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1. How Creighton’s defense adjusts without Kalkbrenner

Creighton’s past four seasons have been terrific. It’s won 23+ games each season, made the NCAA Tournament each season and made runs to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8.

The common denominator was center Ryan Kalkbrenner, a four-year starter who anchored the defense. He earned an unprecedented four Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors. Before Kalkbrenner, Creighton was around a top-100 defensive unit. In the past few years, they were ranked in the top-50 each season, including a couple of years in the top-20 overall.

Replacing Kalkbrenner is perhaps the Bluejays’ biggest concern heading into the 2025-26 season. How does that defense change? Creighton had a solid offseason with its transfer moves, but nobody’s Kalkbrenner, as noted in our Offseason Grades report.

The replacement inside is Owen Freeman, a 6-11 transfer from Iowa who, in 16 games, averaged 16.7 ppg and 6.7 rpg. But while he did nearly average two blocks a game, Freeman isn’t the same kind of interior presence as Kalkbrenner. His ability to play drop coverage, provide rim protection and rarely foul out gave Creighton a chance to extend its perimeter defense and force teams to hit tough shots.

Still, last season was the first time with Kalkbrenner that Creighton’s defense was only a Top 50 defense, rather than top 20, per KenPom. That should be the goal again.

Two of the team’s top projected players come from Iowa, including Freeman and incoming veteran point guard Josh Dix. Iowa ranked outside of the top 150 on defense. Can those two play better defense in a system that has performed better overall? Can they mesh with Charlotte transfer Nik Graves (who’ll likely run the point) and Howard transfer Blake Harper?

Creighton coach Greg McDermott doesn’t use a defensive style that emphasized turnovers. The Jays just want to force teams to take tough shots. If this new unit can perform as a unit rather than relying on a big guy in the middle, maybe it works.

2. Yet another lackluster ACC non-con schedule

Speaking of Big East schools, I previously criticized the conference after some of its lackluster non-conference schedules were released this offseason. However, based on what the ACC has done so far, I may have to widen my disdain.

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