After two straight losses, the road doesn’t get any easier for Creighton as next up is #23 UConn. Much like Providence, who was beaten at the buzzer by CU earlier in the year and came out inspired from the opening tip in the rematch, UConn will come into this one ready for revenge after an OT loss to the Jays a month ago. Creighton has to match that urgency and intensity from the moment the ball is tipped.
As we wrote in the Morning After, Creighton’s start to both halves doomed them against Providence. The Friars scored on nine of their first 11 possessions to begin the game, and seven of their first eight in the second half. That cannot repeat itself on Saturday if the Jays are to win.
UConn’s leading scorer, James Bouknight, scored 40 points on 13-of-24 shooting in that first meeting. He drew 11 fouls with all of his drives to the rim. And he will not play Saturday as he continues to rehab an elbow injury.
The rest of the Huskies were ice cold in that game: Bouknight’s teammates combined to shoot 11-for-43 overall and 2-for-18 on three-pointers. So it’s tempting to think that without him, the scales tip in Creighton’s favor. That might be true, but it’s also true that senior forward Tyler Polley, a shooting guard in a 6’9” body, did not play in that game. He’s made 41.5% of his three-pointers this year and scores in a variety of ways — off of ball-screens, in transition, off the dribble. So in reality you’re trading one weapon for another.
Polley has averaged 12.6 points per game over the last three games with Bouknight out of the lineup, and that doesn’t include the 23 he scored against Marquette (the game Bouknight was injured in). He was 1-of-6 on three-pointers against St. John’s in their last game, but before that, he’d gone 5-of-8 from three-point range against both Marquette and Butler, and 3-of-8 against DePaul.
R.J. Cole has also picked up some of the slack with Bouknight out. He’s an inefficient scorer — in scoring 18 points against St. John’s, he needed 16 shot attempts. He’s made just 35% of his shots on the year, and in the first meeting with Creighton, he scored 12 but was 0-for-5 on two-pointers and 2-of-8 on threes. So he’s score, yes, but he’ll take a lot of shots to get there.
Cole’s bigger impact will come in other areas. His defense on Marcus Zegarowski in the first meeting stalled out Creighton’s offense, and was a big factor in Zegarowski’s horrible shooting day (4-of-14 overall, 1-of-8 on threes). Zegarowski also turned it over five times. Cole has one of the better assist-to-turnover ratios in the Big East, too (2.06).
Tyrese Martin is the third active Husky averaging in double figures at 11.0 points per game; he leads the club with 7.6 rebounds per game, too, with nearly half of them coming on the offensive glass (27 of 61). He’s been their most consistent scorer in Bouknight’s absence, scoring at least 14 in all three games while averaging just under six rebounds and four steals.
CU has often struggled against opponents with length. It’s perhaps the best weapon against Creighton’s pace-and-space attack, and UConn has length in spades. The Huskies average just under eight steals per game (70 in nine games) and force a turnover on 22.5% of opponents possessions (ranking 41st in D1). Creighton had a season-high 16 turnovers in the first meeting, a stat that nearly cost them the game by itself.
Likewise, CU has often struggled against great offensive rebounding teams. UConn is the fourth-best offensive rebounding team in America, grabbing an unbelievable 39.2% of their own missed shots. That’s one helluva lot of second chance opportunities against a scrambling defense. And unsurprisingly they’re a much better shooting team on those second chances — they shoot 58.3% on putbacks. UConn is going to get a lot of offensive boards, so the key here is limiting the damage they do afterward. Creighton was really good at this in the first meeting, allowing just 12 points on UConn’s 15 offensive boards.
From a depth perspective, Creighton did get Marcus Zegarowski back on Wednesday, but Shereef Mitchell’s status may be up in the air — he played just five minutes against Providence, and had a hard time moving on his foot.
- Tip: 11:00am
- Venue: CHI Health Center Omaha
- TV: FOX
- Announcers: Kevin Kugler and Donny Marshall
- 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
- Radio: 1620AM
- Announcers: John Bishop and Brody Deren
- Streaming on 1620TheZone.com and the 1620 The Zone mobile app
- Satellite Radio:
- Creighton broadcast: XM 201, Sirius 121
- Connecticut broadcast: XM 202
UConn had won four straight following the loss to CU, and led St. John’s 21-7 earlier this week before losing 74-70. In the loss, freshman Adama Sanogo scored a career-high 12 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.
UConn has a five-game road winning streak, dating back to last year’s final two away games. The last time UConn had five straight road wins was during the 2008-09 Final Four season, when the Huskies put together a streak of nine consecutive road victories.
UConn finds itself in the midst of a busy stretch during which the Huskies will play seven games over 23 days, from January 9-31, including four games on the road.
In Wednesday’s game vs. Providence, Christian Bishop (6-6) and Ryan Kalkbrenner (3-3) combined to shoot 9-for-9 from the field. Believe it or not, it was the second straight game CU’s two primary big men were perfect from the field, as it also happened last Saturday at Butler when Bishop went 5-for-5 and Kalkbrenner was 1-for-1. Going back to Creighton’s Jan. 9 game vs. St. John’s, Bishop has made his last 13 field goal attempts and Kalkbrenner his past seven field goal tries.
Last year Damien Jefferson scored in double-figures in just 13-of-30 contests, and he finished the season averaging 9.4 points per game. This year, the senior forward has scored in double-figures in 12-of-14 games and he’s upped his average to 13.0 points per contest. He’s been even better in the past five games, averaging 17.2 points per game on 62.1 percent shooting from the field, which includes 31-for-43 marksmanship (72.1 percent) from two-point range.
Creighton’s four losses have come by a combined 14 points (1, 5, 4, 4), and UConn’s two setbacks have been by a combined six points (2, 4). Both teams have lost one overtime game this season.
Creighton has won the only previous matchup with UConn — this season’s first meeting, a 76-74 overtime win on December 20, 2020 in Storrs.
UConn has never played a game in the state of Nebraska. And other than this season’s earlier game against Creighton, UConn has only played a team from Nebraska twice — a win over Nebraska in the first round of the 1992 NCAA tourney in Cincinnati and a win over Nebraska in the 1997 NIT at Gampel Pavilion.
The infamous upset loss at Evansville in 2003 occurred on this date 18 (!) years ago. You remember, the one where the Jays broke into the Top 10 for the first time in a generation only to go into a mostly empty Roberts Stadium and lose. That’s a horrible memory so let’s go a bit further back.
On January 23, 1999, the inimitable Doug Swenson had 21 points on 9-13 shooting in a 95-84 win over Illinois State at the Civic. Rodney Buford added 22 points and nine rebounds, including a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line, as the Jays erased a 46-41 halftime deficit.
The Bottom Line:
If Bouknight was healthy and playing, Connecticut might well be favored against a slumping Bluejay squad. Without him, it will likely be a tightly contested battle, and that’s what the prognosticators seem to think. ESPN’s BPI gives Creighton a 74.8% chance of winning, and KenPom favors them by five, 71-66.
I think the Jays will get back in the win column in this one, but it’ll be decided late.
Creighton 75, Connecticut 71