NCAA Tournament: Creighton Men Draw Louisville
OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton men's basketball team is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the 26th time in program history and 10th time in the past 14 years after earning an at-large bid to 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. The No. 9-seeded Bluejays (24-10) will meet No. 8-seed Louisville (27-7) on Thursday, March 20 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
Creighton and Louisville will be the first game on Thursday, tipping off at 12:15 p.m. ET (11:15 a.m. Central) in a game that will air nationally on CBS. Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson and Allie LaForce will broadcast the game.
The Bluejay team gathered at a public viewing party inside D.J. Sokol Arena on the Creighton campus to watch the bracket be unveiled on CBS.
Creighton enters the NCAA Tournament with a 24-10 record after finishing second in the BIG EAST Conference regular-season standings and falling in the finals of the league tournament this past weekend at Madison Square Garden. This year's club features First Team All-BIG EAST center Ryan Kalkbrenner (19.4 ppg., 8.8 rpg., 2.7 bpg.) as well as Second Team All-BIG EAST guard Steven Ashworth (16.3 ppg., 6.8 apg).
Creighton is coached by Greg McDermott, who owns a 349-170 record in 15th year with the Bluejays. This year marks his 13th trip to the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level, including trips to the Third Round in 2012, 2013 and 2014, trips to the Sweet 16 in 2021 and 2024 and a 2023 Elite Eight run as Creighton's coach. McDermott's 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and 11 NCAA Tournament victories are more than any Bluejay basketball coach in school history.
This year marks Creighton's 26th postseason bid in the last 28 seasons, which includes 17 NCAA Tournament bids in that span. The Bluejays have won at least one game in 13 of their last 15 postseason appearances. This will be Creighton's seventh straight trip to the NCAA's that comes via an at-large bid. CU is 20-26 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
Creighton's fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance ties a program record done also done from 1999-2003, and is tied with two-time defending champion Connecticut for the longest active streak in the BIG EAST. Creighton is also one of five teams in the country with at least one NCAA Tournament win each of the previous four seasons, joining Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston and Kansas. Additionally, CU has reached three of the past four Sweet 16s, something only Gonzaga, Houston, UCLA and Alabama can also claim.
Creighton is 2-1 all-time against the Cardinals, with both wins coming in the NCAA Tournament (1974, 1999).
The winner of Thursday's Creighton/Louisville game will meet the winner of the game between No. 1 seed Auburn (28-5) and either St. Francis (16-17) or Alabama State (19-15) in a Second Round contest that will be played on Saturday.