Creighton basketball star Ryan Kalkbrenner got his senior season off to a scorching hot start on Wednesday night. With Creighton locked in a battle with UT Rio Grande that was much closer than expected, Kalkbrenner absolutely took over and carried the Bluejays to a 99-86 win.
Kalkbrenner’s stats in the win are absolutely bonkers: 49 points on 20-for-22 shooting, 2-for-2 from three-point range and 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. He also added 11 rebounds and three blocks to drag Creighton over the finish line. Kalkbrenner’s scoring efficiency put him in rare air with the one and only Bill Walton, according to Jared Berson.
“Prior to tonight, the last player with 20 field goals on 90% shooting in a Division I game: Bill Walton in the 1973 National Final,” Berson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The mind-boggling stats don’t stop there for Kalkbrenner. His 49 points are also the most points scored by a Division I player while shooting at least 90% from the field in at least the last 40 years, and they are the most points scored by a player in a season opener since 2009, according to Berson.
Kalkbrenner’s unprecedented performance will understandably generate some National Player of the Year buzz for the star center, who is leading the 15th-ranked Bluejays this season alongside point guars Steven Ashworth. If he can keep up anything close to this level of offensive production to go with his elite defensive skills, that award could be his in a few months time.
Can Creighton break its Final Four curse in 2025?
Despite being a very successful program in recent history, Creighton basketball has still never reached the Final Four. Creighton has fizzled out in the NCAA Tournament multiple times during the days of the legendary Doug McDermott over a decade ago, and their last two talented teams fell just short. The 2023 squad suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final seconds of the Elite 8 against San Diego State, and the 2024 team couldn’t overcome Tennessee in the Sweet 16.
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Kalkbrenner was a vital piece of both of those squads, and he’s hoping he can lead this 2024-25 group to the tournament’s final weekend in 2025. Creighton started this season ranked No. 15 in the country, and they are the second-highest ranked team in the Big East behind two-time defending National Champion UConn.
Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth form one of the elite inside-out pairings in the country. Ashworth is a strong playmaker and a good shooter from the outside, and Kalkbrenner is hyper-efficient around the rim while providing elite rim protection on the other end. Perhaps the best aspect of Kalkbrenner’s game is the fact that he can consistently alter and block shots around the rim while almost never ending up in foul trouble, allowing him to stay on the court at all times.
The ceiling of this Creighton team could be decided by transfer guard Jamiya Neal, who came to Omaha after spending three seasons with Arizona State. Neal is a skilled guard who averaged 11 points per game with the Sun Devils last season. If he can be a third reliable double-digit scorer for Creighton, it will make them much tougher to beat.