It certainly was a much better year than last year though and it was a good year to build on for the future. The NIT run did many good things. Let's recap!

Who's out?
*James Milliken-Was a very good scorer for the team and J-Milli will be missed.
*Geoff Groselle-The coaches will be telling the story about the perseverance of this dude for a LONG time. He played such limited minutes before this season and ended up being a serviceable big man and was among the leaders in terms of FG percentage in the country.
*Marlon Stewart-Just today he announced he would transfer. Frosh guard who only saw mop-up minutes and nobody really expected anything out of him. Wish him as well as JM and GG the best of luck!!

Who's back?
*Zach Hanson-Had a good year, hopefully we can get a big jump from him next season in his senior year. Kid is a bruiser and a fighter.
*Isaiah Zierden-This dude had a very up-and-down year. His shooting is great but it's also very inconsistent. Kid is great when he's on though and he just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to injuries. He's got a bad shoulder. He'll get major rest this offseason and I hope he'll be ready to go in November.
*Toby Hegner-Very similar to Isaiah. His year I'd say was a bit worse though. He's great when he's on but he's awful when he's not on.
*Malik Albert-Didn't really do much for most of the season but he then performed well down the stretch into the end of this year. Hopefully he continues that good momentum into next year. Dude has insane athleticism.
*Mo Watson-By far our most important player this season as well as for next season. This guy is awesome, man. One of the better PGs in the conference and he should be even better next season. Stud.
*Cole Huff-Another one of the better players on the team. He struggled early on at first and struggled in the middle of the year. But he really caught fire down the stretch and he really showed that vs Seton Hall at MSG. Another very important player for next season.
*Ronnie Harrell-He provided some good and very energetic minutes off the bench. Excited to see his development as his career moves on.
*Khyri Thomas-Very long and athletic guard who's well-known for his energy and defense. He performed great early on, then he hit a wall and struggled throughout conference play, but then he regained that swagger and had great games in the NIT vs Alabama and Wagner. Hopefully he continues that good play into next season and hopefully he learns how to be mentally tougher since a lot of his struggles were mental.
*Martin Krampelj-Was shut down for the year in December after he tore his ACL. I remember he played pretty well in some of the earlier games. He's a long and athletic wing who can shoot. Hopefully he can recover from his ACL tear and fight back. Talented euro player.

Who's coming in?
*Marcus Foster-Like Jon Rothstein says, "Palpable buzz" is all around him. This dude LIT IT UP at Kansas State. Then his relationship with Bruce Weber soured and he got kicked off. He takes responsibility for that and he's glad he's getting a fresh start at Creighton. Super athletic, very good shooter and overall a great scorer.
*Justin Patton-Top50 HS player from Omaha who took the year off to beef up. Like Marcus, this dude is a player NBA scouts will look at. He's a long, wiry, and athletic big man who can defend the rim and he's got a very soft touch in the post and I even hear his passing skills are very good for a big man. 6'11. I think next year he'll have an up-and-down year but he'll show many flashes of his potential along the way.
*Davion MIntz-HS kid from North Carolina. He's the best player on the best team in the State of NC and I think he was vastly under-recruited. He's had a great senior year in HS. I won't even be surprised if he gets some rotation minutes next season. I know HS and college are two completely different games but I really like his size for a guard, his athleticism, and his scoring prowess.

Bottom Line: Remember when everyone two years ago was saying Creighton Basketball will never be good again after Doug left? And they looked right for one year but this year they've been proven wrong! The demise of Bluejay Basketball was greatly exaggerated and it's back on the upward trend. I'll bet opposing coaches even told potential CU recruits that Greg couldn't win without his son. Well, this year he proved he can win (in a major league) without a special talent like Doug. They've still got a lot of work to be done but no doubt that Mac and the crew can get the job done and win more games.

[chicagojayfan]

This year's team had a ton of injuries. At least 2 guys delayed surgery until the end of the season (Huff and Zierden), Martin lost most of the season due to surgery, and others were hurt throughout including Hanson, Hegner, Watson, and others from a variety of things like foot injuries, high ankle sprains, hip pointers, flu, etc.. Positions that were considered deep became thin and rotations were cut short by the end of the year. Have to give a lot of credit to the kids for playing through and to the coaches for figuring out how to get a team on the floor that could compete.

One of the biggest costs of the injuries was to the team's outside shooting. Specifically the 3 best 3-PT shooters all had injuries that affected them through the season, Zierden, Huff and Hegner. At the start of the year the team shot around 40% from 3, but dropped to a low (IIRC) of 31% in conference and a big part of that was the injuries to those 3. It's tough to get consistent with a jumper if your knees, ankles and shoulders are bothering you that much. That may have been the biggest factor in knocking our offense down to a KenPom adjusted ranking of 59, but give a ton of credit to Watson, Groselle and Milliken for keeping our O at that level even during the offensive struggles.

Defensively was where this team really surprised. While they weren't always excellent, they could be very, very good for long stretches of a game and could execute a game plan to take away the oppositions top couple of options and force them into more unfamiliar shots. KenPom put us at adjusted 38th in D this year. I was optimistic we'd be a better defensive team, but probably would have laughed if someone had predicted we'd end up that high (and I would have laughed even harder after the first part of the season where we seemed incapable of playing any D).

Next year should be exciting. Coach Mac emphasized the idea of everyone improving 10% and I think that is the right approach. The framework is there and getting the shooters healthy and adding Foster and Patton should be huge for this team.

[cu blujs]

Mo getting hurt in the Providence game really hurt us down the stretch, because Zierden was out from the shoulder injury suffered in the Marquette game. Although Mo played, he lost the explosiveness that he relied on to get to cut through the defense to get to the bucket. He tried, but his effectiveness was really diminished. During the season, Mo went 30+, and coaches had been moving Zierden or Miliken over to handle point guard duties when Mo rested (which a very small amount of walk-on Clement now and then). Malik, who was the only other player with real PG skill couldn't get off the bench (reportedly due to having not earned coach's trust by producing consistently in practice). When Mo got hurt and Zierden no longer available, we did go to Malik for longer minutes in the NIT and he responded well. Between Malik and recruit Devon Mintz, I look for us to be able to cut back Mo's minutes to upper 20's, keeping him fresher and healthier, with much less drop off from that position than we had this year.

Of course, everyone is in first place and no one is in last place before the season, but I will be very surprised if CU is not battling within a game or two of the top spot late in the BE season next year. Only question will be quality of depth. If we lose a key guy anywhere, we will probably be more middle of the pack.

[DudeAnon]

My biggest question mark is replacing Groselle, he was the center of their downlow game both offensively and defensively.

[Jet915]

My biggest question mark is replacing Groselle, he was the center of their downlow game both offensively and defensively.

Alot of fans agree, Hanson is good but not as good as Groselle and is very foul prone. He can't play more than 20 minutes. That leaves Patton who is very talented but is currently more of a finesse 5 who can shoot jumpers all the way to the 3 point line but not much of a post game. Many hope we can get a grad transfer big who can play defense and rebound but those don't grow on trees.

[xusandy]

Omaha Guy, Thanks a lot for all your research and the time you've put into reviewing/previewing all of our Big East teams for next year; I've learned a lot from reading each of your analyses. Just wanted you to know how valuable your contribution has been as we all start looking ahead. But first, GO NOVA!

[JohnW22]

I'm assuming the starting lineup will be
Watson
Foster
Zierden
Huff
Patton
Creighton fans opinions on their starting lineup? That was just my uneducated guess

[jfan]

I think it will be:
Hanson---at least to start the season and depending on how quickly Patton develops.
Watson
Foster
Thomas
Huff
We will be much more athletic than last year and better on defense.
Wild card will be Martin Krampelj depending on his defense.
I should say Mac really likes Zierden, so he may start. I would rather see him come off the bench and play fewer minutes. I think he always gets worn down and he has suffered a season ending injury 3 straight years

[gtmoBlue]

Starting lineup - 2016-17

Watson
Foster
Harrell
Huff
Patton

[SJUBBALL]

Starting lineup - 2016-17

Watson
Foster
Harrell
Huff
Patton

Potential for this starting lineup is off the charts. If Patton and Foster live up to the hype Creighton will be a force