While the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team has won back-to-back national championships and is seemingly the team to beat in the Big East, the Creighton Bluejays will also make noise in the conference this season.
The Bluejays made the Sweet Sixteen in the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Tournaments, their first back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in school history.
Senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner has been there for it all, and if the 2024-25 Preseason Big East Player of the Year keeps playing like he played in Creighton’s season-opening win against the UT-Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros, Creighton will be in a great spot come March.
Kalkbrenner had 49 points in the 99-86 victory Wednesday night. Perhaps more impressively was he did it while shooting 20-of-22 from the field. The seven-footer was a dominant presence down low, but he also sunk a pair of three-pointers along the way.
The eye-popping performance was the fifth-most points in a single game in Big East history. Former Marquette Golden Eagles Markus Howard crossed the 50-point threshold three times in his college career, as did former Providence Friars guard MarShon Brooks. Kalkbrenner’s output was also the second-most in a single game in Creighton history, finishing just shy of Bob Portman’s 51 points against the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers in 1967.
“We kind of went into the game with a plan to establish me in the post and we went with that. I kept working and wasn’t really thinking about what happened the previous play. I was just trying to make the next one,” Kalkbrenner said after the game via ESPN.
Creighton returns to action Sunday when they host the Fairleigh-Dickinson Knights.
[ESPN]
