Better or worse team next year?

[jayrock222]

Losing our top 3 most important players but also have impressive players coming in and a lot of returning players with a good amount of experience.
Probably could have been a sweet 16 team this year if we would’ve had a better start to the season and received a better seed.

[Alphawalt]

Correction, we lost our 4 top players, and have replaced them with 3 top players. Thus, we need one more good transfer from the portal. I can’t say Greer will be as good as one of the departing 4, although I hope he is. If we stand with the signees so far, I think we are about the same level as this year, but subject to team chemistry being established. However, with the departure of Kalk, I think it will be tough to go 15-5 in the Big East again. Kudos t,o Mac and staff for a good reload so the team will be in ballpark of this years team.

[cu8493]

Better. Definitely better. I am going to channel my inner Gtmo and go with sweet 16/elite 8 better (I will reserve judgment whether its final four better to show I have some objectivity ). Dix coming in and Fedor settling in instantly gives us better, certainly more consistent, shooting from the perimeter. That will help replace what we do lose with Kalk moving on to bigger things - which with Freeman won't be quite as big a loss as it would have been sans Freeman. At 3 inches taller and 25 points heavier, Graves will be much less likely to get bullied by big guards and therefore will hopefully be more consistent than Steven - granted his outside shooting may not match Steven's, but hopefully with more quality outside shooting options, we will see fewer 2-10 3pt shooting nights from the PG spot. Miller's minutes will be replaced with more productivity with as good, likely better, defense. If Hudson can be game-ready early on, we are in better shape than the start of this year, IMO. Yes, chemistry is the unknown, but it seems to me that the years where Mac's teams don't have great chemistry and seem kind of clunky are few and far between. I anticipate Mac will once again sprinkle his fairy dust and bring these guys together as one.

[AttyAlum]

Biggest questions for next year to me:

1) Can we defend? We’ve funneled everything to Kalk for several years now, so we have a major adjustment to make.

2) Do we have enough athleticism? Do we have enough guys that can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim when things get bogged down? Watching the championship last night, and the final four in general, those teams are loaded with elite athleticism.

3) Leadership. This is the first year in a while where we don’t have returning guys who have a lot of experience in Mac’s system. That will likely be the norm in the new NIL era, but it’s something we haven’t dealt with much.

I think the staff has done a great job in the portal so far and can’t wait to see all the new pieces.

[psychojaysfan3]

Biggest questions for next year to me:

1) Can we defend? We’ve funneled everything to Kalk for several years now, so we have a major adjustment to make.

2) Do we have enough athleticism? Do we have enough guys that can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim when things get bogged down? Watching the championship last night, and the final four in general, those teams are loaded with elite athleticism.

3) Leadership. This is the first year in a while where we don’t have returning guys who have a lot of experience in Mac’s system. That will likely be the norm in the new NIL era, but it’s something we haven’t dealt with much.

I think the staff has done a great job in the portal so far and can’t wait to see all the new pieces.

1. This is probably the biggest question mark. I think our current roster has defensive potential but we currently have no proven, top notch defensive players. Mac is going to need to implement a defensive system that plays to our strengths...gone are the days of our defense starting and ending with Kalk.

2. I think athleticism/rim pressure will improve with this current group. Fedor showed a lot of willingness to attack the rim last year and has the physicality to do it. Graves lives at the free throw line and primarily scores at the rim. Dix can get to the rim a little as well. Also seems like we're targeting an athletic wing in the portal. I think this team will have much more success penetrating the paint.

3. I'm not worried about our leadership. Our team next year will be primarily made up of experienced/older upperclassman. And retaining rotational guys like Fedor, Green, Traudt, and McAndrew is huge for cohesiveness.

We'll see what happens, but feeling cautiously optimistic with the group we currently have.

[cr8ngrad]

From The Athletic's "Way too early top 25"...Jays are 19th (UConn 9 and St John's 17)

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/626182 ... ook-ahead/

19. Creighton
Projected starters: Nik Graves (transfer), Josh Dix (transfer), Jasen Green, Jackson McAndrew, Owen Freeman (transfer)
Notable returners: Fedor Zugic, Isaac Traudt
Other newcomers: Hudson Greer

At the Players Era Festival in November this past year, I was convinced Creighton wasn’t an NCAA Tournament team. The lesson? Never underestimate coach Greg McDermott and his ability to get a team to improve. I love the addition of Josh Dix, one of my favorite perimeter scorers in the portal. He and fellow Iowa transfer Owen Freeman should thrive in McDermott’s offense. Hudson Greer fits McDermott’s system as well.

The key will be whether Nik Graves, who averaged 17.5 points and 4.3 assists at Charlotte, can handle the move up in levels. McDermott has had a good run of point guards, and the Bluejays need that one to hit. Also, trying to play defense without big man Ryan Kalkbrenner no longer around to fix everything around the rim will be an adjustment. This team should be able to score, but there are definitely defensive concerns. (See Iowa’s 167th-ranked defense.)

[Jaysker12]

The big upgrade in my mind is the size of our backcourt. We've ran undersized PGs since Zegarowski graduated. Graves having (at least?) 3 inches on Ashworth will make our offense more consistent against big/athletic teams. Ashworth got bumped and disrupted beyond the 3pt line so often against teams like St Johns which led to empty possessions.

I also think this team will be significantly improved at 3pt shooting from adding Dix and giving more minutes to McAndrew and Zugic, and hopefully one of Davis/Greer turning into a reliable outside threat. Mix in Traudt and we'll be able to field 3-4 solid 3pt shooters for 40 minutes.

Defense will be interesting. I don't know that the coaches can turn Freeman into a + defender, he just looks a bit slow and not particularly physical. We played pretty good D the year before Kalk got the starting job. Bishop was much quicker on his feet than Freeman, but couldn't stop anyone when they were close to the rim. Our guards will need to use their size on the defensive end.

I think this team is better than last year's, the upgrades to our offense (size + shooting + playmaking) outweigh the loss of Kalk.

[D Jay Fan]

Off season workouts and early practices will be really important this year. Especially since the early tournament is stacked and we won't have too many early buy in games.
We have to install a 'new' defense. At least to all the current players and in-coming players. Doing that all with a new assistant coach. Which coach will be in charge of this defense. Some of this will be the same with every team now, every year.
But we know it can usually take until the new year for new players to understand their role and the offense in general. Players in the correct spot on both offense and defense usually get the nod over those with more skills but might ruin the set play on offense or are in the wrong place on defense. Our early season squad may be different than Big East play.

[cr8ngrad]

Interesting post gathering together the "Way Too Early" rankings to build a consensus rank...Jays at 21

https://bsky.app/profile/heatcheckcbb.b ... d3xzto422t

[Alphawalt]

Interesting post gathering together the "Way Too Early" rankings to build a consensus rank...Jays at 21

https://bsky.app/profile/heatcheckcbb.b ... d3xzto422t

As a reminder, this past year’s team was preseason ranked 15 in AP and 14 in coaches poll, so you can conclude at this time next year’s team is not expected to be as good as this year’s team. I think we will be good, but the loss of Kalk and his defensive impact will likely result in a BE record of less than 15-5 next year. The other players we lost were also pretty damn good. The newcomers will also have to play to their utmost ceiling for next year’s team to be better. Looking forward to seeing how it will play out.