The UConn men’s basketball team (16-7, 8-4 Big East) is unranked for the first time since the beginning of the 2022-23 season. They will seek revenge in Omaha, Neb. where they take on the newly ranked Creighton Bluejays (18-6, 11-2 Big East) on Tuesday night.
“No one gets crowned in February,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said on a Zoom call Monday afternoon. “You win a game against Marquette, you’re back and you’re the team now, once they’re healthy, everyone’s got to be afraid of. And then you lose a close game at home to a really good team, and you stink again.”
As they complete a crucial 3-game stretch against the top 3 teams in the Big East, the Huskies need to catch fire as March approaches. 2025 has not gone according to plan, losing more times than they did during the entire 2023-24 season.
Connecticut is coming off a rare home loss to St. John’s who has emerged as the conference’s best team.
The Huskies now have a turnover problem. They turned the ball over at least 22 times in each of the last two games and rank in the fourth percentile nationally over the last five games with 15 turnovers per game.
“Up until the last two games, we’ve been one of the best teams that’s not turning the ball over,” Hurley said. “Now something we were really, really good with has gotten away from us.”
Creighton is known for its microwave-like offense. Once the shots start falling, it is hard to keep up with the Bluejays. They have been one of the best shooting teams in the last five games, making 50% of their shots.
No one is more threatening on Creighton’s roster than Ryan Kalkbrenner, the three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.
He was named to the Big East’s Weekly Honor Roll after averaging 27 points, 9.5 rebounds and three blocks in the two games last week. He had a sensational game at Providence, scoring 35 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and stealing the ball three times. He shot 65.6% from the field last week.
He is one of the best centers in college basketball, averaging 19.2 points (second in the Big East), 8.5 rebounds (second in the Big East) and 2.8 blocks (tied 4th nationally) per game. He shoots 67.3% from the field, which is third in the country and the best among players in major conferences.
In the backcourt, no one is more impactful for the Bluejays than Steven Ashworth. He ranks fifth in the Big East in scoring, averaging 16.9 points per game. He is one of the league’s best 3-point shooters, with a percentage of 38.2%. Ashworth is the best free throw shooter in the country, making 97.6% of his attempts. He is the Big East’s assist leader, averaging 6.8 per game.
In their last meeting, Creighton upset the Huskies at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion behind a career-high 24 points from Jamiya Neal, who made 10 of his 16 shot attempts including three 3-pointers. Since then, Neal has averaged 11.5 points per game and has made himself known on the defensive glass, grabbing five defensive rebounds per game.
However, Liam McNeeley was still hurt with a high ankle sprain then and will play with potentially a longer leash than the minutes restriction he had coming off the bench in Friday’s loss to St. John’s.
“He’s another guy that, from a scouting standpoint, that scares the other team relative to having Solo [Ball], to having Alex [Karaban], now having three guys on the court that are all basically 14 points a game type of guys,” Hurley said, also hinting at an idea of playing positionless and moving McNeeley over for more size on the floor.
It is a tall task to ask UConn to beat Creighton on the road. Firstly, Creighton leads the all-time series 8-2 and both of Connecticut’s wins have come in Storrs. In the Huskies’ historic 2023-24 season, Creighton was one of three teams to beat UConn, blowing them out at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, 85-66. Ashworth turned out to be a massive factor, scoring 20 points including five 3-pointers.
Ashworth leads the Big East in assists. Hassan Diarra is behind him, but there is a chance that the reigning Big East Sixth Man of the Year will not play. Hurley said that Diarra will be limited for the rest of the season and if it were not so deep into the season, he would need six to eight weeks to fully recover. It is expected that he will be a game-time decision for the rest of the season.
Two of the top 4 teams in the Big East will face off at 9 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.