Creighton opens their 100th season of men’s basketball with one of their toughest opening night opponents in years when they take on the Yale Bulldogs on Friday night. Yale has won 82 games the last four years, including a 42-14 record in conference games, and returns three of their top four scorers from a year ago — plus Makai Mason, a dynamic scorer who missed last year with an injury. They’re the favorite in the Ivy League according to several prognosticators, and it’s not hard to see why.
It’s unquestionably the toughest opener of the Greg McDermott Era, though that’s a low bar to clear; his team’s past opening opponents were Alabama State, North Carolina A&T, North Texas, Alcorn State, Central Arkansas, Texas Southern, and UMKC — barely an NCAA or NIT team among them.