Tom Nemitz

[ Box Score ] With 3:10 left in the first half, #14 seed Akron took a 33-31 lead after a one-handed turnaround jumper in the paint by Enrique Freeman.

On this episode, Matt DeMarinis and Jacob Padilla talk NCAA Tournament: Full breakdown of Creighton's 77-60 first round win over Akron

After Thursday's 77-60 win over Akron, Greg McDermott is 10-8 as Creighton's head coach in the NCAA Tournament, winning at least one game in seven of the nine seasons he's taken the Jays to the big dance — including each of the last four seasons. But to get to his third Sweet 16 in four years, he'll need to get past his predecessor on the CU bench, as Dana Altman's Oregon Ducks await.

[ Box Score ] There had been nine lead changes and six ties over the first 39 minutes of Saturday's second round battle between Creighton and Oregon.

All eight of the #1 and #2 seeds survived into the Sweet 16 for just the fifth time in history (along with 1989, 1995, 2009 and 2019). A historic number of favorites are still alive, and Creighton's potential path to a Final Four goes through #2 seed Tennessee (the regular season SEC champs), #1 seed Purdue (the regular season Big Ten champs) or #5 seed Gonzaga.

Friday night, Trey Alexander declared for the NBA Draft, announcing his intentions in a post on social media. While he technically could withdraw by May 29 and return to CU, as he did last summer...

In the era of immediate transfers and NIL, it's increasingly unlikely for players to stick around for four years at one school. Creighton's move to the Big East has also meant their rosters generally have more players likely to leave early for professional opportunities. That makes legacy discussions about all-time Bluejays much tougher than they were, say, a decade ago (like when we tackled the topic in our “What's in a Number?” series).

Creighton's 2024-25 non-conference schedule took a staggering left-turn over the weekend, when word leaked that they were buying their way out of the Battle 4 Atlantis tourney in favor of the NIL-driven Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Staggering? You bet. The Bluejays pulled out of one of college basketball's marquee Multi-Team Events, televised annually in prime TV windows on ESPN, in favor of one in its first year with no TV deal (yet), no decision on where it will be played in Las Vegas, and no decision on whether it will be a single eight-team tourney or two separate four-team events.