San Diego State vs. No. 21 Creighton

When: 11am Tuesday

Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas

In the air: TBS; 760-AM

What: Players Era Festival, with the eight teams receiving $1 million each for their NIL collectives and the top four finishers sharing another $1 million.

Format: Two pre-determined matches today and Wednesday, followed by a championship round on Saturday.

Series history: Creigton leads 5-4 in a series dating back to 1948. SDSU has won three of the last four, including 57-56 in the 2023 Elite Eight.

Aztecs update: Miles Byrd was a regular practice participant due to his sore ankle and is expected to return to the starting lineup. The bigger question might 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 the opener against UCSD, then zero against the Zags before sitting out the final 13 minutes. The Aztecs have played just two Division I games this season; none of the other seven teams in the event have played fewer than four. Freshman Magoon Gwath’s five blocks against Gonzaga gave him 12 in three games, all but one 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, was the biggest surprise of the season. He scored in double figures in all three games (11, 16 and 15) and ranked 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 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 suffering a serious ankle injury Friday has sprained. SDSU’s defensive focus will be on 7-1 senior Ryan Kalkbrenner, who is still averaging 21.4 points despite scoring just four points against Nebraska’s collapsing defense. He is also a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year. The only others to do so are Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing (four times) and Alonzo Mourning (three times). 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 gain time in the last meeting, the 2023 Elite Eight in Louisville, Kentucky. Greg McDermott is in his 15th season at Creighton and recently passed Dana Altman (now at Oregon) for the most wins in program history at 329. The Bluejays rank No. 42 in the Kenpom metric, 13 spots above SDSU.

Next: Wednesday vs. Oregon at Las Vegas (1 p.m., streaming on MAX).

Originally published: November 25, 2024 at 6:14 PM PST