Creighton head basketball coach Ryon Nilson had to say good-bye to the lone senior on his roster a year ago. His son Taylor (5'10 Point guard) did it all for the Bulldogs, putting up 16.3 points, 8.7 rebounds 2.9 assists and 1.5 steals.
The younger Nilson also worked hard to produce 12 double-doubles a year ago, ranking fifth in Class D1, and finished his career with 1,150 points and ranked second in season and career rebounds.
The first team, All-Lewis and Clark honoree led the conference in points, double-doubles and was second in rebounds.
The Bulldogs, who finished the 2023-24 season with a 2-22 record without the services of their head coach, went 8-17 a year ago with an 0-7 record against state tournament teams.
Creighton did advance to the D1-7 sub-district final before falling 54-47 to Hartington-Newcastle after leading for much of the contest. With everybody else on last year's roster back, Nilson and the Bulldogs have the pieces to continue their upward trend.
"We have three guys playing AAU basketball in the summer so that will help build on our inexperience and youth," Nilson said. "In addition to our nucleus of returning players, we also gain a nice class of freshmen that will be competing as well."
Ethan Kuhl (6'2 Senior Shooting Guard) matured throughout his junior season and averaged 12.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.6 steals to earn third team All-Lewis and Clark Conference honors. Kuhl had a stretch of five games where he averaged 16 points while scoring efficiently.
Karter Gragert (5'9 Senior Shooting Guard/Small Forward) averaged 3.4 points a contest last winter while putting up 2.5 rebounds, an assist and 0.6 steals a game. Braxton Eggerling (5'11 Junior), meanwhile, scored 1.8 points and pulled down 5.0 boards a contest.
Kaleb Brown (6'3 Junior) was starting to come on as both a rebounder and scorer before getting injured midseason a year ago. He averaged 2.7 points and 5.1 boards before Coen Horstmann (5'5 Sophomore Point Guard) took over for him.
Horstmann scored 2.3 points, pulled down 2.0 rebounds and dished out 1.2 assists while playing in 23 games. James Fanning (6'0 Junior Power Forward), who worked his way into the lineup about mid-January, ripped the cords for 3.0 points, pulled down 3.9 rebounds and swatted 0.5 enemy balls an outing. Nilson said Fanning can score.
