Hawkins’ leadership and Creighton's growth make Bluejays formidable foe in Big East tournament

Greg McDermott has overachieved with young Creighton team, and has Bluejays in prime position to reach NCAA Tournament. (Photo by the Hartford Courant)

The Big East Tournament already has several stories to monitor before tipping off Wednesday from Madison Square Garden. From Ed Cooley and Providence’s dream season, Villanova’s quest to regain its perch atop the conference mountain, Connecticut returning to its de facto home floor with the strongest and most vocal fan base in the league, to Marquette in year one under Shaka Smart, there are mounds of intriguing subplots in the Big Apple. 

Yet there is one of the oft-forgotten Big East program that also bears interest, that of Creighton morphing from a team picked eighth in the preseason poll to one that has battled adversity and heartbreak to not only finish tied for third in the regular season, but also one that stands a realistic chance of finally cutting down the nets after coming up short in three championship games since joining the Big East from the Missouri Valley Conference in 2013.

“It’s really cool to see from the first couple of workouts this year in September to now,” senior forward Ryan Hawkins said of the Bluejays’ evolution following a February 23 win at St. John’s. “Their maturity and their approach to the game is not that of a freshman, they approach the game with maturity now. They’re still willing to get that extra work in, but they understand they still have to listen to coaches and training staff about what they can and can’t do with their bodies just as far as how many minutes you put on, but it’s really cool to see their maturity and how they’ve changed their style of play from the first couple of games to now. It’s completely a night-and-day difference, and I think our success is a direct reflection of that.”

Hawkins, who was a national champion at Division II powerhouse Northwest Missouri State, has been a key figure in Creighton’s ascent ahead of schedule, transitioning into a leader of a team dominated by freshmen and sophomores the likes of Ryan Kalkbrenner, Arthur Kaluma, Trey Alexander and Ryan Nembhard, the latter of whom suffering a season-ending wrist injury in the aforementioned St. John’s game. But the Bluejays, thought of as a team at least a year away, hit their best stride in February to the tune of a six-game win streak, and although they will take the Garden floor having lost two of their last three, morale remains very high and certainly favorable.

“Obviously, winning six in a row really helps, but just to see the camaraderie of this group change from coming in as strangers — that’s what happens when you have a completely new group,” Hawkins said. “It’s not like there’s a core returning from last year and you just plug pieces in. We were complete strangers in June and July getting to know each other, then you throw us on the court in September. It takes a while to build those relationships and build that trust, and I think the relationship and that trust that’s been built is the reason why we’re having success right now. It’s just really cool to see that, I think the young guys are starting to understand that’s kind of the reason why.”

Ryan Hawkins secured all-Big East honors at Creighton after transferring from Division II. (Photo by the Omaha World Herald)

While the underclassmen in Omaha have been an integral part in the success of the present and promise of the future, it is Hawkins that has been particularly impressive, becoming Creighton’s leading scorer and rebounder with averages of 14.3 points and 7.7 boards per game en route to second team all-Big East recognition for a player who arrived last summer sight unseen due to the pandemic, but with a reputation of being a winner.

“When a program’s having that kind of success, if you’re an intelligent coach, you want to try to figure out why,” said Creighton head coach Greg McDermott. “I spent the first 12 years of my career as a Division II coach (at Wayne State and then-Division II North Dakota State), so I watched his team and also did a little bit of a deeper dive in what they were doing and how they were doing it. I didn’t meet him until he showed up on campus. Everything was done virtually, but what he’s done in our locker room and on our practice floor on a daily basis, there’s a reason they were successful at Northwest Missouri State. They played the right way, they approached each day in the proper way, and he’s brought that to our locker room and our practice floor. And while he’s having unbelievable success on the court, especially during this stretch, what he’s done off the floor and the way he sets the tone for each practice with those young guys has been incredible.”

“Leaving a legacy that goes beyond basketball is a true legacy, and that’s what he’s done because he’s impacted those guys so much in so many ways, and he let the relationships — he’s 24 and they’re 18 — kind of happen naturally. He didn’t come in and demand like, ‘I’ve won three national championships, look at me, listen to me.’ He got to know them and he got to learn about them, and then he began to lead them. And that’s the sign of elite leadership. It’s a big reason why we’ve been successful.”

And for Hawkins, who had already won at a high level but still felt a need to prove himself again, the belief in him from McDermott and his staff — as well as his coaches at Northwest Missouri State, each of whom he credited individually — has made all the difference in his continually maturing game.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience for me basketball-wise, just because of the differences from the Division II level to Division I,” Hawkins said. “But the one thing that I think has just been instilled in me from my five years at Northwest is when you do the right things and you build those habits from the beginning, those habits are hard to deviate from. Coach (Ben) McCollum, Coach (Zach) Schneider and Coach Myers, they did a great job with me because when you saw me out of high school, there was no way I could even play at the Division II level, and they had a year to get me ready.”

“It’s just really cool to see my transformation from high school to Northwest and then to here, the confidence that they had in me when I didn’t even have confidence in myself. That’s kind of what I try to do with these younger kids right away. You could see they were as talented as they could be, but when they got into practice and made a mistake, their heads would go down. By believing in them and giving them confidence, it’s been really cool to see their maturity and their transformation in that regard. It’s amazing what you do when you believe in people.”