Big changes are coming to the Creighton men’s basketball program from the 2025-26 season. Between nine new additions added to the roster and the loss of Ryan Kalkbrenner, Steven Ashworth and Jamiya Neal, the Bluejays will look almost entirely different — a retooled lineup with fresh faces tasked with carrying forward the program’s winning standard. 

Two preseason wins over No. 16 Iowa State and Colorado State are promising signs, but head coach Greg McDermott said there’s still plenty of work ahead to mold this newly created roster into the team he knows it can become. 

With a little more than a week separating the Creighton Bluejays of preseason from the team taking the court for their regular-season opener, here’s everything you need to know about the 2025–26 Bluejays. 

1. A poorly timed knee injury and resulting surgery means Top 10 Iowa recruit Owen Freeman will not be in tip-top shape by the start of the season. Fans won’t see that Freeman until January or February, McDermott said. 

With the sizable void — both on the court and in presence — left by Ryan Kalkbrenner’s departure last season, Freeman emerged as McDermott and the staff’s choice to step up. But after the Iowa transfer suffered a finger injury in January that sidelined him for the rest of the season, followed by a knee injury in May 2025, getting back on the court became a long, uphill process. 

After missing the first preseason contest against No. 16 Iowa State, Freeman saw 13 minutes on the floor against Colorado State. While it was reassuring to see the junior getting some playing time, the reality of his injury made it apparent that the road to recovery was not over yet.  

“He hasn’t played a game since January. He’s nowhere near where he’s going to be at some point. But it’s also going to be a process,” McDermott said. 

More than just the jitters and nerves that Freeman said he felt with a lack of reps over many months, Freeman’s knee appeared to still be a bother in his limited minutes on the floor. Despite that, the transfer ran the floor, going 2-of-3 from the field and grabbing three rebounds.

If Freeman and the staff treat the process right, he could still be a threat when the ‘Madness’ starts. But until then, it’s going to be up to forwards Jasen Green, Kerem Konan and Josh Townley-Thomas to be ready to defend the rim when their name is called. 

“It’s important that those guys are behind him [Freeman], whether it’s Jasen, Kerem or Josh — whoever it might be — that they’re ready to go because he’s not close to being able to play 20, 25 minutes in the game,” McDermott said. 

2. Forget about seeing the same five starters for 40 minutes. McDermott is switching it up, emphasizing a shift toward short stretches on the floor and more players seeing time. 

It’s one of the biggest changes for the Bluejays this season — but with nine new, talented players to integrate into Creighton’s system, the adjustment makes sense. 

Last season, it took 12 games for McDermott to completely settle on the starting lineup of Ashworth, Kalkbrenner, Green, Neal and Jackson McAndrew. After Dec. 18, however, nothing changed and each of those players averaged 20 or more minutes on the floor per game.  

This season, though, McDermott is taking advantage of the bench depth accrued in the transfer portal, opting to use more subs. 

“I’m hopeful that guys are understanding that it’s probably going to be shorter stints of playing time compared to maybe what they had where they were or even our guys from last year that played significant minutes,” McDermott said. “We’ve got enough depth that you don’t have to pace yourself. You go out and run as hard as you can, then we’ll put fresh bodies out there … ” 

This approach may differ from what Creighton fans are used to, but with ESPN ranking the Bluejays’ transfer class 11th nationally, maximizing every new addition is simply the smart play. 

Be ready to see the returners, as well as transfer portal wins in Blake Harper, Nik Graves, Freeman, Josh Dix, Liam McChesney and Austin Swartz take the floor consistently this season.  

3. Worry not for the offensive talent. Veterans and newcomers have already separated themselves from the pack and will make critical contributions to the team.  

Creighton teams are historically built with strong shooters. Think all the way back to Kyle Korver (1999-2003) and Doug McDermott (2010-2014) all the way up until Baylor Scheierman (2022-2024), Trey Alexander (2021-2024) and Steven Ashworth (2023-2024). 

No Creighton team has been built without the dynamics around the perimeter. This season, a strategic maneuver in the transfer portal gave Creighton Charlotte transfer Nik Graves, who might prove to be just the type of player to continue that trey-shooting standard.  

Graves comes to Creighton after having started 33 games for the 49ers and scoring in double-figures in 31 of them. He averaged 17.5 points per game throughout the 2024-25 season and scored at least 20 points in 12 games. 

In Creighton’s two exhibition games, Graves logged nearly 39 minutes and led the team in scoring, with 13 points against No. 16 Iowa State (including nine from three on 3-of-4 shooting) and 15 against Colorado State (nine from three on 3-of-6 shooting). 

But there is no need to look much farther than last year’s roster to find more of Creighton’s impact players for the 2025-26 campaign. Jasen Green — who recorded 728 on the floor last season filled with high IQ plays — will continue to make waves on the floor this season. In the first two exhibition games, Green recorded 22 points, posting 14 points and three rebounds on 6-of-7 from the field against the Rams. The junior displayed remarkable consistency, and after the second exhibition, McDermott said Green showed an innate ability to get to his spots, exercise patience, make the hustle play and not turn the ball over. Green isn’t flashy, McDermott said. He just executes everything well. That’s the type of player that glues a team together, and that’s what Creighton has in Green. 

Finally, Jackson McAndrew, a standout from his freshman campaign last season, returns to the Bluejays for his second year with high expectations after debuting his collegiate career with 7.8 points per game, a 35.4% three-point shooting average, and 792 hard-earned and impactful minutes on the floor. McAndrew missed Creighton’s first preseason game with the Hawkeyes due to a foot injury, so the next couple of weeks will be working out the rust in his game after recovery. With his knack for getting open, quick catch-and-shoot and improving ability to drive through contact and shoot in the paint, McAndrew is poised to keep improving and will be a key asset for the new Bluejay roster. 

4. Creighton won both exhibition games, but McDermott said the team has work to do. 

Building a cohesive team that looks like it’s been playing together for years in a short time is a tall task, especially when the newcomers outweigh the returners eight to seven. But that’s McDermott’s challenge, and if he can get the team to buy-in, the talent could take this team far. 

With that in mind, chemistry will be one of the largest hurdles for this Creighton team to overcome in the throes of regular season play. Without chemistry, nothing else — whether consistent defense or successful offense — can manifest itself, so the Bluejays’ biggest challenge will be expediting the process. 

One of the other largest areas of improvement highlighted by McDermott was communication. With a naturally quiet team, finding the one person to lead might be hard, McDermott said. But through constant work and emphasis, the Bluejays can develop momentum, and their successful and consistent defensive stands and offensive possessions will thank them.  

Pace was another point highlighted by McDermott after Creighton’s final exhibition with Colorado State. Creighton’s pace, when developed in the right way, manifests itself in transition points and high-energy plays throughout the full 40 minutes. The Bluejays, according to McDermott, aren’t there just yet, but the Rams gave Creighton a taste of what pace can do. 

“The good news is that Colorado State played with great pace, so our guys saw the difference between guarding ourselves in practice versus guarding their pace. They don’t necessarily run in transition … [but] that’ll be a good lesson for us,” he said. 

If Creighton can find its rhythm and marry the short stints on the court with full-out, high-pace play, they can begin to turn into the team that McDermott wants them to become. 

“It’s a series of … baby steps to try to improve really in all facets because, I’ve said it before, guys really haven’t come into our program in the first year and flourished, and we’re going to need guys in the first year to flourish,” McDermott said. “There’s no question [if] there’s going to be some peaks and valleys … and there’s a fine line to walk between for me from patience to accountability. I understand there’s going to be some mistakes; we just can’t be making the same mistakes over and over by the same guy. And if we can gradually clean that up, we’ll do it better, fast.” 

With the regular season just around the corner, the Bluejay roster, if different, yields talent that could pay dividends with the right work and progress throughout the season. Creighton’s first test comes against South Dakota on Wednesday, Nov. 5, with tipoff set for 7 p.m.