When former Creighton star Ty-Shon Alexander opted out of his senior season and took his 17 points a game to the NBA, the prevailing theory, as far as the Bluejays’ offense was concerned, was that BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year Marcus Zagarowski would step in and take over Creighton’s run-and-gun show and make a spirited run at the conference’s regular-season top player honors.
 
But as Zegarowski continues to work himself back into form following a knee injury he suffered just before last season’s abbreviated BIG EAST Tournament, the Bluejays, 7-2 and ranked No. 11 in the current AP Top 25 poll, have proven once again to be more than a one-man show. Heck, they’re not even a two-man show. Instead when Creighton head coach Greg McDermott scribbles out his starting lineup each game it’s one that sees all five starters average in double figures.
 
Talk about picking your poison.
 
So was this Fab Five phenomenon a product of design or one born out of necessity as Zegarowski rounds into shape? Well, it depends on who you ask.
 
“It’s been a little bit of both,” said senior Mitch Ballock, who led the Jays with 93 3-pointers last season and is averaging 10.3 points a game this year. “We kind of saw it coming but ever since my freshman year it’s always been a next-man-up mentality. After my first year we lost Marcus (Foster) and Khyri (Thomas) and those were two really good guys. Then the next year we lost (Martin Krampelj) and then the next year we lost Ty-Shon. So when you have turnover like that, you hope to develop guys in practice, so when their number is called they deliver. So far we’re kind of delivering.”
 
Senior Denzel Mahoney currently leads the Bluejays in scoring at 15.0 points a game and has logged double figures in seven of the eight games he’s appeared in this season. Zegarowski, a junior, places second with 13.8 points a game with fellow junior Christian Bishop just behind at 12.8 ppg. Senior Damien Jefferson notches 10.7 points a night, which is just ahead of Ballock’s 10.3.
 
“There’s not one guy who averages 10 points more than anybody else,” Ballock said. “That’s kind of the system we’ve developed here. It’s a different guy every night.”
 
McDermott said his Bluejays have long had a multi-faceted offensive attack, so this year’s team has not come as much of a surprise to him.
 
“I think we’ve always had the ability to have multiple people score,” McDermott said. “I think there were games last year where Denzel Mahoney stepped up and had a great game or Damien Jefferson did. So I just think when you have as much experience as we have you kind of take what the defense gives you. I think Marcus has gotten off to a little slower start shooting the basketball than he would like so other people have stepped up and filled that void and I think it makes us a difficult team to prepare for.”
 
So far through nine games this season the Bluejays have seen four different players finish as top scorers with Zegarowski and Bishop each doing the honors three times and Mahoney turning the trick twice with Ballock dropping 26 points on Marquette.
 
Pick your poison? You betcha.
 
“One hundred percent,” Ballock said. “That’s the system that Coach Mac has developed here. If you play the right way, the ball finds people who play the right way. I might have 20 one night or Denzel might come out and have 20 one night. The ball just finds the open man in our system. So at the end of the day you just have to make the shots.”
 
As if Creighton’s vaunted offense doesn’t give opposing teams enough bouts of agita with its lethal three-point shooting, now the Jays have added a strong inside game to their arsenal, due mostly to the play of the 6-7 Bishop and 7-0 freshman Ryan Kalkbrenner.
 
“Christian Bishop is doing a lot around the basket and has elevated his game there,” McDermott said. “And Ryan Kalkbrenner is averaging seven and a half points off the bench at the backup position. So we’re getting essentially 20 points a game out of the center position. So you take that, with our ability to shoot the ball and stretch the floor, and it puts defenses in a tough spot to decide what you want to take away.”
 
Creighton already has solid conference road wins at St. John’s and UConn this season and will look to run their conference record to 4-1 when the Bluejays visit Providence Saturday afternoon (FOX, Noon ET). Providence is coming off a convincing victory over Butler Wednesday night and is 7-3 overall on the season and 3-1 in BIG EAST play.
 
“It’s always a tough challenge when we play Providence,” McDermott said. “Coach (Ed) Cooley does a tremendous job having them prepared. From a physicality standpoint I think they bring it as well as anybody in the country and he does a great job of changing defenses to the point where they keep you off balance.”
 
Providence boasts a collection of elite players in its own right and three of them in particular are on McDermott’s radar.
 
“I think David Duke is one of the best players in the league,” McDermott said. “A.J. Reeves seems to have found his rhythm shooting the basketball and then you got the big fella (Nate Watson) inside who makes it really hard as well. This is a really good Providence team. They beat us really bad at their place last year (73-56) and we won on a last-second shot here (78-74 in Omaha) where we were really fortunate to win. So we know it’s going to take our A-game if we expect to go there and win.”
 
So with a dangerous starting five and a pair of players off the bench in Kalkbrenner and another newcomer, Antwaan Jones, each averaging 7.6 points a game, is this the best Creighton team we’re seeing in a long line of strong Bluejays’ outfits?
 
“From a talent standpoint, this is probably the best I’ve played on,” Ballock said. “The beauty of this team right now is we’ve got guys who are getting better every day. So from an overall standpoint, this is probably the best team from a talent standpoint and from a potential standpoint since I’ve been at Creighton. I think we can do a lot of special things and I think we can be better than we were last year.”
 
McDermott also likes the promise this Creighton team holds for this season.
 
“There’s certainly a lot of potential there,” McDermott said. “We’ve won a couple of grind-it-out, slugfest games against UConn and Xavier and those are games that we’ve struggled to win in the past. It’s a veteran team with a lot of senior and junior leadership and when you’re building a program and building a culture and you have a bunch of juniors and seniors you better be good. But this group really gets along well and when you look at our shot distribution and our scoring distribution, obviously they’re not too caught up in who gets the credit.”
 
Except, maybe, who finishes the season as the Bluejays’ 3-Point King, which Ballock won last season as his 93 three-balls topped Alexander’s 83 and Zegarowski’s 75. So far this season Ballock is once again leading the Jays with 24 treys while Zegarowski has 23 and Mahoney 22.
So is there any friendly wagering going on as to who will wear the crown this time around?
 
“I didn’t even realize it was that close,” Ballock said laughing. “We don’t have any side bets going on right now but now that you put it in my head I’ll go talk to them. But we’re just trying to get some good shots. Whoever is taking them, we don’t care. Just trying to hit good shots and make the right play.”