The reigning national champion UConn Huskies are 24-2 and have won 14 straight games. That’s all the more impressive considering they’ve worn the biggest possible target on their backs for most of that winning streak: they’ve been ranked #1 in both polls for six weeks in a row. And after an absurd 81-53 destruction of #4 Marquette on Saturday, they’re now a unanimous #1 in the AP poll with all 62 voters picking them as this week’s best team.
As they should be. They’re a team almost without weaknesses. The Huskies are third in adjusted offensive efficiency (124.7, or 18.7 points better per 100 possessions than the D1 average of 106.0). They’re 11th in adjusted defensive efficiency (94.3, or 11.7 points better than the D1 average.) And they grab 37.4% of their missed shots as offensive rebounds, 12th most in D1.
“When you play elite offense, you play elite defense and you’re a great rebounding team and you play harder than the opponent, it doesn’t give (opponents) a lot of places to go,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after Saturday’s game. And he’s right: when UConn plays their ‘A’ game, there’s no team in college hoops likely to beat them. They simply have more ways of beating teams than almost anyone else: they can outscore you in a shootout, they can out-tough you in a defensive slugfest, they have playmakers who don’t shy away from big moments in close games, and they don’t beat themselves.
Greg McDermott said on Monday that he thinks, at this point in the season, the 2023-24 UConn Huskies are a better team than the one that won the national title a year ago — as scary as that sounds.
“If you go back to last year’s team, I think they were 8-6 in the league after 14 games, and I think the Big East is better top to bottom than it was a year ago,” McDermott said. “So to win, you know, 14 in a row or whatever it’s been now? In this conference with a target on their back? They just they don’t have a lot of missing pieces.”
One of those 14 straight wins came at Creighton’s expense on January 17, a 62-48 UConn win that wasn’t nearly as close as it sounds. With 6:55 to play in the first half of that game, UConn led 23-19. Then for nearly 20 minutes of game time — spanning the last seven minutes of the first half and the first 13 of the second — Creighton was 3-of-24 from the floor and scored 11 points. They had nine turnovers during that stretch. And when it ended, they trailed 52-30.
UConn did basically the same thing to Marquette over the weekend. That game was tied at 18 after 11 minutes of action, but then over a 26-minute stretch, UConn outscored Marquette 60-31, overwhelming them in every facet of the game. Creighton’s defense did a better job of slowing them down; their offense was every bit as flustered as Marquette’s was.
Here’s a refresher on exactly how terrible CU’s offense was that night, as you may have blocked it out: they were 6-of-26 on three-pointers (23.1%), and missed more layups (9) than they made (7) en route to just 20 points in the paint.
But it shouldn’t be forgotten how great CU’s defense was that night. If you prefer counting stats, UConn’s 62 points are the fewest they’ve scored in any game this year, and one of just five times where they’ve been held under 70. If it’s tempo-free numbers you like, UConn’s effective field goal percentage was 39.3%, the worst mark in any of their 26 games so far — and the only time they’ve been sub-40% all season. The next closest game was at Seton Hall, one of their two losses, where their eFG% was 41.4%. They’ve only had three other games sub-50%.
How did the Jays do it?
Just 27% of UConn’s shots were threes, the first time all season they attempted less than 30% of their shots from outside. Only two teams have done it since. That shows that the Jays’ drop coverage was successful in running them off the line.
As a result, UConn made five 3-pointers, their second-fewest in any game this year. They shot 26.3% from three, their third-worst shooting performance of the season from outside the arc. In Big East play, the only games where they shot worse were in their lone loss (4-of-21 for 19.0% against Seton Hall) and in a win at Providence that was closer than anyone expected (4-of-23, 17.4%).
Inside the arc, Creighton was just as stingy. UConn was 20-of-51 on two-pointers (39.2%), the only game this season where they were sub-40% — and one of only three games where they were under 50%. Two of those were in their two losses (to Kansas and Seton Hall). At the rim, UConn was only 11-of-28 on layups, thanks to Ryan Kalkbrenner blocking five shots.
If you don’t clear the rebound, though, you’ve wasted the defensive effort. And of the 45 shots UConn missed, they grabbed an offense rebound on 21 of them — or 44%. They turned those into 19 points, while CU only got five points off of their six offensive boards. Combined with 14 turnovers, which UConn turned into 15 points compared to the four points CU got off of seven Husky turnovers, UConn had 25 more extra-possession points than the Jays.
“You can’t have live ball turnovers against UConn. Against some opponents, they may or may not score on those…UConn’s going to score. They’re that electric when they turn you over and attack in transition,” McDermott said. “They’ve just been an absolute beast on the offensive glass, too, and we’ve got some matchups that aren’t great. So we’re going to have to fight tooth and nail, and you know, hope it bounces to us once in a while because they’ve really dominated almost everybody on the glass.”
All totaled, 34 of UConn’s 62 points came on extra possessions. CU’s defensive effort was good enough to pull the upset. But in a perfect illustration of Hurley’s point about opponents having so few avenues to beat them, UConn was significantly better in two other areas — offensive rebounds and their own defense. And so despite Creighton defending them better than anyone else all season long, UConn still won handily.
“We didn’t play very well at UConn, and certainly they had a lot to do with that,” McDermott said. “I think our guys are eager to see if we can play a little bit better, and put ourselves in a position late in the game to have a chance. But I’ve got a mature group, their approach has been pretty consistent all year, and I would expect that tomorrow will be the same.”
There’s a path to a Creighton win, based on that game, albeit a narrow one. Continue running the Huskies off the perimeter and making the shots they do get into tough, contested ones. Take advantage of Kalkbrenner’s rim protection to make layups into tough looks. That’s the easy part, relatively speaking, because they accomplished those things once. Then they’ll need to cut down on the extra possessions they give UConn — 14 turnovers and 25 offensive rebounds can’t happen again. And they’ll need to hit the few open looks they’ll get — 6-of-26 from three-point range can’t be repeated.
Even if they do all of those things, UConn could still win if they bring their ‘A’ game. They’re that great. And considering 7’2″ star Donovan Clingan played just 15 minutes in that game, his first after returning from injury, and had just six points and five rebounds on 3-of-8 shooting, his return to full-time minutes could alone tip the scales.
But no matter the result, it’s one helluva measuring stick a month before March Madness, and exactly the type of game you join a league like the Big East to play.
“Going into a match up with UConn, you know it’s going to be a fist fight,” McDermott said. “But we’ve won some on the road in difficult places, we’ve played some really good teams. Have we played a team as good as UConn yet? No. But you know, I think they’re the best team in the country. It’ll be a treat for our fans to watch a team that’s as talented as they are, and we’re going to need our ‘A’ game to win, there’s no question there. And we have to do whatever we can to make sure they don’t have theirs.”
Tip: 7:30pm
Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
TV: FS1
Announcers: Kevin Kugler 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
Radio: 1620AM, 101.9FM
Announcers: John Bishop and Tyler Clement
Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
Simulcast on SiriusXM channel 106 or 201 as well as on the SiriusXM App
The Huskies made a statement in a top-five showdown in Hartford on Saturday, rolling past No. 4 Marquette with an 81-53 victory. Donovan Clingan led the balanced Husky attack with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. Tristen Newton flirted with a triple-double, scoring 15 with eight rebounds and eight assists, while Hassan Diarra and Cam Spencer both scored 14 points. The Huskies assisted on 24 of their 29 field goals in the win and held a potent MU offense to its lowest scoring output of the season, snapping an eight-game winning streak in the process. The win was UConn’s 14th-straight league win, tying a Big East record for the longest winning streak in a season in league history
Freshman Stephon Castle was the Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year and has been named Big East Freshman of the Week a UConn-record eight times this season, including seven of the last eight awards. Castle scored a career-high 20 points against Providence on Jan. 31, then topped that mark with 21 points in the next game at St. John’s on Feb. 3 The freshman averages 10.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, leading all conference freshmen in each category.
With its ascent to No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Jan. 15, UConn has now been in the No. 1 spot in the national rankings 10 times and 34 weeks across seven seasons in school history. The Huskies have played 59 games in their history as the No. 1 team in the nation, compiling a 50-9 record in those contests.
The last time Creighton faced UConn, Ryan Kalkbrenner made 4-of-5 shots from the field, but tied a season-low for field goal attempts. The magic number seems to be 12, as Creighton is 18-2 all-time when Kalkbrenner takes a dozen shots from the field or more, and is 12-0 all-time against BIG EAST foes when taking 12 shots.
Greg McDermott owns 599 career victories as a head coach entering Tuesday’s tilt vs. No. 1 UConn. He’s won 50 or more games at four different schools, and owns a .630 career winning percentage in 30 seasons and 951 games as a head coach. Only 16 active Division I men’s coaches, and only 27 active men’s coaches across all levels, own 600 or more career victories
Creighton and Connecticut are first and second in the league (all games) in scoring offense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, assists, three-point percentage and assist/turnover ratio. In league play the teams are 1-2 in scoring offense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, assists and assist/turnover ratio
Creighton is 6-2 all-time against UConn, with the seven meetings taking place in four different cities since 2020. The first seven games were decided by single-digits, and by a total of just 31 points, before UConn’s 62-48 win in Storrs last month. Creighton is 3-0 in Omaha against the Huskies, winning 74-66, 64-62 and 56-53.
On February 20, 2022 Creighton beat Marquette 83-82 in a classic back-and-forth battle that saw the Jays rally from a five-point deficit late in the game. The rally began, as it so often did this season, with a bucket by Ryan Hawkins. That jumper made it 78-75 Marquette; after a defensive stop, a floater by Ryan Nembhard made it a one-point game, 78-77. And then Nembhard and Hawkins teamed up to deliver what would wind up being the winning basket — Hawkins knocked the ball loose on the defensive end, then hustled down the floor behind a streaking Nembhard on the fastbreak. When the defense converged on Nembhard near the rim, he threw a behind-the-back pass in midair to Hawkins, who laid it in before Marquette’s defense knew what hit them. 80-79 Creighton.
The Jays’ defense forced four turnovers and five straight missed shots in the final five minutes, including two stops on consecutive possessions after Hawkins’ layup had given them the lead.
And then Rati Andronikishvili made not one, but two defensive gems to seal the win.
With eight seconds left, Darryl Morsell turned the ball over after being heated up by Andronikishvili — working along the sideline, Morsell dribbled the ball behind his back to try and create space, with Rati aggressively defending him knowing he had a foul to give. As he made his move, Andronikishvili correctly anticipated where he would try to go, deflected the ball away, and forced a turnover.
Just an enormous play. It elicited the loudest roar the CHI Health Center had heard since March of 2020, as Andronikishvili celebrated by jumping in the air, his screams audible on the radio broadcast from center court, mere steps away.
Leading 81-79 moments later, another bizarre play in the final seconds of this series — particularly in games played in Omaha — unfolded. The Golden Eagles’ Greg Elliott stepped on the out-of-bounds line while attempting to throw an inbounds pass, turning the ball over. Andronikishvili deserves the credit for this one, too, as he denied Elliott’s first option — Justin Lewis — and as Elliott looked for a secondary option he stepped on the line.
“With about three minutes left, I pulled Rati aside and told him, ‘You are going to make a play that wins us this game.’ And he made two plays that won us this game,” McDermott said.
The Bottom Line:
Vegas oddsmakers favor UConn by 2.5, and KenPom’s predictive metrics predict a two-point win for the Huskies. Interestingly, ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton 57.5% odds of victory, with home court no doubt tipping the scales in CU’s favor. To that end, Greg McDermott had a message for Jays fans heading to the game.
“I think it’ll be fun. I hope we have a bunch of students, and that they let the guard down and have a lot of fun,” McDermott said at the tail end of his press conference Monday. “We have to make this as difficult of a place to play as there is in the conference. UConn calls out a lot of their set plays, and it’d be nice if the guys on the floor couldn’t hear (Danny) when he was trying to call them out because it was too loud in this place.”
If the crowd brings it, and Creighton keeps the “extra possession” points from live ball turnovers and offensive rebounds to a minimum, the path to an upset is there. I think they get it.
#15 Creighton 70, #1 UConn 68
