The Bluejay Underground: A Creighton Sports Message Board

I really like Jacob's analysis and it's fantastic context when we work through our blue colored glass expectations for this year.

We have a solid core of experience in reef, AOC, kalk that understand Mac and his expectations. I would expect all of them to take a good jump next year.

I would also contend we'll get good minutes and contribution from Hawkins, but probably not consistent with what he accomplished at the lower levels. I think we'll get good depth and production from feazell.

Then we have a super talented group of "freshman" that I'm really excited about for the future. We'll need about half of these guys to rise to the challenge for this team to place in the upper half of the conference. We'll need one of them to be a budding star and 2-3 of them to be good more often than they struggle.

Given the math, I think that's reasonable that 2-3 of these guys will transition well enough to play significant role and to be successful doing it.

We'll probably be way better at home than on the road with this young of a team and it's likely we shake our heads when the group "plays like freshman."

There's talent here, let's just keep the expectations grounded for this year for each of them.

Maybe the better comparison is to teams that had similar rebuilds and signed top recruiting classes.

In the 2020 class:
No. 4 ranked LSU (6 commits) finished with a 19-10 record, 24 in KenPom, made the NCAA.
No. 7 Arizona (7 commits) finished 17-9 (29 KenPom) and didn't make the NCAA.

In the 2019 class (maybe a better comparison with a non-Covid year for the freshmen):
No. 1 Memphis (7 commits) finished 21-10, 59 KenPom, no NCAA.
No. 7 USC (6 commits) finished 22-9, 55 KenPom, made the NCAA.
No. 11 Georgia (7 commits) finished 16-16, 96 KenPom, no NCAA.

So some teams have put it together, but I think all of these probably had more returning players than we do. LSU last year had several returnees, including one who made second team all-SEC.

Wizard of Westroads wrote:Maybe the better comparison is to teams that had similar rebuilds and signed top recruiting classes.

In the 2020 class:
No. 4 ranked LSU (6 commits) finished with a 19-10 record, 24 in KenPom, made the NCAA.
No. 7 Arizona (7 commits) finished 17-9 (29 KenPom) and didn't make the NCAA.

In the 2019 class (maybe a better comparison with a non-Covid year for the freshmen):
No. 1 Memphis (7 commits) finished 21-10, 59 KenPom, no NCAA.
No. 7 USC (6 commits) finished 22-9, 55 KenPom, made the NCAA.
No. 11 Georgia (7 commits) finished 16-16, 96 KenPom, no NCAA.

So some teams have put it together, but I think all of these probably had more returning players than we do. LSU last year had several returnees, including one who made second team all-SEC.

We don't have many coming back, but what we have could be pretty solid.

Kalkbrenner's one of the best young centers out there and could take a big jump this year.
AOC's a veteran and a great athlete with great skills. He just hasn't put it all together, but he could
Mitchell's at least a solid role player who plays great D and maybe he steps up even more this year

Add in Hawkins and you have at least a few guys who have experience and can provide a core for the others to build around.

I expect those 4 to start the year as the starters. Minutes will be up for grabs around it, but there is talent... We also have the fact that Mac's pretty much finished above his predicted finish in the BE every year. I'd guess we are predicted to finish in the bottom 1/3 of the conference, but finish in the middle 1/3 and play much better in the second half of the conference season

According to 247sports, the BEast has 5 teams in the top 20 in recruiting for 2021.
#5 Creighton
#14 UConn
#16 Georgetown
#18 Marquette
#20 Nova

https://www.zagsblog.com/2021/06/11/cla ... this-fall/


Can't imagine this is legit, but...

Jalen Duren To AA
@uofm_recruits
·
Jun 13
I will be committing tomorrow between Creighton, Kentucky, and Michigan!

Did not happen on 14th.

gtmoBlue wrote:https://www.zagsblog.com/2021/06/11/class-of-2022-star-jalen-duren-expected-to-reclassify-enroll-in-college-this-fall/


Can't imagine this is legit, but...

Jalen Duren To AA
@uofm_recruits
·
Jun 13
I will be committing tomorrow between Creighton, Kentucky, and Michigan!

Did not happen on 14th.

This article from four days ago doesn’t even mention Creighton and says that Jaylen will be taking his time with his commitment.

https://247sports.com/Article/Jalen-Dur ... 166419504/

gtmo..... that’s not his twitter account, it’s some guy just straight up trolling you. good god.

gtmoBlue wrote:https://www.zagsblog.com/2021/06/11/class-of-2022-star-jalen-duren-expected-to-reclassify-enroll-in-college-this-fall/


Can't imagine this is legit, but...

Jalen Duren To AA
@uofm_recruits
·
Jun 13
I will be committing tomorrow between Creighton, Kentucky, and Michigan!

Did not happen on 14th.

Gtmo ... you got played by a Michigan recruiting account with 129 followers. That's not Jalen Duren, they just changed the name to "Jalen Duren to AA" aka Ann Arbor.

I really, really don’t want gtmo getting trolled into thinking Creighton was in the final three of a reclassifying NBA prospect to get swept under the rug.

In gtmo's defense, he did say he couldnt imagine this was legit... Also we have been in on more top ranked recruits than ever before (with the exception of Schtolzberg ) But hey lets all shit on ol gtmo!!! Not saying I agree with him often but geez....