Xavier’s unexpected loss to Butler on Friday night has raised the stakes for Creighton’s game with UConn even higher; the Musketeers are now 11-3 and tied with Marquette, who’s also 11-3. Providence and Creighton are tied in the loss column, as both enter Saturday at 10-3…and the Jays and Friars meet on Tuesday. So while there’s a four-team logjam atop the standings currently, the next four days could begin to shake things loose.
UConn is a ways back at 8-6, but remains dangerous as they reminded the nation in an impressive 87-72 victory over Marquette on Tuesday.
“(Saturday) is going to be a great game,” Greg McDermott said this week. “UConn, at their best, I think is one of the top three or four teams in the country. Certainly, the way they played against Marquette, they looked that way.”
UConn coach Dan Hurley feels the same way about Creighton.
“After we played them the first time, watching them on the lead-up with Kalkbrenner healthy, playing against them, we didn’t expect them to lose many more games throughout the year,” Hurley said this week. “We also feel like we’re one of a handful of teams in the country that could come in here and win the game. We see it as a big opportunity game for us.”
They come into Saturday riding a three-game win streak (though two of the wins came against DePaul and Georgetown); after starting the year 14-0 they’ve gone 5-6 over their next 11 games. As they’ve started to play teams with actual scouting reports and plans for how to stop them, they’ve struggled — versus the unfamiliarity of non-conference play where sheer athleticism and talent is often enough.
Still, their metrics remain impressive; they’re sixth in KenPom and the NET rankings despite their recent struggles. Their offense and defense both rank among the top 20 in adjusted efficiency. And there’s talent everywhere, from Jordan Hawkins’ shooting 41% from three-point range, Andre Jackson’s tenacity on the ball, and the duo of Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan are among the best bigs in the country.
“It’s definitely not easy,” McDermott said. “That’s as good a duo I think as anybody in the country is blessed to have. So they constantly come at you. We missed some opportunities to help and I thought our physicality at the point of where (Sanogo) was trying to catch wasn’t where it needed to be.”
As it was in the first matchup, the battle of Ryan Kalkbrenner and Sanogo will take center stage once again. Sanogo had 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting with nine rebounds, clearly getting the better of the battle and telling anyone who would listen afterward that Kalkbrenner’s preseason quotes had provided ample motivation.
“Ryan Kalkbrenner is really a guy that stirs the spot,” McDermott said sarcastically in a media session this week. “He’s about as humble a kid as there is, so if that’s where they gotta go for inspiration, so be it. We don’t need all that garbage.”
A month later, Hurley admitted that when he played the Kalkbrenner quotes for the team before the first game, it was intended as a distraction.
“When we played those guys the first time, we were in a bad way,” Hurley said at his weekly press conference this week. “We had just lost a couple on the road, against really high-quality teams. But we were reeling, and I was looking for something to try to distract us from the negativity of losing a couple. That was a convenient thing to use to distract the group and create a rallying cry when you’ve lost your first couple of games of the year.”
Playing Sanogo straight-up worked, in the sense that by not doubling him they were able to defend his teammates tighter. Everyone else in a UConn uniform shot 11-of-40 in the game, including 5-of-21 from inside the arc. The Jays also outrebounded UConn 49-34, the first time in the Hurley Era that the Huskies have been outrebounded by 15 or more. UConn had nine offensive boards (23.7% of their misses), well below their season average of 37% which ranks fifth-best nationally.
UConn ranks third in D1 in potential points off second-chance opportunities according to Haslametrics, running an offense that often throws up shots with the idea of getting an offensive rebound and an open jumper against a scrambling defense. By making UConn into a first-shot-only offense, the Jays effectively cut them off at the waist — in spite of Sanogo’s brilliance, and a rowdy home crowd, the Huskies scored just 1.05 points per possession and trailed in the second half.
And that was in a game where the Bluejays shot about as poorly as you could imagine. They were 9-of-23 on layups, with UConn’s length and athleticism bothering their drivers. Top perimeter threats Baylor Scheierman, Trey Alexander, Arthur Kaluma, and Ryan Nembhard combined to shoot 1-of-15 from three-point range. At one point in the second half, the Jays made just one of 18 shot attempts.
If you figure Creighton won’t shoot that poorly at home, and Kalkbrenner plays Sanogo more like he did a year ago — he had 21 total points in the two games on 9-of-26 shooting as Kalkbrenner bottled him up on the way to Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors — then you have to like the Jays chances at avenging their loss in Storrs.
And the Jays seem to be finding their offense at the right time. Seton Hall entered Wednesday’s game leading the Big East in field goal percentage defense (.404), points per game allowed (64.0) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.294). Creighton exceeded all three figures in its 75-62 victory, shooting a season-best 61.4 percent from the field and a season-best 60.0 percent from three-point range. It was CU’s best field goal percentage in any game since shooting 62.5 percent (35-56) vs. Butler on March 11, 2021, and best in a regular-season Big East game since shooting 64.7 percent (33-51) vs. Providence on March 8, 2014 — Doug McDermott’s Senior Night.
Any time you’re drawing comparisons to that team at its apex, you’re playing well.
- Tip: 1:00pm
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FOX
- Announcers: Jason Benetti and Jim Jackson
- In Omaha: Cox channel 10 (SD), 1010 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 42 (SD), 1042 (HD); DirecTV 42; Dish Network 42 or 5203
- Outside Omaha: Your local FOX affiliate
- Streaming on FoxSportsGO
- Creighton Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 388 and on SXM app channel 978
- UConn Radio: UConn Sports Network
- Announcers: Mike Crispino and Wayne Norman
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on Sirius XM 138 and on the SXM App channel 964
Point guard Tristen Newton is coming off a 12-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound performance in the victory over Marquette, marking the second time he’s notched a triple-double this season.
Jordan Hawkins scored 17 in the first meeting, making 3-of-7 from outside and 6-of-6 from the line. “He went from someone that was a really good player to some that, in my mind, is a first-round draft pick,” McDermott said this week. “The way he runs off screens and stops on the dime and elevates and shoots it, most of the guys that can do that are in the NBA. My guess is that’s where he’ll end up.”
Creighton is 15-17 all-time as a ranked team when facing a ranked team, including a 14-13 overall mark under Greg McDermott. CU has won its last six Top 25 showdowns played at home.
After six straight losses, Creighton tumbled from the Top 25 in December. But a 9-2 stretch over 11 games from Dec. 22 – Feb. 6 saw CU return to the rankings when it was voted No 23 on Feb. 6th. Per research from FOX Sports, the Bluejays are the first team in the last 14 seasons (since 2009-10) to be ranked at any time in a season after suffering through a six-game losing streak.
Creighton is 10-3 in league play clinching a .500 mark or better in league play once again. It is the 27th time in the last 28 seasons that Creighton has gone .500 or better in league play. The only Big East teams to finish .500 or better in league play each of the previous five seasons are Creighton, Villanova and Seton Hall.
Creighton is 5-1 all-time against UConn, with all six meetings taking place in the last 26 months and in four different cities. All six games have been decided by single-digits, and by a total of 28 points. In Omaha, Creighton has won by scores of 74-66 (2021) and 64-62 (2022).
On February 11, 2004, Kellen Miliner scored a career-high 22 points off the bench in a 74-56 win over Bradley. Brody Deren had 16 points to lead the starters, as Creighton improved to 18-3 on the season and responded to a crushing 61-60 loss to SIU with a big win.
“I was a little concerned,” Creighton center Brody Deren said after the game. “A lot of our guys have quiet personalities, so it’s hard to get a read on them emotionally. We had a couple of good practices, but we might be the best practice team in America. We don’t always show what we can do to the public, but tonight, we had some guys step up.”
Deren led the way, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the game’s first 10 minutes, including the first five points of the game. Then their defense closed it; they held Bradley to 14 points on their last 22 possessions, helping turn a 44-42 lead into an 18-point victory.
The Bottom Line:
ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton a 62% chance of victory, and Vegas favors the Jays by 4. KenPom thinks it will be closer, favoring the Jays by a single point. They’ll cover.
#23 Creighton 75, #21 UConn 70