The No. 5 UConn men’s basketball team stumbled in a big way on Wednesday, falling to Creighton 91-84. The Huskies fall to 24-3 and 14-2 in the Big East. Braylon Mullins led with a career-high 25 points, while Tarris Reed added 15 points and 12 rebounds. Silas Demary Jr. chipped in 17 points and nine assists.
Woof. Amid all the excitement over retiring Emeka Okafor’s number and #crowdgate leading up the tip, the Huskies squandered momentum in disastrous fashion. They lost the rebounding margin, let the Blue Jays shoot 32 free throws, and missed 10 shots in a row during a critical stretch to end the game.
The loss has a seismic on both the conference and national level; St. John’s likely has inside track on the Big East crown. UConn falls off the 1 (maybe even 2) seed line, and the overall uneven play in February has the team moving in the wrong direction as March nears.
The hope is this is rock bottom.
UConn got whatever it wanted on offense to start, with Demary Jr scoring or assisting on 15 of UConn’s first 20 points. The Blue Jays hung around thanks to a points in the paint edge.
“We’re so soft, Hurley said in a timeout. ”How many free throws have they taken?!“
The Huskies didn’t skip a beat on offense even with Solo Ball picking up two quick whistles. Malachi Smith led the charge, canning a three, delivering two sweet dimes inside, and ramping up the energy.
The problem was the Jays always had a counterpunch on offense, often in transition. The likes of Jasen Green, Josh Dix and Fedor Zugic attacked relentlessly downhill and found little resistance off the bounce.
Creighton was averaging 1.269 points per possession at the under 4 timeout. Some of it was awful defense, some of it was ridiculous shotmaking from the Bluejays.
After a one 1-6 start, Mullins finally got unlocked to end the half, converting a three-point play and canning a triple at the buzzer. It came at the perfect time, because Creighton had built a six-point lead, and it wasn’t from bombing threes; they were 13-19 (59%) from inside the arc. UConn has held teams to 45% on the season.
A true Alonzo Mourning gif of a half. Tighten up the defense and the Huskies should roll, right?
Jayden Ross started for Ball to open the second half and quickly rewarded Hurley with a block and much-needed defensive energy. It continued to be the Mullins show on offense, with the freshman scoring the team’s last 11 points going back to the first half. Demary Jr’s physicality took over from there, his two-way ability helping the Huskies to a seven-point lead.
Just when the vibes seemed to tilt in UConn’s favor, Mullins came down awkwardly on a drive, resulting in some time on the bench. The Blue Jays promptly regained the lead with an 8-0 finding their rhythm from beyond the arc.
Mullins returned to can two threes, shaking off a scary fall on a missed alley oop. But all of the toughness in the world from the kid couldn’t solve UConn’s problems defensively. Dix and Nic Graves took turns carving up UConn every time the crowd looked ready to get into it.
Down five at the under eight, the Huskies needed a spark. Scoring two points and missing 10 of your last 11 shots in the ensuing five-and-a-half minutes was not the spark the crowd had in mind.
Down eight with five to play, it was desperation time. Unfortunately, Greg McDermott teams are masters at making eight-point leads feel like 15, and UConn didn’t help themselves with missed free throws and bunnies.
The Creighton lead stretched to nine, an 18-5 run since Mullins put UConn ahead. The rim had completely closed for everyone wearing white.
To show you the kind of night it was, Blake Harper, who hadn’t hit a three since Jan. 27, who hadn’t played the first 30 minutes of the game, came in and canned two dagger triples to seal the upset.
You play with fire, you’re going to get burned. The Huskies had flirted with disaster for a while now and finally got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Since St. John’s, the interior play has been soft, and on days that the threes don’t fall, the offense looks aimless.
Factor in 54% from the charity stripe with that absurd stretch to end the game, and its hard to glean any positives from the game.
Flush it and move on, quickly. A Villanova team miles better than Creighton in every possible metric lurks Saturday, and while this loss stinks, a postseason of promise is still possible. But the backslide has to end here and now.