UConn will look to gain some separation in the Big East standings tomorrow
The last time No. 14 UConn men’s basketball (13-4, 5-1) had a week off to prepare for an opponent, the Huskies turned in their best performance of the year. Dan Hurley and company will be hoping for a similar result Saturday, when UConn welcomes Creighton (11-6, 4-2) to Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies are on a 28-game home winning streak.
After some non-conference slipups, Doug McDermott’s team is firmly on the bubble for March and desperate for another Quad-1 win. The Bluejays, despite injuries and inconsistency, still check in at KenPom No. 40, with good balance—the 52-ranked offense and 42-ranked defense. Ryan Kalkbrenner is third in Big East in scoring and first in blocks, while Steven Ashworth has taken his game to another level in his second year at Omaha. They’re one of only three duos in college hoops this year to both average 17 points or more per game.
After a stinging loss to Villanova (that looks worse after the Wildcats dropped their last two in spectacular fashion), UConn course corrected with a road win against Georgetown. The Huskies will be without Liam McNeeley tomorrow as the star freshman is still recovering from a high ankle sprain suffered on New Year’s day versus DePaul.
TV: FOX
Radio: UConn Sports Network
Odds: UConn -6.5, over/under 147.5
Location: Gampel Pavilion
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn 79, Creighton 72 (73 percent win probability)
Series History
UConn and Creighton have met nine times, and the Bluejays hold a 7-2 series lead. The two sides split last year; fans no doubt remember the 62-48 drubbing, when the Huskies first started to look like a fully armed and operational death star. They’ve likely flushed the frustrating 85-66 loss — where UConn shot 3/16 from three — from their memory banks. Creighton hasn’t won in Gampel since December 2020.
What to Watch For
Inside Out
There aren’t many better inside-out combos than Kalk and Ash—a pairing that sounds like a Nebraska law firm. The duo have a combined 10 (!) years of NCAA experience and are perfect complements to each other. Ashworth is a sieve on defense, but that gets negated because funneling drives to Kalkbrenner is so effective. The 7-foot-1 center boasts an 8.3% block rate on the year, and has just three fouls in his last five games.
“What he does — and what he allows the other four guys to do defensively — is unique, we won’t see anything like this after them,” Hurley said of the duo.
Kalkbrenner’s offensive repertoire isn’t super advanced, but Ashworth is a creative wizard with the ball that excels at getting his big in good spots off screens or pulling up off the dribble.
Hassan Diarra versus Ashworth will be appointment viewing on the perimeter, and the communication with bigs to guards will be critical. UConn’s abysmal defensive free throw and 3-point percentages sit 345th and 353th in the country, respectively, but the Bluejays aren’t adept at getting to the line and aren’t the elite shooting unit of past iterations.
Inside, Samson Johnson is fresh off his best rebounding performance of the year and hasn’t fouled out since Baylor, but his high hips aren’t conducive to fighting for position inside, and he will need to focus on going straight up on contests. Kalkbrenner’s deep drop coverage could be screaming for some Tarris Reed Jr., whose low center of gravity and bear-like physicality can carve out space inside.
Betting on Reed to find success inside is one lever to pull, but the easier option is to run Solo Ball and Alex Karaban — the only teammates in the country to both rank in the top-40 nationally in 3-point shooting — through a zillion screens and see how Creighton’s weaker defenders handle the motion. UConn’s assist rate is second in the country, so Hurley will bank on the Huskies’ north-south ball movement to find the open looks.
Value the Ball
By now, we know what types of teams UConn’s elite offense gets bogged down by—physical, switchy defenders that can win 1-on-1 matchups. Creighton is elite defensively, but those attributes are not the reason why.
How the Huskies attack Kalkbrenner will be fascinating. Reed and Johnson aren’t stretching the floor to drag Creighton’s giant out of the paint. Providence had some success against UConn by keeping Oswin Erhunmwunse in the paint and having their guards blow up screens when Reed or Johnson had the ball at the top of the key. Overplaying on shooters meant counteractions didn’t work as well, and slips were met with a paint presence. McDermott could employ a similar strategy with Kalkbrenner, who is a much better rim protector than Erhunmwunse, but Creighton lacks the physical wings Providence had that were so good at being disrupting UConn’s endless actions.
If UConn sees that type of deep drop again, Diarra will need to take care of the ball better; after a sterling stretch of table-setting, the captain has nine turnovers in the last three games. Luckily, Creighton’s 12% turnover rate is 359th in the country. It’s not just on Diarra though; the Huskies are averaging 18 turnovers per game to start 2025, a clear sign of the presence McNeeley has on this team.
Deep Water
Once Texas Tech transfer Pop Issacs was lost for the season to a hip injury, Creighton’s already thin depth has been exposed. There are a lot of nice pieces and options, but very few two-way, impact players. Jamiya Neal has shown flashes of spurtability—the 6-foot-5 Arizona State transfer hit six threes against Villanova on Dec. 21 — but has shot 23% from three since. Issac Traudt is fresh off his best performance of the season, but Creighton’s defense suffers when the 6-foot-10 sophomore is out there.
Top 50 freshman Jackson McAndrew is a floor stretcher at 6-foot-10 and the Bluejays’ second-best defender per Evan Miya, but has yet to put together consistency on the offensive end. Jason Green is a solid defender but doesn’t flash on tape. Mason Miller was on a carbon copy of his dad Mike Miller last year, but injuries and an insane cold streak has him nailed to the bench.
Even with McNeeley out, UConn still goes eight deep and Ahmad Nowell is starting to crack the rotation now too. The bench trio of Aidan Mahaney, Jayden Ross, and Jaylin Stewart all have had their moments this year while Reed Jr. is averaging 10 points and five rebounds in only 20 minutes.
“We need that production every game that they flash. When we get that every game, with Liam back, we’ll be formidable,” Hurley said.
The Bluejays are top heavy, but UConn will have more talent on the court as a whole. At home, with a week to prep for Creighton’s schemes, depth should win out.