No. 15 Creighton men’s basketball opened the 2024-25 home slate with a 93-87 exhibition win over No. 14 Purdue on Saturday night.
Four new Bluejays made their debuts as McDermott went deep into his bench and still pulled out a victory over the Big Ten’s preseason favorite. Creighton shot 60% from the field including 46.4% from 3 (13-of-28) and notched 25 assists on 36 buckets.
“Games like this, you hope to learn a lot about your team,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “The film will tell us a lot and I think will be helpful to us. And you also want to get exposed. You want to figure out, a great team like Purdue that’s really well coached, what are they doing that’s to expose your team and expose your weaknesses, and then how do we go about fixing that? I love the fact that we got pretty much everybody on the floor. Putting your uniform on the first time in this building, in front of a great crowd, and playing a team as good as Purdue is quite a challenge, and I thought our new guys really did some good things.”
In addition to holding a dress rehearsal for the regular season, Creighton and Purdue also raised money for charity as 15,947 fans filled CHI Health Center Arena.
“I really appreciate the fans coming out in support,” McDermott said. “I know we wrote a check to United Way the Midlands, $150,000 for disaster relief, and that’s what it’s all about. I really appreciate Coach [Matt] Painter and his willingness to bring his team over here. This was a treat for our fans. It was absolutely great for our team.”
Here are three takeaways from the exhibition.
Transfers Fitting Right In
Greg McDermott made Pop Isaacs a priority in the transfer portal, and the former Texas Tech Red Raider showed why in his first public action as a Bluejay.
The 6-foot-2 guard knocked down his first four 3-pointers, leading everyone with 14 points in the first half. In the second half, he showed off other parts of his game, getting in the paint to make plays for himself and others.
He finished with a team-high 24 points in 29 minutes, shooting 10-of-14 from the floor (4-of-6 from 3) and dishing out six assists. Isaacs said he was just having fun.
“After being told for the past month to smile and have fun, I was just excited to go out there and have my debut,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming. My body feels good, I’m healthy, so I’m just ready to play honestly … Everything just came within the flow of the offense and just happened naturally. It actually felt good to play like that.”
Steven Ashworth produced 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting (4-of-6 from 3) and eight assists, giving Creighton’s starting backcourt a combined 40 points and 14 assists on an 87% true shooting clip in their first public game together.
“Anytime you bring in a couple transfers, you just wonder how the chemistry and how it’s going to work,” McDermott said. “It’s really gone unbelievably well, probably even better than I would have anticipated. But I think Pop learned early that Steven will turn down a 3 to get him a better one, and I think once Pop came to grips with that, like ‘This is a team that’s going to share the basketball and they won’t miss me if I’m open, so I’m not going to miss them when they’re open.’ I think you saw in Pop, what he’s capable of. He’s crafty in the lane. He had a great pass to Kalk on the flip-up. I think when he shoots good shots, he’s a really good shooter, and that’s what we felt when we recruited him.”
Arizona State transfer Jamiya Neal didn’t light up the scoreboard like Isaacs did, but he popped in his own way. The Jays outscored the Boilermakers by 10 in his 12 first-half minutes, and although he didn’t attempt a shot, he did a great job creating for others, particularly when helping run the second unit. His athleticism on the glass and on drives to the basket complement the rest of the lineup well.
“Jamiya, the stats didn’t jump off the page, but he had four assists and no turnovers, and he’s chasing guys around,” McDermott said. “He’ll settle into that role too.”
Rotation in Flux
McDermott went nine deep before the second media timeout and 11-deep in the first half, and 12 players saw at least five minutes of playing time with all 12 scoring.
Bluejay forwards Mason Miller (13) and Jackson McAndrew celebrate against Purdue. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Jasen Green (three points, two assists) got the start at the power forward spot, but he also played some small forward and some center. Mason Miller (three points and two assists), saw all of his minutes on the wing off the bench. McDermott gave Isaac Traudt (1-of-4 from 3 plus a dunk and five boards) first crack at the back-up four minutes in the first half, though freshman Jackson McAndrew (eight points on 2-of-4 from 3 and a put-back plus four rebounds) played nearly as much. Freshman Ty Davis (three points on a cut to the rim and a free throw) and redshirt freshman Shane Thomas (two points on a dunk) logged some back-up guard minutes.
Ashworth, Isaacs and Ryan Kalkbrenner are going to play heavy minutes, and Neal will fill an important role on the wing. Beyond that, the rotation is still very much in flux.
“This has been as difficult of a rotation to figure out, and I’m still not certain … We can go a lot of directions, and you hope it would sort itself out, but it hasn’t quite yet,” McDermott said. “But I think that’s a good thing, not necessarily a bad thing, because Isaac and Mason and Jackson — Mason is still getting back from the injury, he’s not himself yet, and he’ll get there — but they’ve all done some really good things. My message to them after the game is, I don’t know what the rotation is going to be on November 6, but what I do know is if I call your number, be ready. I think tonight was really good for those guys to go out and play and have this film to watch against a great opponent.”
Freshman Larry Johnson wasn’t suited up because of a knee issue, and McDermott said he’s likely to redshirt. Fedor Žugić also did not play, both because of his pending eligibility status and because of an ankle injury suffered in practice on Friday.
Defense a Work in Progress
Between the closed scrimmage against Iowa State and the exhibition against Purdue, Creighton has scored 175 points in two preseason contests — hard to find much fault in that kind of production. However, the other side of the ball is still a work in progress.
“I think we’ll be fine scoring the ball, but eventually we’re going to have to guard somebody,” Isaacs said. “I know it’s early, but 87 points, especially when you get to conference play, is not going to cut it. So we’re going to have to get keep chopping away and getting better at that end every day in practice.”
Kalkbrenner — the three-time reigning Big East Defensive Player of the Year — only played 17 minutes against Iowa State and 26 against, and the Jays haven’t exactly spent a ton of time studying in-depth scouting reports for these preseason games. Even so, the perimeter defense still has some work to do.
Purdue shot 47.8% from the field including 38.1% from 3, scored 32 points in the paint and attempted 24 free throws. Starting guards Braden Smith (the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year) and Fletcher Loyer combined for 48 points on 50% shooting and nine assists.
“I don’t think any team in the country is where they want to be defensively,” McDermott said. “We gave up 83 to Iowa State, we gave up 87 tonight. Now, we scored 82 against a great defensive team in Iowa State, and Purdue’s been pretty well known for their defense as well and we scored 93 tonight. So the offense is there. We’ve got to clean some things up defensively. Kishon Gilbert had 35 on us at Iowa State, Smith gets 31 tonight, their best player.
“So we’re going to have to figure out who’s that guy, who’s that guy that’s going to be able to, when a guy gets going, slow him down? So that’s going to be a work in progress, I think. And it could be by committee, possibly. But it’s October 27 or whatever it is, and we still have a lot of work to do.”
