When Creighton takes on Kansas State Tuesday night in Manhattan, Kan., the game will feature two programs with relative proximity to one another — but very little familiarity beyond that.
Though the campuses are just 170 miles apart, the teams have faced each other only 17 times: Kansas State leads the all-time series 9-8 and last lost to the Bluejays in 1976. Additionally, each side should be forgiven for taking extra time to learn about the other, given all the roster and coaching turnover on display.
Alan Huss has taken over in Omaha for coach Greg McDermott, who retired after 16 seasons, and his Blue Jays are off to a 2-0 start while integrating nine new players.
The turnover has been even more severe for Kansas State (1-1), where new coach Casey Alexander has been charged with rebuilding the program despite 13 new additions.
The results for each have been understandably mixed.
Creighton has bright spots to point to with a dynamic scorer in Wes Enis, who is averaging 20.5 points per game, and a defense that has held both opponents to 61 points or fewer.
Huss, however, sees plenty of room for improvement. In the most recent 83-55 win over Le Moyne, his team shot 41.4% from the field and just 66.7% from the free throw line.
“We try to honor the game by being completely process-driven,” Huss said. “We deviated from process in the second half, and that’s been this team’s MO so far.”
Alexander probably can relate. He earned his first win as the Wildcats’ coach in a 95-78 victory over Cal State Northridge on Friday, but the squad got a little sloppy in the second half after building a 57-29 halftime advantage.
“Teams play better when they have an edge about them when the scouting reports matter, and doing your job matters, and effort matters,” Alexander said. “It’s just amazing how much better you play, and so we saw that in the first half. Second half, we definitely were not as good.”
Brandon Rechsteiner provided much of that first-half spark, making his first four 3-point attempts on his way to a career-high 26 points. He’s averaging 21 points per game on the season after scoring 16 in Kansas State’s season-opening 68-66 loss to South Dakota State.
“We’re gonna see that a lot,” Alexander said. “He’s going to be guarded better, but we’re going to see many games where he tends to carry us because of his ability to make shots.”
–Field Level Media
