Breaking down No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 14 Akron

No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 14 Akron

1:30 p.m. Thursday, PPG Paints Arena

TV: TNT

Winner plays: Winner of No. 6 South Carolina (26-7)/No. 11 Oregon (23-11) on Saturday in second round

Series history: Creighton leads 3-1

Creighton (23-9)

Coach: Greg McDermott (14th season)

How they got here: Creighton earned an at-large bid out of the Big East.

Last NCAA appearance: 2023, reached the Elite Eight before losing to San Diego State

Leading scorer: Baylor Scheierman, sr., G, 18.4 ppg

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

1, Steven Ashworth, 6-1, G, sr., 10.7

11, Ryan Kalkbrenner, 7-1, C, sr., 17.1

13, Mason Miller, 6-9, F, so., 5.7

23, Trey Alexander, 6-4, G, jr., 17.6

55, Baylor Scheierman, 6-7, sr., G, 18.4

Notable: Creighton is making its 25th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Bluejays are 19-25 all-time in tournament games. They have won an NCAA Tournament game in each of the past three seasons. … Ranked No. 11 in AP poll, Creighton finished second in the Big East behind UConn after finishing 14-6 in league play. … The Bluejays were ousted by Providence in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament, 78-73. … The Bluejays’ top players are senior forward Baylor Scheierman (18.4 ppg, 9.0 rpg), senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner (17.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and junior guard Trey Alexander (17.6, 5.7 rpg, 4.8 apg). Kalkbrenner will be Creighton’s second player to appear in four NCAA Tournaments, joining Kyle Korver. Senior transfer Steven Ashworth (10.7 ppg) was the USBWA District VII Player of the Year last year at Utah State. … McDermott is in his 14th season at Creighton and has a 323-159 record (603-354 career overall). … Creighton is a private, Jesuit Institution located in Omaha, Neb., with 8,255 students. … Creighton is hosting NCAA Tournament games Thursday and Friday, where Duquesne is playing. Coincidentally, Duquesne is hosting games this week where Creighton is playing.

Quotable: “So I think the key is you really have to navigate the tough moments in these games and make sure they don’t get away from you, because there’s going to be some of those because of who you’re playing.”

— Creighton coach Greg McDermott on playing in the NCAA Tournament

Akron (24-10)

Coach: John Groce (7th season)

How they got here: Akron earned an automatic bid after winning the MAC Tournament.

Last NCAA appearance: 2022, lost to No. 4 UCLA

Leading scorer: Enrique Freeman, sr., F, 18.6 ppg

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

2, Greg Tribble, 6-3, G, sr., 10.5

11, Sammy Hunter, 6-9, F, sr., 8.8

24, Ali Ali, 6-8, G, sr., 15.6

25, Enrique Freeman, 6-7, F, sr., 18.6

34, Nate Johnson, 6-3, G, r-so., 7.4

Notable: Akron is making its sixth NCAA appearance after claiming its fifth MAC Championship. The Zips are looking for their first NCAA Tournament victory in Division I. … Akron finished 13-5 in league play to place second in the MAC. … The Zips are 109-45 over the past five seasons. … Groce, who took over for Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot at Akron, is 140-80 in seven seasons with the Zips. … Akron features three players who average double figures in scoring: Freeman (18.6 ppg), Ali (15.6) and Tribble (10.5). Freeman was a walk on as a freshman and this week was named an AP All-American honorable mention. He leads the nation with 30 double-doubles and also is first in rebounds (439) and rebounds per game (12.9). David Robinson set the NCAA single-season record for double-doubles (31) at Navy in 1986. Freeman broke Akron’s career rebounding record earlier this month. He was named the MAC Tournament MVP for the second time after scoring 71 points, gathering 42 rebounds and blocking 12 shots in the tournament. He also was the MAC Player of the Year. … Ali surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this month. Akron expects to have a home-court advantage Thursday. The school is located 108 miles from PPG Paints Arena.

Quotable: “I just remember a skinny kid just flying around, blocking shots. And obviously me and Ali were freshmen at the time. That was our first year there. Then we saw him at practice, and he was on the scout team and we was like ‘hold on.’ He got under Coach Groce and Coach Ford and all them guys, and they developed him and obviously you see the product they produced.”

— Senior guard Greg Tribble on seeing Enrique Freeman at a walk-on tryout five years ago