Better or worse team next year?

[#RollJays]

Hey guys, they are going to be as good or better next year. My heart stopped twice last week for a minute and a half, so I was on the other side. So, I asked if I should come back for another season. Well, here I am with a pacemaker that I got on Monday night. Let’s go Jays!!

Glad you're back for another season of the exciting whites!

[cr8ngrad]

Torvik has his first 2026 Projection up. Jays at 19th with the #7 Offense and #36 Defense

Others of note in the top 50: 6) St John's 16) UConn 28) Iowa 38) Nebraska 42) Marquette and 47) Villanova


https://www.barttorvik.com/trankpre.php

[HaRdWoOd]

Lunardi says 10 seed, narrowly avoiding the play-in.
Iowa a #9. Not sure how. Jays have their best players. I guess I dont keep tracking of Hawkeye recruiting.
St Johns a #1
Yookon a #2
Marquette #10

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2026-march-madness-men-field-predictions

[Realhoops]

Lunardi says 10 seed, narrowly avoiding the play-in.
Iowa a #9. Not sure how. Jays have their best players. I guess I dont keep tracking of Hawkeye recruiting.
St Johns a #1
Yookon a #2
Marquette #10

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2026-march-madness-men-field-predictions

In this day and age with teams turning over rosters so dramatically every year, bracket projections in April are particularly ludicrous. Still -- this is an exceptionally ludicrous projection, even for Loony.

[cujaysfan]

All depends on defense.

D takes communication, chemistry and we need to figure out who our stopper is.

No doubt we'll take a step back without Kalk. How big and can we survive some of those games is the question.

Gotta believe Mac will find a way.

[Wizard of Westroads]

All depends on defense.

D takes communication, chemistry and we need to figure out who our stopper is.

No doubt we'll take a step back without Kalk. How big and can we survive some of those games is the question.

Gotta believe Mac will find a way.

Strictly fwiw, Freeman ranked 16th in portal for "predicted defensive impact:":

[HaRdWoOd]

I am not sure where I stand on the Lunardi prediction.

Kalk. Unless Shaq is walking through the door, have to assume anyone Creighton brought in to replace Kalk, is not as good as Kalk. So, downgrade there. Probably a significant downgrade.

Ashworth. I wasnt the biggest Ashworth fan. Thought a lot of bad decisions turned into a lot of bad turnovers. Still, can appreciate the shooting and leadership he brought. 2nd team All Big East. I am not sure any of the newcomers, whether its Graves, Dix, Swartz, or the return of Ty Davis would be an upgrade over Ashworth. Not sure I see it. I'll call it a wash, just due to strength in numbers.

McAndrew, Traudt, Green, Zugic. Same guys here. Probably slight upgrade, just due to being in college basketball another year. And we dont even know if Zugi is back or not. So that can be a significant loss.

J Neal. I guess this is the one spot where the combination of Dix, Harper, Swartz and Greer could be an upgrade.

Miller. Mason Miller. King. Fred King. Anything replacing the minutes these guys provided last year is for sure an upgrade. +++

Team has to gel, find roles, new leaders will emerge. A lot of work to do. I am not sure Lunardi is too far out of line. Anywhere from a 3 seed to a 10 seed, I do not think is out of line.

[NateFunkyTown]

Think you made some great points there but would like to break it down another way. In this discussion I'm just gonna ignore Pop Isaacs because he missed most of the year and factoring in his minutes I think kinda throws things out of wack a bit.

Creighton played a 9-10 man rotation once it got to league play last year. At the bottom of that rotation were 3 guys Mac frankly could not count on for positive play (Miller, King, Davis) who combined to average 23.1 MPG. That's a fairly large chunk of time to be going to guys who were typically a net negative against competent teams.

Then you get to Traudt (16.7 MPG) who while he has an elite skill in his shooting, was also mostly not ready to be a key contributor on a BE contending roster imo. Zugic only got up to 11 MPG by the end of the year because of the late start—a guy many would've considered our 4th best player by year's end. Even Green and McAndrew were arguably asked to play more than gthey probably should have out of neccesity with each averaging roughly 22 MPG in conference play.

Now all of that being said, I think you are right and cannot be understated at all how important that big 3 were and how next year's big 3 almost certainly won't be able to match their impact out of the gate. But those guys were really overextended due to the deficiencies and lack of depth around them.

I think Creighton had generously 5-6 guys they could trust at any given point last year. This year I think that list is CONSIDERABLY longer and I think that is being overlooked (naturally its early and there's so many teams to track and players witching spots) by some of the national guys right now.