Creighton lost their first two Big East games by a combined total of seven points, but have won four in a row since to jump back into the race for the top of the league. A big key to their turnaround has been their ability to weather the storm when the momentum of the game shifted, as they blew double-digit leads in both losses.
On Saturday against St. John’s, that resolve was on full display when they immediately and emphatically answered a 14-2 Red Storm run with a 12-2 run of their own. The St. John’s run featured a technical foul on Baylor Scheierman that led to a four-point possession, and eventually gave the Red Storm a nine-point lead. The game could easily have slipped away from them at that point — like it did against Marquette and Villanova when faced with similar moments — but it didn’t because the Jays learned from those collapses and grew from them.
“I mean, it’s all about learning from experiences. Early in the season when we didn’t make a shot, it would drag us down a little bit as a team, we would get a little frustrated,” Francisco Farabello said on Monday. “Over the last few games when the ball didn’t go in as planned, we stuck together. Saturday we were down nine in the second half at one point, but we stayed together and we were lucky enough to win the game.”
Detractors might point out that the four-game winning streak came against last-place DePaul, rebuilding Georgetown, Providence in the first game after losing their best player to a season-ending injury, and St. John’s by a single point at home. But look around the league, or at the upsets happening in every power conference, really; a four-game winning streak in the Big East is impressive no matter the circumstances.
“I think we’ve proven who we are,” Steven Ashworth said. “I know that we’re a very high-caliber team and can play with anybody in the country. It’s gonna be a real good test come Wednesday. We’ll really see where we’re at.”
To his point, the next two games will go a long way toward silencing detractors or amplifying the doubts: it’s a two-game road trip to the northeast, where in the span of four days they’ll take on UConn and Seton Hall, the two teams who sit atop the league with just one loss apiece.
First up is the defending national champion UConn Huskies, who are ranked #1 in the AP poll this week. An opponent sitting atop the polls is still a big-time event, even in a world of advanced analytics and metrics where human polls are less relevant than they used to be — but in terms of the game itself, Greg McDermott downplayed it’s significance.
“I mean, they were going to be number two or three if they weren’t number one,” he said with a shrug on Monday. “Playing at UConn is a hard place to play no matter what. They’ve got a great fan base, much like we do, they’re very passionate about their team and they’re coming off a national championship. It’s not going to be an easy task but you know our guys will be ready.”
And he’s right — whether they’re #1 or #5, UConn is the same formidable foe. They’re the defending national champs, and they have a team good enough to repeat. Throw in the environment at Gampel Pavilion, where it’s $2 beer night, a whiteout game, with 2,000 Dunkin’ gift cards to be handed out, and you’ve got a test unlike any the Jays have faced so far this year. Students began camping out early Wednesday morning to get the best seats (and to make sure they have as much time as possible to enjoy cheap beer).
There’s some lessons to be learned from two other hostile road environments they’ve had some success in, though.
“We made shots to start both of those games, and we defended well,” McDermott said of games at Nebraska (where they won in a blowout) and Marquette (where they built a sizable early lead before failing to hold on). “You don’t stretch out to a lead unless you’re guarding. Defense and rebounding has to travel with you to give you a chance.”
That’s true in any game, but especially this one. Connecticut boasts the #1 offense in the Big East (and third-best in all of D1) with an adjusted offensive efficiency of 118.2 in league games. Creighton boasts the #1 defense in the Big East, and 12th best nationally, with an adjusted defensive efficiency of 93.2. That 15-point gap is one of the biggest you’ll ever see between two power conference foes. With Creighton’s offense (104.4, 7th in the Big East) and UConn’s defense (107.2, 8th) fairly close, it seems that whichever team can push their opponent closer to their end of the spectrum when UConn has the ball is likely to win.
Much like St. John’s, UConn chases the ball relentlessly on the offensive glass. The Huskies have grabbed an offensive rebound on 37.5% of their missed shots, 14th best in the country. “They’re very physical,” McDermott added. “If you can get the rebound you have some opportunities in transition, but you have to figure out a way to get that rebound first.”
7’2″ center Donovan Clingan is the anchor of that physical frontline; he was averaging 13.9 points and 6.3 rebounds before injuring his foot against Seton Hall. He hasn’t played since before Christmas, though he did go through early warmups before their game with Georgetown on Sunday and his status for this one is undecided. They’ve gone 5-0 without him, but while their rebounding hasn’t suffered much, their rim protection has.
“He’s practiced back-to-back days,” Hurley said on Tuesday. “We’ll huddle up with the medical team on gameday and just see how he’s feeling after doing back-to-back days. If not (Wednesday), I mean I would think that – worst-case scenario, unless there’s a setback, he’s in for the weekend. And there’s certainly no feeling, because of the way we’ve performed here and where we’re at right now, there certainly doesn’t feel like pressure to have him back just for this one game. Obviously, it looks like a really bad matchup with Kalkbrenner because of what’s happened around the rim lately. But we gotta do what’s in the best interest of his health longterm and for where we wanna be in March.”
6’10” junior Samson Johnson played sparingly the last two years with the Huskies, but has grown into a solid contributor and he’s moved into the starting job with Clingan out. The Huskies have not altered their approach much when Johnson’s on the floor, but they have played a small lineup with 6’8″ Alex Karaban (15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds per game) in the middle as a change of pace — and that version of the lineup presents some interesting wrinkles for the Jays.
Karaban is 40-of-97 (41.2%) from three-point range this season, and is red-hot right now. He made 6-of-8 from outside against Georgetown on Sunday, 3-of-6 against Xavier and 4-of-6 against Butler last week, and 3-of-4 against DePaul on January 2. That’s 16-of-24 (66.6%) in his last four games. Creighton won’t want Kalkbrenner guarding Karaban — their defense has looked its worst this year against teams with mobile bigs who could pull Kalkbrenner away from the rim. So that means when UConn goes small, someone else (Baylor Scheierman? Mason Miller?) will be asked to guard Karaban, and Kalkbrenner will guard 6’6″ forward Stephon Castle. The Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year, Castle has won the Big East Freshman of the Week award four times. He averages 10.1 points per game but does most of his offensive damage in the paint, as he’s attempted just 15 threes this year and made only three.
In the backcourt, Cam Spencer (15.6 points per game) and fifth-year senior Tristen Newton (14.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists) lead the way. Spencer played at Rutgers a year ago, torching the nets from three-point range as he made 72-of-166 (43.4%) for the Scarlet Knights after three seasons of doing the same for Loyola-Maryland. This year he’s somehow been even better — he’s made 51-of-109 (46.8%) in just 17 games for UConn.
Newton, meanwhile, is a stat stuffer who leads the Huskies in rebounding and assists and is third on the team in scoring. He has three career triple-doubles, the most of any active player in college basketball and the most of any UConn player in program history. Somehow the Jays had his number in two meetings last year. He scored 13 points with four rebounds and just one assist in Storrs, and two points with zero rebounds, three turnovers and four assists in Omaha. He’s had three double-doubles so far this season, and against Georgetown on Sunday he had nine points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
- Tip: 6:00pm
- Venue: Harry A. Gampel Pavilion (10,167) in Storrs, Conn.
- TV: FS1
- Announcers: John Fanta and Bill Raftery
- In Omaha: Cox channel 78 (SD), 1078 (HD); CenturyLink Prism channel 620 (SD), 1620 (HD)
- Outside Omaha: FS1 Channel Finder
- Satellite: DirecTV channel 219, Dish Network channel 150
- Cable Cutters: Available on all major streaming platforms
- Streaming on the Fox Sports app and website
- Creighton Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
- Announcer: John Bishop
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Simulcast on SiriusXM channel xxx as well as on the SiriusXM App
- Connecticut Radio: UConn Sports Network
- Announcers: Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman
Hassan Diarra has averaged 10.3 points per game off the bench over UConn’s last four outings, including his UConn-best of 14 points against DePaul on Jan. 2. Diarra has been hyper-efficient over the stretch, shooting 14-of-18 from the field and 7-of-9 from 3-point range.
UConn has an overall record of 221-41 (.844) at Gampel Pavilion, and went 8-1 in Gampel last year after a perfect 8-0 season there in 2021-22. They’ve won 23 of their last 24 games in the on-campus facility, where they split time along with the XL Center in Hartford.
The Huskies rank in the top-10 in the nation in field goal percentage, scoring margin, effective field goal percentage and assist/turnover ratio, 11th in assists per game and 25th in scoring offense. They lead the Big East in each of those major offensive categories. Per Kenpom, UConn boasts the No. 3 offense in America.
Creighton is 1-19 all-time against Top 3 teams, with the lone win coming on Feb. 24, 2018 against No. 3 Villanova. It would turn out to be Nova’s final loss before rolling to a national title. Creighton is 0-5 all-time against top-ranked teams, but they own 12 top 10 victories under Greg McDermott, with four of those coming in true road games
Creighton trailed 65-64 on Saturday against St. John’s before Trey Alexander’s game-winning free throws with 12.3 seconds left. It was the latest CU has trailed in a victory since a win over San Diego State in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. On that day, CU trailed 62-60 before an Alexander basket with 11.2 seconds left tied a game that CU eventually won in overtime.
Creighton has shot 70 percent or better at the free throw line in each of its last 13 conference games. That ties the program’s longest such streak since 2005-06, and is also the nation’s longest active such streak, one game longer than New Orleans. Creighton is shooting 75.4 percent from the line this season, while last year’s team set a program-record by converting 78.3 percent of its charity tosses.
Creighton is 6-1 all-time against UConn, with the seven meetings taking place in four different cities since 2020. All seven games have been decided by single-digits, and by a total of just 31 points.
Creighton is 2-1 in road games against UConn, going 1-1 at Gampel Pavilion and 1-0 at XL Center. Greg McDermott is 6-1 against Connecticut.
On January 17, 1985, Benoit Benjamin had 43 points, 16 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in a 96-90 win over Southern Illinois at the Civic Auditorium. He made 18 of 23 field goal attempts and seven of eight free throws, and already had 21 points at halftime to surpass his season average.
Vernon Moore added 19 points and 12 assists for Creighton, making it the rare game where multiple Bluejays had a double-double.
The Bottom Line:
Vegas oddsmakers’ favor UConn by 6.5, and ESPN’s BPI gives the Huskies a 65.5% chance of victory. KenPom predicts a six-point UConn win, though notably, it’s one of just three remaining games that his predictive metrics have the Jays as underdogs.
I think UConn wins a close one, but the beauty of playing the #1 team on the road is everyone expects a loss. So play loose and swing away.
#1 UConn 72, #18 Creighton 68