Creighton’s Mastery Continues
The Story: Creighton continues to dominate the men’s basketball team as it won for the fifth straight time with a 64-62 home victory last night. The Bluejays’ Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 22 points, with 20 coming in the second half.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: No. 18 UConn’s five-game winning streak was snapped as it could not recover from a mind-boggling poor first half. The Huskies lost every metric imaginable, shot only 40%, lost the rebound battle and only had seven assists. They took only five foul shots and made two.
• If it wasn’t for suffocating early second-half defense, and the stellar play of R.J. Cole, who had 20 points, the Huskies wouldn’t have been in it.
• It was a frustrating loss for UConn, which trailed by as many as 16 and tied the score at 50 but could never get over the hump.
WHAT IS GOING ON? In the last two years, UConn is 36-16, with five of those losses against Creighton. How is that even possible? The Bluejays own the best record of any team against UConn. Kansas is 3-0 all time and Niagara is 2-0. It is as inexplicable a stat as we can find.
FIRST-HALF SLOG: UConn had another one of its bad first halves. It scored 24 points, was down 10 at halftime and shot 1-for-10 from 3-point range. The Huskies average 76 points per game but managed only 24 points in the first half and had zero fastbreak points.
NO SPACING: Cole was brilliant and hit a host of tough shots, but he didn’t get much help. Creighton, for the second straight game against UConn (21-8, 12-6 Big East), ignored Isaiah Whaley and Andre Jackson on the perimeter.
• Instead, the Bluejays (20-9, 12-6 Big East) loaded up on Adama Sanogo, who was playing with a hand injury and couldn’t get anything going. He shot 6-of-16 for an inefficient 13 points, though he had 16 rebounds and six blocks.
• Jackson and Whaley were a combined 0-for-9 from 3-point range and 3-for-15 overall with only eight points combined.
• Whaley struggled with three points, two rebounds and no blocks in 31 minutes as Dan Hurley remained stubborn and loyal with his senior forward.
• Jackson tried to create and score. He was 0-for-6 from 3-point range but finished 2-for-9 for five points. He had three assists and served as the point guard for many possessions as Cole worked off the ball.
• Cole had to take 20 shots and had four assists on 9-for-20 shooting. He created 13 of UConn’s 27 baskets.
• Tyler Polley had only three shots in 25 minutes.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: Some games the box score doesn’t tell us a thing. Last night? It told us everything. UConn played a poor and inefficient game and had the wrong players taking the wrong shots at the wrong time.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN? UConn drops to fourth in the Big East and Creighton moves up to No. 3 and likely punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies can move back to the No. 3 seed if they beat DePaul on Saturday (they better) and Creighton loses to desperate Seton Hall (that’s possible).
• The difference? It’s major as UConn, as the No. 4 seed, would likely have No. 1 Providence in the semifinals if it can hold off the No. 5 seed. The No. 3 seed would be on No. 2 Villanova’s side of the bracket.
• Villanova is the best team in the Big East regardless of Providence’s record, so dropping to No. 4 isn’t a terrible thing. And, a No. 4 seed means the Huskies will play in the Big East tournament at 2:30 p.m. instead of the 9:30 p.m. late game as the No. 3 seed.
• Where it will hurt a little more is NCAA Tournament seeding. The Huskies are, by all metrics, a No. 4 or No. 5 seed and had designs on making a run and maybe even getting onto the No. 3 line. We just don’t see that after this loss. The Huskies are a No. 5 seed and probably need to get to the Big East final to get off the line going into March.
• A quick exit next week could lead to the Huskies dropping to a No. 6 seed. Lose to DePaul on Saturday and all bets are off.
NEXT UP? The Huskies host DePaul in the regular season finale at 5 p.m. on Fox on Saturday.
Morning Reads
• Sad news for the football team as George DeLeone, who spent time on Paul Pasqualoni‘s staff and nearly 50 years in coaching, died after a bout with cancer. DeLeone was 73. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
• Geno Auriemma turned in some of the finest work of his career this season by somehow navigating injuries and illnesses to keep the women’s basketball team at the top of the Big East. (Hartford Courant)
• The women’s hockey team is headed to the Hockey East final with a 3-1 win over top-seeded Vermont. Freshman goaltender Megan Warrener stopped 30 shots to lead the Huskies, who play Northeastern on Saturday in Boston for the conference championship. (UConnHuskies.com)
• What is an NFT? We aren’t sure, but we bought one of Jordan Hawkins and it appears the UConn players are going to make some money off their names, images and likenesses. (Journal Inquirer)
