There was a recent Bluejay Underground post on Creighton’s professional players.  The vast majority of the attention is showered on the NBA Pros, Kyle Korver, Anthony Tolliver, and Doug McDermott…and rightfully so as the NBA garners the most attention.  New NBAer’s Justin Patton and Khyri Thomas get a bit of attention as well.

What is surprising is how many former Jays are doing well playing professionally overseas.  Several players have made good careers with teams/longevity in Europe and Asia.  Of the older new generation, Bob Harstad, DeAnthony Bowden, Nerijus Karlikanovas, & Livan Pyfrom for example, have done exceedingly well overseas with long careers and accomplishments.  Even Rodzilla, Rodney Buford, despite a checkered professional history, put together a 14 year career.  That being said, he should have played much longer in the NBA.  Some have followed Gregory Echenique since he played in Europe, South America, the Olympics, and now Japan.  Some have recently followed Justin Carter, especially since his NBA tryout a few years ago, now in Dubai.

 

 

These gentlemen named above do Creighton proud as they not only developed into good professionals, but continue to be fine ambassadors for the university.  Bob Harstad after a 10 year overseas career, returned to become a local stalwart of Creighton and was inducted into the Creighton and MVC HOFs.  DeAnthony Bowen after an 11 year career recently returned to complete his Creighton degree.  Several former players have matriculated into the coaching profession.  Several (40-50) players and personnel also returned to the Hilltop this year for the HOF weekend for Coach Altman and Kyle Korver.  The bonds which were built and developed for Creighton and for each other are still strong.  It warms my heart to know these guys still love and connect with each other.

Another bright surprise is the fact that Dane Watts has performed well over the last decade.  That he has pieced together a nice 11 year run professionally that would surprise most Creighton fans.  Dane was always a good player and a fan favorite, but few would have guessed he would have this kind of longevity professionally.  Justin Carter and Kenny Lawson are having stalwart careers as well, with Justin at 8 years and Kenny at 7 years thus far.  The talent displayed at CU was evidently greater than many of the CU faithful gave credit for.

Below is a snippet of the Creighton listing on US Basket.com

USbasket.com;  https://basketball.usbasket.com/team/BEC/Creighton-University/500?Page=4

Creighton Pro Players
https://basketball.usbasket.com/team/BEC/Creighton-university/500?Page4
Name	Hgt	Pos	Age	last Tm	Grad	Yrs
Korver, K	201	G/F	37	Cleveland, NBA	2003	15
Tolliver, A	203	F/C	33	Minnesota, NBA	2007	11
*Watts, D	203	F	32	Oettinger R, GERM	2007	11
Carter, J	193	G/F	31	Ahli Shabab, UAE	2010	8
Lawson, K	207	C	30	Unieuro Forli, ITAL	2011	7
Echenique, G	206	C	27	Shimane SM, JPN	2013	5
Manigat, J	186	G/F	27	DEAC, Hungary	2014	4
McDermott, D	203	F	26	Indiana, NBA	2014	4
Artino, W	211	F/C	26	Formosa D, TAIW	2015	3
*Chatman, A	183	G	25	Swiss Cent., SWTZ	2015	3
*Brooks, D	186	G	26	Charlotte, G Leag	2015	3
Grosselle, J	212	C	25	Astana, KAZAK	2016	2
Milliken, J	191	G	25	TSU Hyundai, GEO	2016	2
Watson, M	178	G	25	Leiden, HOLL	2017	0
Zierden, I	188	G	25	Terceira, PORT	2017	1
*Huff, C	203	F	24	Grnsboro,G Leag	2017	1
Patton, J	216	C	21	Minnesota, NBA	2017	1
Foster, M	190	G	23	DB Promy, SKOR	2018	0
Thomas, K	190	G	22	Detroit, NBA	2018	0
Roberts, Eric	193	G	23	Tochigi Brex, JPN	2018	0

 

*Persons with an asterisk played in 2017-2018 and it is not certain if they will be playing in the 2018-2019 seasons.

Eric Roberts is on this list, but I have no idea who he is.  He was not a CU player, nor a walk-on.