Key matchup: Creighton’s Owen Freeman has been on Gonzaga’s radar since early spring
Owen Freeman’s conversations with Mark Few’s coaching staff never went far enough to warrant scheduling a time for the forward to see Gonzaga’s facilities in person, but for at least a handful of days there seemed to be mutual interest between the touted Iowa transfer and West Coast hoops power in Spokane.
Freeman will still take an official visit of sorts, not as a portal prospect for GU but instead as a member of the 23rd-ranked Creighton team traveling to take on the 19th-ranked Zags on Tuesday at McCarthey Athletic Center (7 p.m., ESPN).
The junior forward was one of the first players Gonzaga contacted in the transfer portal this spring and a March 15 report from On3.com suggested the Zags were one of “four schools to watch” when it came to Freeman’s recruitment.
The Moline, Illinois, native was likely a contingency plan for Gonzaga had one or both of Graham Ike and Braden Huff opted to resume their basketball careers elsewhere. Freeman committed to Creighton on March 26 and Few’s post players made a joint announcement they’d be returning to Spokane weeks later.
Now a big-on-bigs matchup between Creighton’s Freeman and Gonzaga’s Huff and Ike will contribute to how Tuesday’s clash at the Kennel plays out between two Top 25 teams.
Freeman’s still trying to get back into game shape after missing a majority of Creighton’s offseason activities with a meniscus tear he suffered in May. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound forward was cleared to return for the team’s season opener, but he was on a minutes restriction against South Dakota and logged just 19 off the bench in a 92-76 victory.
A limited version of Freeman still posted a team-high 19 points on efficient shooting (9 of 11) and grabbed four rebounds with one block and one steal.
“I wish he was back in shape and 100%, clearly he’s not there yet and he probably won’t be for awhile,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said of Freeman during a media availability Monday. “It’s going to be a test for our front line. It’s two of the better passing bigs in the country and they just happen to be on the same team, with Ike and Huff. That provides a lot of challenges. They have a lot of different ways to try to get the ball into the paint and we have to do whatever we can to make those catches difficult.”
Not unlike Gonzaga’s interior players, Freeman’s at his best playing within a few feet of the basket and converted 63.8% of his field goals last season at Iowa while averaging 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds. Freeman got to the free throw line 3.9 times per game last season and has made 63% of his career attempts from the charity stripe.
The junior transfer is more refined as a scorer than Ryan Kalkbrenner, the player he’s replacing, but doesn’t give Creighton nearly the same productivity on the defensive end. Kalkbrenner became the first player since Patrick Ewing to win four straight Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors and is already averaging 2.6 blocks per game for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.
While Freeman projects to be the most skilled frontcourt player the Zags have seen thus far, Creighton conceded 48 paint points last week to South Dakota and will be up against a significantly more talented front line in Gonzaga’s Ike and Huff, who’ve combined for 59 points and 36 rebounds in two games.
It’s unclear if Freeman will move into Creighton’s starting lineup on Tuesday. If he does, expect Ike to match up with the touted transfer early on while Huff guards Jackson McAndrew, who’s slimmer than Freeman at 6-foot-10, 225 pounds.