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Morning After: Stunner in Storrs as Jays Upset #5 UConn, 91-84!

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[Box Score]

On January 31 in Omaha, Creighton and UConn were tied 27-27 with 4:41 to go in the first half. Nik Graves had scored 13 of the Jays’ 27 points after hitting his third three, but then the Jays didn’t make a basket the rest of the half. Over the final 4:41, UConn ripped off a 14-3 run with eight of their points coming on second chances. Ahead 41-30 at the break, a 14-2 run early in the second half blew it open as the Huskies took a 60-40 lead with 12:48 to go.

That sort of prolonged offensive slump has been Creighton’s achilles heel all season. So when they were once again tied 27-all in the rematch Wednesday night with 8:29 left in the first half, the vibes from a better-than-expected start were offset by a sense that one of those big opponent runs was just around the corner.

Think of what they were up against. Six days earlier, Josh Dix spoke at his mom’s funeral. They were coming off an 80-69 loss at home to Villanova, their fifth loss in the last six games, a stretch that put most of their preseason goals out of reach. The only win was a game they stole against Seton Hall when Nik Graves buried a game-winner on the final shot.

Meanwhile UConn was 24-2, 14-1 in the league and beat Creighton in Omaha three weeks ago by 27 points. It was $2 beer night at Gampel, and the Huskies were retiring Emeka Okafor’s jersey at halftime. Oh, and for their white out they passed out shirts that said “For the White and Blue” (though we at WBR appreciate the shout-out!)

As I wrote in the Primer, it was a monstrous scenario. But the Bluejays embraced the moment, and on this night, they were the team who owned the final 25 minutes. They did it by dictating the pace, keeping the ball from sticking on one side of the floor and pounding the ball inside.

“That’s what kept us going when we weren’t making shots. Our pace was incredible,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “That’s been our area of focus the last couple days in practice: Touch the paint, touch the paint, touch the paint and watch what happens. We were able to create some opportunities by doing that. Fedor (Zugic) really did a great job getting downhill, and obviously Nik and Josh played at a high level as well.”

Zugic got the start for the first time in his Bluejay career, and he responded with nine first half points, all of them a result of him battling in the paint. He scored four of their first seven points on a layup and two free throws. He scored four more late in the half on a pair of tough finishes at the rim, both of them against physical, vertical contests by UConn’s defense. But as McDermott said, he wasn’t the only one. Dix barreled through the paint to throw down a dunk:

And Graves scored through contact repeatedly. The Jays’ first points came on a Graves’ drive into the paint where he converted a three point play; late in the half he did it again.

As a side effect of all that attacking in the paint, foul trouble piled up for UConn. Tarris Reed scored 13 points with six rebounds in the first half, but sat for the final 4:13 after picking up his second foul. Leading scorer Solo Ball had three fouls in seven minutes. And point guard Silas Demary picked up two fouls as well, though he played through it because of his importance to the Huskies’ success, especially with Reed and Ball on the bench.

Tied 45-45 at the half, Bluejay killer Braylon Mullins scored the first five points of the second half. Demary scored the next five in a 10-3 blitz out of the locker room as UConn took a 57-51 lead into the first media timeout. But from that moment forward, this was Creighton’s night.

Over the next 13 and a half minutes — from the 15:02 mark until just 1:30 remained — the Jays’ defense held UConn to just 5-of-22 shooting with one free throw attempt, which they missed. The Huskies made 3-of-7 from three, but were 2-of-15 on two-pointers, most of them mid-range jumpers after CU defenders stopped their dribble. At one point they missed nine consecutive shots inside the arc. The resulting 29-13 run gave Creighton an 80-70 lead, unfathomable before the game started.

Graves started the sequence with two 3-pointers in less than a minute, with a pair of free throws from Jasen Green in between.

Those cut the lead to 57-56, and then Dix buried a three to put Creighton in front with 13:25 to play.

After Mullins gave UConn back the lead with two 3’s in 42 seconds, electrifying the Gampel Pavilion crowd, Creighton again refused to go away. Isaac Traudt scored on a layup under the rim, Green made two more free throws to tie it at 63, and then Dix hit another three for the lead.

He added a pair of free throws moments later, and then Austin Swartz got a friendly roll on this drive into the paint. It was 70-65 Bluejays with 7:24 to go.

And then Blake Harper played the role of closer.

Coming in with eight minutes to go after not seeing a second of action before that, he scored 12 points in those eight minutes, hitting one clutch shot after another. First, he buried a three from the corner off of this ridiculous pass from Graves.

Then after a bucket by Zugic, Harper drove the ball inside, backed down his defender, and made a tough jumper as the shot clock neared zero.

And with 1:30 to go, the smart play would have been to run as much clock as possible and force UConn to foul. Harper had other ideas. He fired up a three early in the shot clock, and when it splashed through the net, it was the dagger — giving Creighton an 80-70 lead.

“Nah, I had a little bit confidence in my belt. But I’m just glad it went in,” Harper said. “Josh made a good pass to me in the corner and that’s like a routine shot for us.”

“We continue to believe in each other,” Dix added. “Blake, he didn’t play for the first, like, 20 minutes of the game, but he came in and played great. I feel like that’s just the definition of our team, guys like that. Blake is super unselfish, and when his number was called, he made big plays.”

“I’m really proud of Blake…he was terrific,” McDermott said. “Both ends of the floor, he was terrific. I’m not sure Blake Harper from a month or six weeks ago was mature enough to handle what happened tonight, but I think tonight was a great sign of growth for him.”

Of the 364 wins Greg McDermott has at Creighton, this one might rank among the most improbable. And while the season hasn’t gone the way anyone hoped, his team has kept battling and playing hard, and now they have a road victory over a top-five opponent as a signature moment.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m not sure I’ve been as proud of the team as I am tonight,” McDermott said. “We’ve got a lot of great wins in my 16 years at Creighton but given what this team has gone through the last few weeks, to come in here and defeat a team that we respect so much in UConn, on their floor, is pretty special, and our guys were incredibly connected. We were able to take a lot of waves of shot-making by UConn and Mullins in particular and kept on fighting.”

The win means that Creighton has defeated at least one top ten opponent in 11 consecutive seasons. For anyone who followed the Jays in their MVC days, even playing a top ten team used to be a huge deal. In their Big East days, beating those teams is now an annual occurrence. What a time to be alive.

“It’s pretty incredible. We’ve had a lot of teams that have done that and like I said, to do it tonight given the circumstances of what this team has been through, I’m a pretty proud pop of those 15, 16 guys we have in that locker room,” McDermott said. After John Bishop joked that he hoped they could enjoy a few of the $2 beers that UConn sold for this game, McDermott replied “We’re gonna enjoy something. I hope they don’t close that bar back at the hotel tonight.”

Here’s some postgame words from the locker room, courtesy of Bluejay legend Kyle Korver who was in attendance and stopped by to congratulate the team afterwards.

Inside the Box:

Wednesday was the first time Creighton won as a double-digit underdog since Feb. 1, 2022. The opponent that day? UConn. The Jays opened as a 17.5-point underdog, and the line closed at 15.5, the biggest spread Creighton has faced since closing as a 17.5-point underdog to Tulsa in January of 1996.

Not only has Creighton beaten at least one top ten team in 11 straight seasons, Greg McDermott has 17 wins over top ten teams in his 16 seasons at CU. Seven of those 17 wins have been on the road. Before McDermott was hired, Creighton was 5-53 all-time vs. Top 10 teams and hadn’t beaten a Top 10 squad since topping #6 Marquette on Feb. 9, 1974 under Eddie Sutton.

McDermott improved to 10-4 all-time against Dan Hurley, and the Jays became the first team to win at Gampel Pavilion in back-to-back years since Cincinnati did in three straight years from 2017-19. Creighton is the first school to win road games at both Villanova and UConn in back-to-back years since Syracuse in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Creighton put up 45 points in the first half despite only shooting 3-of-9 from 3 by going 9-for-14 on layups and dunks and 10-for-14 on free throws. Those 45 points in the first half were the third-most UConn has allowed in a half this season, and then the Jays added 46 more after halftime.

The Jays made 7-of-12 on threes in the second half, taking advantage of open looks created by defensive adjustments at halftime to counteract their success in the paint. The result was a remarkably balanced offensive attack. They scored 30 points in the paint (on 15-of-31 shooting), 30 points from the three-point line (on 10-of-21 shooting) and 27 points from the free throw line (on 32 attempts). The other four points came courtesy of mid-range jumpers outside the paint, one each from Graves and Dix.

UConn had a 13-4 advantage in points off turnovers, but that was the only place where they had any significant edge. Points in the paint were 32-30 in favor of the Huskies and second chance points were 10-7. UConn made 11 threes; CU made 10. But Creighton’s focus on the paint paid off: they drew 21 fouls and attempted 32 free throws — 14 more than UConn. And because they made most of the ones they got (27-of-32) and UConn struggled there (11-of-18), the Jays had a gigantic 16-point edge that the Huskies couldn’t overcome elsewhere.

It was the first time UConn’s allowed 91+ points in regulation at home since a 96-87 loss to Saint Joseph’s on Nov. 13, 2019. And it was the most points allowed at home (OT or not) in a conference game by UConn since Boston College’s 95-71 win in Storrs on Feb. 1, 2003.

Dix led the Jays with 21 points, the first time he’s scored 20 or more in a Bluejay uniform.

“37 years, John. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of a player, and nobody deserves what happened tonight as much as he does,” McDermott told John Bishop on the postgame radio show. “You know, we should all be helping him but I think in a lot of ways he’s helping us through it. He’s just an incredible human being and obviously a terrific basketball player, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. I don’t know if I’ve…I mean, I’ve been proud of a lot of teams in a lot of situations but tonight’s different. Tonight’s different for what we’ve been going through, where we are at as a program and the struggles we’ve had the last two or three weeks. We came together as a group, and you know I think that togetherness and the way we were connected was a big reason we’re able to get out of here with a win.”

UConn honored Dix’ mom Kelly with a moment of silence before the game, and Hurley made a point of offering words of support to Dix as they walked through the handshake line afterward. It did not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

“I want to acknowledge the class of recognizing Josh’s mom before the game,” McDermott said in the opening statement of his press conference. “There’s a lot to like about the UConn program and it’s one of the best programs in the country. But I think that speaks to the people in charge of the program. And you know, I’ve gotten to know Coach Hurley pretty well the last five or six years in  particular, and I know some people think he’s crazy on the sideline once in a while. But he’s a wonderful human being. That moment was unexpected and went above and beyond what anybody needed to do.”

Graves added 18 points, five assists and had just one turnover in 36 minutes. He made 5-of-9 inside the arc, 2-of-5 from three and made both free throws he attempted. Fedor Zugic had 14 in his first career start, making 4-of-7 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the line with five rebounds and a steal. And Jasen Green came just shy of a double-double, with eight points, 11 rebounds, two assists, one blocked shot and one steal. He missed all seven of his shot attempts, but drew six fouls and made 8-of-10 from the line.

“That’s a big ask for Jasen against that front line,” McDermott said. “But you know, defensively he quarterbacks what we’re doing and we were switching everything out top so Jasen has to be back there to take away all the slips and anything that might come that way. He did a great job of that.”

And then there was Blake Harper. He scored all 12 of his points in the final eight minutes, making every shot he attempted (1-of-1 inside the arc, 2-of-2 on three-pointers, 4-of-4 from the line). He also had two rebounds and drew three fouls.

“I had a little, um, interesting and eventful week, I’ll say, in practice, and truth be told, I deserved it,” Harper said. “But I just feel like…just kind of keeping my mind in the game, and Mac has been talking to me this whole week really just be unselfish and be within the team, buy in to the team. I feel like when my number was called, I had to make something shake. We were in the game the whole time. Not a doubt in my mind going down the stretch, and when Mac put me in, I felt like I had to be ready and my teammates put me in a good position.”

Highlights:

Postgame Audio from 1620:

“This ball game is O.V.E.R. over! Jays win! Jays win! Jays win! Holy moly! Holy Toledo! The Jays come on the road! And against all the odds, a 15-and-a-half point underdog, and the Bluejays win! They extend their streak to 11 straight years with a win over a top five or top 10 rated team. Man, woman and child, that’s something. 91 to 84 Bluejays win it. I am going out of my gourd! Give me one of them dollar beers! Give me one of those $2 beers. I want one of those $2 beers. I’m thirsty. I need a drink.” -Voice of the Bluejays John Bishop’s call as the game went final

Press Conferences:

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