Top 25 Battle On Deck: #21 Men's Basketball meets #20 Texas A&M

By: Rob Anderson

• There will be a Top 25 battle on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Central as No. 21 Creighton (4-2) takes on No. 20 Texas A&M (4-2) during action at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas continues, Nev.

• The game will stream on MAX at http://GoCreighton.com/MBB112724max, featuring JB Long, Candace Parker and Lauren Jbara.
John Bishop will also broadcast the game on 1620 The Zone and 101.9 The Keg. This audio can also be heard at http://GoCreighton.com/listen1620. The game will also air on SiriusXM channel 390 and https://sxm.app.link/SXM980.

• Creighton defeated Texas A&M 100-77 on Dec. 23, 1971 in Albuquerque, NM, in the Lobo Classc in the only previous meeting between the schools. Ted Wuebben had 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Ralph Bobik added 24 points and 11 assists to lead CU.

Greg McDermott is 0-5 all-time against Texas A&M, with all of those matchups coming when he led Iowa State from 2006-10.
McDermott is 2-0 against Buzz Williams as his Creighton team defeated Williams’ Marquette team twice during the 2013-14 season.

• Jackson McAndrew had 12 points and 14 rebounds against San Diego State on Tuesday.
McAndrew has since become the first Bluejay rookie with a double-double Frederick King had 16 points and 10 rebounds at Marquette on December 16, 2022. King is CU’s last freshman with consecutive double-doubles.
McAndrew is the first Bluejay with a double-double in his first start at Creighton since transferring to South Dakota State Baylor Scheierman had 11 points and 10 rebounds on November 7, 2022 against Florida A&M.
McAndrew is the first Bluejay rookie with a double-double in his first career start since Ryan Nembhard (15 points, 10 assists). No Bluejay rookie since at least 1987-88 has had a points/rebounds double-double in his first career start.
McAndrew is one of three freshmen in the BIG EAST this season to record a double-double in his first career start, joining UConn’s Liam McNeeley (18 & 10 vs. Sacred Heart) and Georgetown’s Thomas Sorber (20 & 13 vs. Lehigh).
McAndrew’s 14 rebounds were the third most of any freshman on the season Greg McDermottHe has been Creighton’s head coach for 15 years (491 games). Doug McDermott had 17 at Bradley on February 1, 2011 and 16 at Akron on February 19, 2011.

• Ryan Kalkbrenner has blocked a shot in 20 straight games, the longest active streak in the country.
It is Kalkbrenner’s third career streak of 20 or more games with a swat. He is the only player in the country since 2005-06 with three such series.
Kalkbrenner’s five blocked shots yesterday were a season high and the 17th game of his career with five or more kills. All other Bluejay players since 2005–06 have combined to play 16 such games (7 by Gregory Echenique, 4 by Anthony Tolliver, 2 by Kenny Lawson Jr., and 1 each by Frederick KingJacob Epperson and Justin Patton).

• Speaking of which Ryan KalkbrennerHe was fouled three times yesterday, had five blocks, two dunks and no fouls.
In his career, Kalkbrenner was fouled 462 times, had 322 blocked shots, 250 dunks and just 231 personal fouls in 140 games played.
This year alone he has been fouled 29 times and has 16 blocks, 14 dunks and six fouls.

• Pop Isaacs had 18 points on Tuesday and now owns 895 career points (72 at Creighton). He’s almost five out of 900.
• Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 1,889 career points and is 11 away from 1,900. He scored 11 points on Tuesday.
• Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 893 career rebounds and is seven shy of 900. He hit five on Tuesday.

• In yesterday’s game against San Diego State, the Bluejays started as freshmen Ty Davis And Jackson McAndrew. Creighton hadn’t started multiple freshmen in the same game since Trey Alexander and Arthur Kaluma started against Kansas on March 19, 2022
Creighton’s last win with two freshmen in the starting lineup came two days earlier, a 72-69 overtime victory against San Diego State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

• Creighton will look for its first Top 25 win of the season on Wednesday when it faces No. 20 Texas A&M.
The Bluejays have a 56-169 all-time record against top-25 teams (18-23 when CU is also ranked) and 38-53 under them Greg McDermott against national-level opponents, 30 more top-25 wins than any other coach in Creighton history. Prior to McDermott’s arrival, Creighton had an 18-116 all-time record against top-25 opponents.
Creighton has beaten at least one ranked team in each of the last 11 seasons (beginning 2024-25). Nationally, Baylor, Creighton, Duke, Florida State, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Michigan State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas Tech are the only 16 teams with a top-25 win each of the last 11 seasons. Villanova, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

• Creighton had just six fouls in Wednesday’s game against San Diego State and just one in the first half.
It was the 19th time since the start of last season that CU had a half with three fouls or fewer.
It was also the seventh game since the start of the 2022-23 season in which Creighton has committed six or fewer fouls. The only other team in the country to have played three such games during that span is Notre Dame (3).
Creighton was the only team in the country to not have a player foul last season. According to Elias, CU’s streak of 59 consecutive games without a foul out is the longest streak in the country since at least 2005-06.

• Yesterday’s loss to San Diego State came almost five years to the day after the Bluejay’s 83-52 loss to San Diego State on Nov. 28, 2019 in Las Vegas (at The Orleans). This 2019 game, like yesterday, was CU’s sixth game of the year, left CU down to 4-2 and saw the Bluejays hit just one shot from 3-point range in the second half. The next day, CU took on a team from Texas (Texas Tech) and won 83-76 in OT.
So how did it all end for the Bluejays this year? Creighton subsequently won a share of the program’s only BIG EAST regular season title and finished the year ranked seventh in the country.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply