Ryan Kalkbrenner single-handedly saved the Bluejays in their season opener on Wednesday night.
Kalkbrenner dropped a career-high 49 points to lift No. 15 Creighton past UT-Rio Grande Valley at 99-86 at CHI Health Center in Omaha. He finished just two points behind Creighton’s single-game scoring record, which dated back to 1967, and he became the first player in Big East history to drop 40 points or more in a season opener.
The 7-foot-1 center also shot a near-perfect 20-of-22 from the field and went 7-of-8 from the free-throw line with a pair of 3-pointers. The Bluejays, and even coach Greg McDermott, all tried to get him to score one last time on their last few possessions to reach the 50-point mark as well, but Kalkbrenner didn’t seem interested.
The last player to make 20 field goals with a shooting percentage of 90% or better in a Division I game was Bill Walton, who did so in the 1973 national championship game with UCLA.
But without Kalkbrenner’s unprecedented performance, McDermott’s group would have been in trouble. The Vaqueros stuck with Creighton all the way, scoring 48 points in the second half to keep the game in single digits.
Steven Ashworth was the only Creighton starter to hit double figures. He added 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, although 17 of his points came from the free-throw line. They were without Pop Isaacs, who transferred from Texas Tech, on Wednesday night. Isaacs is recovering from a hip injury and wasn’t quite ready to leave. Last season he averaged 15.8 points per game with the Red Raiders.
Hasan Abdul Hakim led the Vaqueros with 26 points and 11 rebounds, and both Cliff Davis and DK Thorn added 17 points each. UT-Rio Grande Valley went just 6-25, the finals in the WAC last season before making the jump to the Southland Conference this season under new head coach Khalil Fennell.
Kalkrenner, a three-time Big East defensive player of the year, announced in May that he would return to Creighton for his final season of eligibility. Last season, he averaged a career-high 17.3 points and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting nearly 65% from the field. He also had a total of 107 blocks, which was the second highest production in the country. Kalkbrenner also played a big role in Creighton’s back-to-back runs to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, though they were eliminated in the Sweet 16 last season.
Creighton returns to action on Sunday against Fairleigh Dickinson. The Bluejays will face No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Alabama in a tough non-conference slate before Big East play kicks off in December. Conference play will likely be a three-team battle with No. 18 Marquette and two-time reigning national champion No. 3 UConn. Kalkbrenner will undoubtedly play a big role in Creighton’s quest for what would be its first conference title since 2020. To get there, however, the Bluejays will need a much more balanced attack. Otherwise they could get into trouble.
“We have to get healthy, and we have to get stronger,” McDermott said, via Jon Walker of the Omaha World Herald. “Our attention to detail, defensively, was not there. We just surpassed people. That is fool’s gold.”
