San Diego State vs. No. 21 Creighton
When: 11 a.m. Tuesday
Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
On the air: TBS; 760-AM
What: Players Era Festival, with the eight teams each receiving $1 million to their NIL collectives and the top four finishers splitting an additional $1 million.
Format: Two pre-determined games today and Wednesday, followed by a championship round Saturday.
Series history: Creigton leads 5-4 in a series that dates to 1948. SDSU has won three of the last four, including 57-56 in the 2023 Elite Eight.
Aztecs update: Miles Byrd has been a regular practice participant on his balky ankle and is expected to return to the starting lineup. A bigger question may be whether Byrd and freshman forward Pharaoh Compton can avoid the muscle cramps that sidelined them in the second half of last week’s 80-67 home loss to No. 3 Gonzaga. Byrd had a team-high 20 points in opener against UCSD, then zero against the Zags before sitting out the final 13 minutes. The Aztecs have played only two Division I games this season; none of the other seven teams in the event has played less than four. The five blocks by freshman Magoon Gwath against Gonzaga gave him 12 in three games, all but one coming in the first half. Entering the week, the Aztecs ranked second nationally in blocks (8.3 per game) behind UConn (10.8). Sophomore BJ Davis, who barely played as a freshman, has been the season’s biggest surprise, scoring in double figures all three games (11, 16 and 15) and ranking second on the team in scoring (14.0) behind Nick Boyd (14.7). The event is a homecoming for Compton and fellow freshman Taj DeGourville, both of whom are from Las Vegas.
Bluejays update: They opened the season with four double-digit wins before losing 74-63 at home to Nebraska on Friday. They return three starters from a 25-win team that reached the Sweet 16, but one of them – senior point guard Steve Ashworth (16.0 points, 6.4 assists) – is not expected to play after badly spraining an ankle Friday. SDSU’s defensive focus will be on 7-1 senior Ryan Kalkbrenner, who still averages 21.4 points despite scoring only four against Nebraska’s collapsing defense. He’s also a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year. The only others to do that are Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing (four times) and Alonzo Mourning (three). The other starters are Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs (13.5 points), Arizona State transfer Jamiya Neal (9.8) and 6-10 Isaac Traudt. Kalkbrenner, Mason Miller and Frederick King are the only players on either team to get time in the last meeting, the 2023 Elite Eight in Louisville, Ky. Greg McDermott is in his 15th season at Creighton and recently passed Dana Altman (now at Oregon) for most wins in program history at 329. The Bluejays are No. 42 in the Kenpom metric, 13 spots above SDSU.
Next up: Wednesday vs. Oregon in Las Vegas (1 p.m., streamed on MAX).
