UConn men’s basketball (24-2, 14-1) kicks off a critical five-game stretch to close the regular season on Wednesday night, as the Huskies host Creighton (13-13, 7-8) at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs looking to finish off the season sweep of the Bluejays.
The Bluejays rank No. 78 in KenPom, with the No. 65 offense in the country, No. 119 defense and rank 81st in the NET. The team has spiraled out of at-large contention for the NCAA Tournament in Big East play, dropping seven of their last 10 games with the three
wins all coming by just one possession. Greg McDermott hasn’t gotten what he’s expected out of a group that was nationally ranked in the preseason and they now have an uphill climb if they want to play in March Madness for a sixth-straight year.
As for UConn, it sits at No. 5 in the AP Poll, No. 9 in KenPom, and No. 10 in the NET. They have the 11th-most efficient defense in the country and 22nd most efficient offense. The Huskies had yet another close win on Saturday, knocking off Georgetown in Storrs despite a valiant effort from the Hoyas and some poor late game execution by Dan Hurley’s squad. They bounced back from a loss to St. John’s with two wins last week to get back on track.
The Huskies are looking to keep pace with the Red Storm as both squads have just one Big East loss and are seeking a regular season title with less than a month to go in the regular season.
Last time the Huskies played Creighton, they blew them out last month in Omaha behind a 3-point barrage and a dominant second half. Can they replicate that performance? For as much as the Gampel Pavilion crowd has been maligned as of late, the combination of $2 Miller Lites, Emeka Okafor’s number retirement and Hurley’s postgame comments should lead to one of, if not the best, crowds of the season.
Date/Time: Wednesday, Feb. 18, 7:00 p.m.
TV/Stream: TNT, HBO Max
Radio: UConn Sports Network, Sirius XM 84, Sirius/XM online streaming
Odds: UConn -16.5, over/under 142.5
Location: Gampel Pavilion – Storrs, Connecticut
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 79, Creighton 64 — 92 percent win probability
Series History
The Huskies and Bluejays have played 13 times in their history, their first game coming in 2020 after UConn rejoined the Big East. Creighton has dominated the matchup, boasting a 9-4 record with a 4-2 mark in Omaha. They last faced off on Jan. 31 this year when the Huskies won 85-58 behind their third most threes hit in a game in program history (16). Braylon Mullins led four UConn players in double figures with 16 points.
Availability report
As of now, everyone should be available for the Huskies. The Big East availability report comes out three hours before tip-off.
What to Watch For
Lights out shooting
Going into that game in Omaha last month, one of the game plans that made sense for the Huskies to utilize was to work through Tarris Reed Jr. in the post to try and take advantage of a week Bluejay frontcourt. Instead, he was barely a factor offensively and UConn went out and banged 16 triples on the way to a blowout win. Seven different Huskies made threes with Mullins, Solo Ball and Silas Demary Jr. combining for 10.
“We knew when we came into the game that the ball pressure wasn’t gonna be the biggest point of emphasis for us on offense. We were coming off screens and we were just getting whatever was available, and we shot the hell out of it,” Mullins said after the win in Omaha.
It can be a dangerous game trying to go shot-for-shot with Creighton, even in a down year for them. The Bluejays have hit double-digit threes in nine of their 15 league games this year including 13-plus in two of their past three. They had their worst night from deep in terms of made threes in Big East play last time they went against UConn, hitting just five. In the second half, they shot 0-11 from deep.
Take care of the basketball
The way that game ended on Saturday nearly gave every UConn fan inside of Gampel Pavilion a heart attack. The Huskies really struggled against the Georgetown late-game pressure, committing silly fouls and turning the ball over in key spots. With less than 30 seconds to go, Reed fouled KJ Lewis while he was shooting a three and he made the shot and ensuing free throw, cutting a seven point Husky lead to three. UConn then struggled to get the ball in before just avoiding a five second call, all to be forced to call their final timeout to narrowly avoid a 10-second call by a matter of tenths of a second.
After that timeout, Alex Karaban threw the ball away on the inbounds, giving the Hoyas the ball with 13 seconds left down by three. The Huskies fouled up three and eventually came away with the four point win, but it led to some major questions afterwards.
The tape on UConn is out; pressure, especially late, can be a problem for this team. Better ball security and a higher sense of urgency when inbounding can go a long way into solving these issues. If the Huskies play like they did in the final minute in any other games the rest of the way, they may not be as fortunate to come out on top. It’s a dangerous game to be playing.
Emerging scorer
When the teams matched up in Omaha, the Huskies did a phenomenal job guarding Creighton leading scorer Josh Dix. They held him scoreless, the first time he failed to score a point in a game in over a year back when he played for Iowa. Dix shot 0-6 from the field and 0-4 from beyond the arc. In four games since, he’s averaging 13 points per game and has knocked down nine threes.
The UConn defense has been trending downwards since the loss to St. John’s, falling from 5th to 11th in defensive efficiency on KenPom. With that being the case and Dix having bounced back from his scoreless effort, it’s safe to say he’ll have a better game in Gampel on Wednesday.
Bounce back Ball
Solo Ball’s past two games have looked more like the Solo Ball that we saw last season and expected to see this year. After scoring 24 points with six threes on the road at Butler, he scored 20 points and made five threes in the win over Georgetown. Ball had three 20-point games in his first 23 games and was very inconsistent scoring the basketball, even with the Huskies winning all of their games for the most part.
With more makes comes more attempts for Ball from three, which is a topic of debate among UConn fans. He’s hit 11 threes the past two games, but has attempted 27. His seven three point attempts per game is second in the Big East, only trailing Providence’s Stefan Vaaks. Even with him taking so many shots, it doesn’t feel like Ball is forcing too much from the perimeter and is generating good looks.
Having Ball “back” to go hand in hand with Mullins and Karaban gives UConn one of the more dangerous wing groups in the country from three. For a Huskies squad that’s hit 10 or more threes in five of their past six, it couldn’t come at a better time either.
Another chance for the fans
Outside of the “meltdown” at the end of the game, the thing that everyone was talking about the most postgame was the crowd at Gampel Pavilion.
Ed Cooley stoked the fire with his opening statement.
“Honestly, I was surprised that there were empty seats up in the (student) section. You got a National Championship team, this place should be sold out every day, I just was shocked, that actually shocked me. You got a top ten team on a Saturday night, this place should’ve been bouncing off the wall on a Saturday night with a team that’s out there like that,” Cooley said.
When Hurley was asked about it, he went on a tangent of his own.
“This is the basketball capital of the world… We’ve given our fans two national championships out of the last three years. We’re 24-2, 14-1, and we’ve been ranked at the top of the rankings the whole year…there shouldn’t be criticisms of our crowds at games. Fans can criticize me all you want, I’ve got some f-in equity, I’ve got two national championships here,” Hurley said. “We’ve given you this season that there’s a lot of programs across the country that fans wish they had going…It’s not a f-in social event…We need our fans to come to the game and be loud as shit from the start. It needs to be a madhouse.”
The exact science as to why the crowd hasn’t been as engaged in home games isn’t clear, but some could argue its due to the fact that the team hasn’t had many marquee matchups in league play at home, which is more a testament to the league than it is to UConn. With three more home games, all of which against top five teams in the Big East standings, it will be interesting to see if the fanbase will rally around “getting called out” and provide the type of environment that a top five team in the country warrants.
