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Ignore the record of mediocrity. Get over the six-game losing streak that plagued the team in late November and early December.
Creighton is healthy and performing exactly as expected as a contender for the Final Four. Ryan Kalkbrenner has rediscovered his game after a non-COVID-19 sickness severely hampered him early in the season, and the pieces have fallen into place.
The 13-8 Bluejays have won seven of their previous nine games, including six by double figures. On Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska, they treated Big East leader and No. 13 Xavier as if it didn’t belong on the same court. Remember that this team was ranked ninth in the preseason, nearly defeated sixth-ranked Arizona in the Maui Invitational, and battled 10th-ranked Texas in Austin.
The subsequent six-game losing streak, three of which occurred without Kalkbrenner, cast doubt on the Big East preseason favorite. But Creighton has reversed the narrative, rediscovering the form that led so many pundits to assume it was a Final Four possibility, and is now only one game behind the conference leaders in terms of losses.
Last year’s Big East Defensive Player of the Year, 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner, has been outstanding defensively, producing 26 blocked shots over the last seven games and anchoring the 21st-ranked defense by efficiency in the country, according to KenPom.com, while the No. 17 offense is reaching its stride. The starting five of Kalbrenner, Arthur Kaluma, Trey Alexander, Ryan Neibhard, and Baylor Scheierman all average at least 10 points per game. While Creighton is only shooting 35.1 percent from deep as a team, the Bluejays have increased to 38 percent recently and are heading in the right direction.
If Creighton continues to compete at this level, it will be intriguing to see how the selection committee seeds it. It is currently a 10-seed according to Bracket Matrix, a website that aggregates 85 tournament estimates. Part of this is due to the Bluejays’ eight defeats. However, it must be considered that three of those losses — to BYU, Arizona State, and No. 16 Marquette — occurred without Kalkbrenner. They are 13-5 with victories against Arkansas, Xavier, and No. 23 Providence with him on the team. With the big man in the lineup, their stats significantly improve across the board. BartTorvik.com, an analytics-based website that analyzes particular segments of the season, ranks Creighton as the fourth-best team in the nation over the last nine games. The Bluejays have an exceptional NET rating of 18, and their 6-7 record in Quad 1 and 2 games is likely to improve.
This is a frightening eight- or nine-seed. It appears to be the team that everyone anticipated to be a March threat.
According to KenPom.com, Fordham had the weakest slate of non-conference opponents in the USA outside of league play. Consequently, the Rams’ 12-1 non-conference record was easy to ignore. In November and December, The Bronx was flooded with cupcakes.
However, the Rams are currently much more difficult to ignore. They have won four consecutive league games and five of their last six, propelling them to fourth place in the Atlantic 10, two games behind conference leader Saint Louis. The two teams directly behind them in the standings, St. Bonaventure and George Washington, have been defeated by double-digit margins in straight games.
After Kyle Neptune left for Villanova, athletic director Ed Kull made a prudent decision by promoting Keith Urgo to head coach in order to keep the roster together. In his first season as head coach, Urgo has exceeded expectations. At 5-3 in the Atlantic 10, Fordham is off to its best start in the conference since beginning the 2007 campaign 6-2.
»Creighton is living up to preseason expectations following a grueling stretch«