Creighton men's basketball hopes newcomers can quickly adjust as season begins

Creighton has two weeks to get its newcomers — four lively freshmen and two transfers turned starters — settled in before fully plunging into the deep end of an arduous nonconference schedule.

That starts Wednesday with a season-opening matchup against the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the first of the No. 15 Jays' four straight mid-major opponents to start the year.

"It's important that those guys are getting into it and keep learning, and they'll just get better as the year goes on," said center Ryan Kalkbrenner, entering his fifth and final season in Omaha. "They're starting in a really good spot, to begin with."

To Kalkbrenner's point: Creighton coach Greg McDermott tested his team with two preseason exhibitions against top-15 teams, a closed scrimmage at No. 5 Iowa State and a charity exhibition win over No. 14 Purdue.

McDermott did that, he's said, to help the freshmen and transfers become familiar with CU's play style and mesh together before the season got going. And it allowed him to experiment with different players, lineups.

Kalkbrenner and guard Steven Ashworth settled in, again, after being focal points in last year's Sweet 16 run. Their roles, expanded from a year ago, are the same yet different.

Those newcomers — freshmen Ty Davis, Jackson McAndrew, Larry Johnson and Fedor Zugic, and Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs and Arizona State transfers Jamiya Neal — began to adjust.

"It's a really big adjustment," Kalkbrenner said, laughing. "I remember my freshman year, I was not ready to play at this level. ... But they're all being impact players right away, and that's really impressive to see out of the freshmen."

Especially Davis, who's fulfilling a "lifelong dream" by playing college basketball.

He's figured to have the biggest role of the young bunch — at least early on — after being the first guard off CU's bench in the Purdue exhibition.

The Jays entered this offseason needing a guard behind Ashworth and Isaacs, and to replace ultimate sixth man Francisco Farabello. Minutes were up for grabs, and someone had to earn them.

Being a pass-first sharpshooter helps Davis quickly step into McDermott's system, which is built on turning good shots into great shots and, last season, attempted the ninth-most 3-pointers in the country.

"I think I'm doing well with the offensive side of it, but just staying up to speed on defense," Davis said when asked what he's still trying to figure out. "Then just watching film at nights, coming in — because of being a point guard — and being able to keep up with all the plays we're adding every day and knowing each position on the court."

And it doesn't hurt to have a couple of veterans nearby.

"It's nice leaning on Steven and Kalk and some of those guys who kind of already got trust in me. I can tell they can see that I'm doing my best," Davis said. "Being roommates with Jackson is huge, too. We can talk through a lot of things."

Life at Creighton is drastically different without Trey Alexander and Baylor Scheierman, and that's why it's crucial for the Jays to mesh together through the first four games.

The first two weeks pale in comparison to what comes after. CU's first four opponents finished last season with an average KenPom rating of 306 (out of 362), albeit Kansas City was this year's preseason favorite to win the Summit League.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley:

Fairleigh Dickinson:

Kansas City:

Houston Christian:

Then comes Nebraska, a loaded field for the inaugural Players Era Festival and meetings with No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Alabama — all before a 20-game gauntlet in one of the toughest conferences in the country.

"It's really important," McDermott said about meshing. "It's been important all camp."

It's a nonconference schedule fit for Creighton's situation. The Jays get to figure things out early, kick things up a notch in Las Vegas before testing themselves against two legitimate title contenders.

That's not how McDermott is looking at it, though.

"I don't know if it was on purpose," he said, "but we take every game one at a time, and we treat every opponent with the same level of respect, no matter what the name is on the front of their jersey."

Wednesday officially starts McDermott's 15th season in Omaha and 31st as a head coach, period.

Everyone's excited this time of year. The season is right around the corner, a summer of intrigue evaporates into reality for the next six months. Hopes for a national championship — or the school's first Final Four, in the Jays' case — are always high.

But it's different on the inside looking out.

"I've been doing this a long time, and not one time do you feel like, 'All right, we're ready,'" McDermott said. "There's still room to grow."