Ryan Kalkbrenner's opening night performance was nothing short of incredible

The No. 15 Creighton Blue Jays opened their season with a 99-86 win over the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros and Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner went off, making an early case for player of the year if he can keep this up.

Kalkbrenner scored 49 points on 20-of-22 shooting and added 11 rebounds and three blocks. It was the most points in a single game by a Creighton player since 1967. Creighton needed those 49, as UT Rio Grande Valley didn't go away. Three of its starters scored more than 17 points and were down only five points with just over 2:30 to play.

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Creighton is coming off a season in which they lost in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Jays were ranked in the AP Top 25 for most of the season, but after finishing second in the Big East were upset in the first round of the Big East Tournament by Providence. They were a three-seed in the NCAA Tournament and survived a second-round scare from 11th-seeded Oregon before losing to second-seeded Tennessee.

Creighton lost two starters from last year's team, Baylor Scheiermann, who plays for the Boston Celtics, and Trey Alexander, who plays for the Denver Nuggets. The Blue Jays returned Kalkbrenner and guard Steven Ashworth and had the 22nd best recruiting class.

The Blue Jays' first test of the season will come in late November when they play No. 13 Texas A&M, whose ranking will surely drop after being upset by UCF, as part of the Players Era Festival.

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