COVID-19 and a condensed non-conference schedule has eliminated some of college basketball’s top rivalry games for the upcoming year, but Greg McDermott doesn’t think those obstacles will get in the way of Creighton playing Nebraska in a few months.
“I’m confident that it will get done,” McDermott said on Thursday afternoon. “We both want to play. We don’t have a date or a location set yet, but we’re going to figure it out.”
The annual game with the Cornhuskers will be one piece of what will be McDermott’s most challenging schedule as a head coach.
In addition to 20 Big East conference games, the Blue Jays will also play at Kansas as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle and travel to Sioux Falls for three games in the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic. Creighton’s first round game in the event will be against Utah.
That’s 25 high level regular season games out of 27.
“No one has played a schedule like this,” McDermott said with a chuckle when asked if he’s ever had a slate like he’s about to undertake. “But you have to think differently this year. We can get on a bus and get to Sioux Falls. We may also play Nebraska Omaha simply because it’s convenient. You have to think of all these things because of what’s going on around us.”
Creighton returns five of its top six scorers from last season’s team that finished 24-7 and won a share of the Big East regular season title, headlined by All-American guard Marcus Zegarowski and Mitch Ballock.
McDermott is also expecting a major contribution from Memphis transfer Antwann Jones, a 6-6 wing who redshirted last year.
“He has a real chance to be a significant piece to our rotation,” McDermott said of Jones.
Creighton is currently ranked 11th in the ROTHSTEIN 45.
