It looks like Jim Flanery and his players are going all in for one final run together, which is neat….. but not great for 2026.
Team: Creighton Bluejays
2023-24 Record: 26-6, 15-3 Big East
2023-24 Big East Finish: Second place, three games behind undefeated regular season champion UConn and four games in front of a three-way 11-7 tie for third.
Final 2023-24 Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #18 out of 360 teams
Postseason? After going out in an upset to #6 seeded Georgetown in the Big East semifinals, Creighton earned a #7 seed in the NCAA tournament. They knocked off a ranked UNLV team that dropped to a #10 seed in the first round and then fell, 67-63 at Pauley Pavilion, to a top 10 ranked UCLA team in the second round.
Key Departures: Only one. Emma Ronsiek was a double digit scorer for Creighton for the past four seasons, not to mention an effective long range shooter, rebounder, and distributor. She’s electing to take her COVID bonus season of eligibility at Colorado State, where she will get to play with her younger sister, as Hannah Ronsiek will be a junior for the Rams in 2024-25. Emma averaged 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 blocks, and a steal for the Bluejays last year, so that’s a pretty solid chunk of all around play that they have to replace.
Key Returners: Everyone else.
We start with Lauren Jensen, seen above, who led Creighton in scoring last year at 17.4 per game. Morgan Maly was the top rebounder at 6.5 per game, and she’s back. Molly Mogensen beat out Jensen for the team assists title, 4.3 per game to 3.1, and she’s back. Mallory Brake did a little bit of everything, including 5.4 rebounds per game and a team high 1.8 steals a night, and she’s back.
That covers Creighton’s four returning starters, and yes, they had the same five women start all 32 games.
Kennedy Townsend missed just one game while subbing in for 16 minutes a night on average. Jayme Horan missed two games, but saw 12 minutes of run a night otherwise. Kiani Lockett missed most of January and all of February with an injury before returning for the postseason. She ended up playing in 19 games, averaging over 15 minutes per contest.
That’s a seven person rotation for 2024-25 right there, and that’s not a bad way to go through a college basketball season.
Key Additions: I’m not sure that Creighton has anyone that qualifies as a key addition, but generally speaking, someone — probably multiple someones — out of this group of four new faces is going to have to contribute a little bit because the Bluejays’ seven returning players can’t do it alone.
It’s just that none of the four immediately jump off the page as “oh, I see what’s going to happen here.” Blue Star has the two freshmen at #190 and #238 in the recruiting class, so it’s hard to say that either one of them is set to play a major role this season.
They do add two Division 2 transfers who are in Omaha for one final year of bonus eligibility. Nebraska native Sydney Golladay is a 5’8” guard who has been at Fort Hays State in Kansas. She averaged 7.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game last year while shooting 34% from behind the three-point line, all of which were career bests. FHSU went 24-8 and won a game in the NCAA D2 tournament.
Brooke Littrell is the other Division 2 transfer. She’s a 6’2” forward who has spent the last four campaigns at Central Missouri. In 2023-24, she averaged 20.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. She has a history of letting it fly from long range, which is useful for the Bluejays….. but her junior season was the only time she connected more than 30% of the time. UCM went 21-8 this past year before having their season ended in the conference tournament….. by Golladay and Fort Hays State. How’s that for coincidence?
In theory, both Division 2 transfers are looking to play notable time for Creighton this coming season. Why would they be trying their hand at contributing to a Division 1 team with NCAA tournament aspirations otherwise, right?
Coach: Jim Flanery, entering his 23rd season at Creighton and overall as a Division 1 head coach. He has a record of 427-268.
Outlook: It will all make a lot more sense as you read more and more of these Summer Check-Ins, but the fact of the matter is that Creighton is the favorite to win the Big East’s “Not UConn” division this coming season. Not only are they the favorite, but they’re probably a heavy favorite to do that. They finished last year at least four games ahead of everyone else not named UConn, and they bring back seven of the eight women who made that happen while the three teams that were precisely four games behind them in the standings are all going through some kind of tumult one way or another.
All they have to do is find a way to replace Emma Ronsiek’s contributions to the lineup, and off they go. It’s probably going to have to be by way of committee with the seven returning players doing a little bit and the two Division 2 transfers doing a decent amount each. We can expect the Jays to finish at the top of the league standings, and as long as they don’t trip and fall in whatever their non-conference slate looks like, the Bluejays are probably going to coast into an NCAA tournament appearance. Last year was their third straight NCAA tournament, and that had never happened in program history before. A fourth straight appearance will essentially guarantee head coach Jim Flanery a spot in whatever Creighton has as an athletics Hall of Fame…. if he wasn’t locked into a spot by his work in the previous two decades on the job, of course.
I know it sounds like I’m being kind of hand-wavey and dismissive about what’s probably going to be a team that’s ranked for a lot of the season, but there’s just not that much to discuss here. Yes, losing Ronsiek is kind of a big deal, Her Hoop Stats had her at #160 in the country in Win Shares per 40 minutes and #82 if you look at just her offensive contributions. Even with that said, Ronsiek didn’t have the best shooting season in the world last year, connecting on just 33% of her 3.8 long range attempts per year. If you just take those three-pointers and redistribute them to Jayme Horan (42%) or Molly Mogensen (42%) or Kennedy Townsend (39%), there’s a way to believe that Creighton could be an even better three-point shooting team in 2024-25. That’s saying something, because their team shooting percentage was #25 in the country last year.
The last thing I want to point out is that Creighton might be extra motivated to accomplish something big this season. Lauren Jensen, Molly Mogensen, Morgan Maly, Mallory Brake, and Jayme Horan are all returning to Omaha for a fifth bonus season of eligibility. This is it for them. To a certain extent, this might be it for Creighton’s continuing run as a nationally notable program. The Bluejays project to bring back just four players in 2025-26. We will definitely have a lot to talk about when it comes time for their Summer Check-In a year from now, but that’s Future Jim Flanery’s problem. For the moment, the most important thing for Creighton women’s basketball is to make the most of the present.