‘We’re going into a hornet’s nest.’ No. 23 Creighton visits No. 19 Gonzaga in highly-anticipated Top 25 showdown

As season-opening wins go, Creighton’s 92-76 decision over South Dakota last Wednesday was on the more unsettling side.

That was the general vibe from two members of Creighton’s coaching staff after the Bluejays wrapped up a game where they led by as many as 24 points but also conceded a few troubling statistical advantages to an overmatched opponent from the Summit League.

Knowing what the Bluejays would be up against five days later, South Dakota’s 21-19 edge in offensive rebounding may have been the main concern. The Coyotes’ 48 paint points weren’t a great sign, either.

If proper corrections weren’t made prior to visiting No. 19 Gonzaga on Tuesday, Creighton coach Greg McDermott acknowledged the No. 23 Bluejays could be in for a long, painful night at McCarthey Athletic Center, speaking as someone who’s been there before.

“We’re going to go into a hornet’s nest,” McDermott said in a postgame news conference. “I’ve had – not the pleasure, because it’s not a lot of fun to go play at that place. But the Zags are extremely well-coached and they’re really hard to play in their building.”

McDermott’s team never led in an 2021 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 loss to the Drew Timme-led Zags at Hinkle Fieldhouse, but during Creighton’s most recent Kennel visit, the Bluejays took a seven-point advantage into halftime before Zach Norvell Jr’s second-half avalanche buried them in a 103-92 loss. The guard, now a member of GU’s coaching staff, had six points inside the first 40 seconds of the second half and scored 23 of his game-high 28 points after the break.

“We’re either going to learn a lot the next four days or we’re going to get our teeth kicked in on Tuesday,” McDermott said. “I don’t know if we’re ready for something like that, but it’s also the only way you learn and grow. Hopefully we can correct some of it between now and Tuesday, but it’s going to be a heckuva challenge and we understand that.”

In a separate interview, Creighton assistant Alan Huss, McDermott’s eventual successor at the Big East school, was more matter-of-fact in his postgame analysis last Wednesday.

“If we’re not prepared to fight a little harder at the head of the rim at the point of attack in their transition game, it won’t be close, it’ll be ugly and we’ll have to learn a lesson the hard way,” Huss said on the Roll Jays Podcast. “We’ve got to deal with the post, we’ve got to fight it a little bit then obviously, they could potentially be more physical on the glass than we saw tonight. The team we gave up 3,000 offensive rebounds to.”

Safe to say both teams have a pretty good idea of what they’re up against on Tuesday, when Gonzaga (2-0) and Creighton (1-0) tip off at 7 p.m. (ESPN) in a Top 25 showdown at McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Zags may have been able to put together a better scouting report last season, when former Creighton point guard Ryan Nembhard was still tossing out dimes for Mark Few’s team, but there’s still familiarity between two programs that have met three times over the last seven seasons.

Nembhard’s departure gives Gonzaga’s backcourt a different look and Creighton’s frontcourt isn’t operating the same way without defensive stalwart Ryan Kalkbrenner – the former college teammates are now paving careers in the NBA – but Few still has a pretty good idea that the Bluejays will try to create a variety of open looks from 3 on Tuesday, same as McDermott knows the Zags will move the game down low and exploit mismatches in the post.

“I think they’re really, really hard to defend because they’re always really skilled,” Few said. “Coach McDermott does a really nice job of just specific sets. Whatever way you guard them, they have counters to kind of sting those sets and they always have great shooters, they’re always really, really skilled.

“I haven’t really watched a ton of them, we’ll start tonight watching them. But again, just kind of got to expect that.”

The Zags didn’t get much time to look at the Bluejays before Saturday’s 83-68 win over Oklahoma at the Arena, but Creighton immediately shifted its attention to Gonzaga after the South Dakota win.

Any concerns the Bluejays had about Gonzaga’s rebounding prowess probably didn’t wash away after Few’s team outmuscled and outhustled Oklahoma for a 46-39 advantage on the glass and 18-8 edge in offensive rebounds.

“I’m going to tell you that they’re better than South Dakota, definitively,” Huss said Wednesday, speaking with a wry tone. “We’re going to go into an environment that’s going to be really challenging, really tricky. The last series we played with them, both times we were leading at halftime and then they were able to with their depth pull away from us.

“Their early post-ups, that’s where everything starts with them. Their transition game is about as fast up and down the floor as us, but it’s way more physical, it starts at the head of the rim.”

The Zags may have a good feel for the Bluejays’ tendencies, but most of Creighton’s key players weren’t in McDermott’s program last year. Starting forward Jasen Green (4.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg in 2025-25) is one of the returners, but missed the season opener due to a concussion. McDermott said Monday he expects Green to play against Gonzaga.

Watching Creighton’s opener also won’t help Gonzaga prepare for sophomore forward Kerem Konan, a native of Turkey who was forced to sit out of the team’s opener by the NCAA. Konan should be part of Creighton’s defensive plan to limit Zag posts Graham Ike and Braden Huff, who had 32 points and 20 rebounds against Oklahoma.

“It’ll be really good, we’ve just been working all week on how we’re going to defend them because they have some of the most talented big men in the country,” Green said. “It’s going to be really tough to handle them but we’ve been preparing all week and it’s going to be really good to learn from this game and be better moving forward.”

The Bluejays brought touted Iowa transfer Owen Freeman off the bench last Wednesday, but the big man was still Creighton’s top performer with 19 points on 9 of 11 shooting. Freeman and former Iowa teammate Josh Dix transferred to Creighton together this offseason. A 6-foot-6 guard, Dix is a shooting threat who averaged 14.4 ppg with the Hawkeyes last year while shooting 42.2% from the 3-point line.

Tuesday’s game will mark just the fourth nonconference game between two Top 25 teams at the Kennel since 2015. The Zags have won five straight home Top 25 matchups and are 3-0 against Creighton under Few.