Alex O'Neill commits to Creighton

[Da Coach]

Alex O'Neill will not be coming to Bradley. He just committed to Creighton as a preferred walk-on.

Congratulations to Alex!

[Da Coach]

Alex's AAU coach's tweet-

https://twitter.com/Illinois_Irish/status/590681786717446146

Gavin Sullivan
@Illinois_Irish
2015 6'9 PF Alex ONeill (@AlexONeill8 ) has committed to Creighton as a preferred walk-on. #IrishFam

[lefty]

Congrats to ALex

[Canton BU fan]

Was the religious affiliation the reason?

[Da Coach]

I don't know much about the family's religious views, but I don't think so. Does anyone else know?

[tornado]

while identifying their religion might be an intrusion...their sons have both attended Notre Dame HS but Alex finished this past two years at PCS

[capecod]

Family ties to Creighton

Was the religious affiliation the reason?

I read that his Dad is a Creighton alum
Sister is there now-plays soccer
Mom played basketball and her coach is now the AD at Creighton

[tornado]

bumped into Alex O'Neill's high school coach - who also coached a couple of my kids in the past and he mentioned that Alex's choice wasn't all that simple...
Bradley's offer was a good offer and Alex really likes Bradley and liked the chance to play in his hometown...
Every school offering was expecting a development period or redshirt (the Nebraska-Omaha offer was still on the table) since Alex is so young for his age group and although has potential - isn't really ready for DI play yet...
In the end Alex knew he'd have to spend a year banging endlessly in practice against other top big men in order to develop- and when you compare who he's be sharpening his talents against - Creighton's big men vs. what we have at BU - then that was a big deciding factor.
As noted also - Alex has family in Omaha and CU grads in his family so the final decision went against the BU offer...but BU was a very close 2nd


here's an article from the Creighton site

https://creighton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1759855

and a few clips since it is premium..he says he had offers from Bradley & UW-Green Bay contrary to some of what has been said.


Alex O'Neill will walk on at Creighton this fall
Alex O'Neill, a 6-foot-9 big man from Peoria, Illinois, verbally accepted a walk-on offer from Creighton yesterday.
He chose the spot over scholarship offers from Bradley and Nebraska-Omaha, in addition to many Division II offers.
I had a change to catch up with him and ask a few questions.

..Alex, tell me a little bit about how your senior year of basketball went.

Alex O'Neill: It went really well. We were 26-3 and ranked No. 2 in the state at one point. I also set the records for
blocks in a game, season, and career at my high school and averaged around 15 points and 10 rebounds a game.

The majority of my career, I've been a low-post player that dunks a lot, but this season I really worked on my
perimeter game and shot a few more 3-pointers.

Most importantly, I need to get in the weight room. I'm pretty skinny right now.

I had full-scholarship offers from Bradley and UWGB. Then I also had offers from some of the top Division II teams
like Augustana and St. Cloud State.

I really liked the overall family feel at Creighton. They set goals and I believe they will achieve them. I think Creighton
is the best place for me to develop as a basketball player. My parents both graduated from Creighton, my brother
played soccer for Creighton and my sister currently goes to Creighton as well.

.....What are your plans for the summer and when do you plan to move to campus?

O'Neill: We haven't worked out the specifics of everything yet, but I plan on getting on campus in early June.

[tornado]

... Then I also had offers from some of the top Division II teams ........... St. Cloud State.......

in the end, after a year of redshirting at Creighton, Alex lands at St. Cloud State