Game #33: Connecticut Huskies (23-9) vs. Creighton Bluejays (23-9) Friday, March 14, 2025 • 8:00 p.m. Central • New York, N.Y. • Madison Square Garden
| LIVE VIDEO | LIVE AUDIO | LIVE STATS | CU NOTES |
• Coming off an 85-81 double-overtime win over DePaul last night, second-seeded Creighton (23-9) plays third-seeded Connecticut (23-9) at 8 p.m. Central on Friday evening at a sold out Madison Square Garden (19,812) in New York, N.Y. At stake…a spot in Saturday night’s 5:30 p.m. Central championship game. • Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson and Kristina Pink will call the game on FOX and FoxSports.com/live. John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg will handle the radio broadcast on 1620 the Zone, 101.9 The Keg and 1620TheZone.com. Scott Graham and PJ Carlesimo will call the game on Westwood One affiliates nationwide. Live stats can be found at http://creighton.statbroadcast.com. • Creighton is 8-3 all-time against UConn, with the 11 meetings taking place in four different cities since 2020. The 11 games have been decided by a total of 73 points, with nine of those decided by single-digits.
Greg McDermott is 8-3 against Connecticut and 8-4 all-time in head-to-head meetings vs. Dan Hurley, as Hurley’s Rhode Island team defeated Creighton 84-72 in the First Round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament in a game contested in Sacramento, Calif.
Creighton won the only previous BIG EAST Tournament meeting in the 2021 semifinals, 59-56, behind 14 points and 12 rebounds from Damien Jefferson. Ryan Kalkbrenner had four points and three rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench that day. • With a win… Creighton would improve to 24-9. Creighton would advance to Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. Central BIG EAST Tournament final against either No. 6 St. John’s or No. 25 Marquette in a game that will air on FOX, 1620 the Zone and 101.9 The Keg. Creighton would improve to 12-10 all-time at the BIG EAST Tournament, including a 5-1 mark in the semifinals. Creighton would improve to 6-3 all-time at the BIG EAST Tournament as a No. 2 seed. Creighton would improve to 4-1 all-time at the BIG EAST Tournament against No. 3 seeds, its most wins against any other seed. Creighton would improve to 2-0 in the BIG EAST Tournament against Connecticut, having beaten the Huskies 59-56 in the 2021 semifinals. • Last night’s victory means that Creighton has won at least one conference tournament game in 10 of the last 14 seasons (which includes three trips to the MVC Tournament). • Creighton has now won 14 of its last 16 conference tournament games decided by four points or less. • While Creighton is searching for its first BIG EAST Tournament title, the Bluejays did win 12 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament titles (1978, 1981, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2013). CU is 0-4 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament finals after winning its final nine MVC Tourney finals. • The top two seeds have met in a BIG EAST final just once since 2004 (2023, No. 1 Marquette beat No. 2 Xavier).
• Last night’s 85-81 win was not a Creighton scorigami. The Bluejays also won 85-81 on Jan. 27, 2021 at Seton Hall in a game in which it trailed by 11 points with six minutes to go. Current Bluejay grad assistant Mitch Ballock had 29 points in that game, and drained seven of CU’s 17 three-pointers.
• Just how unlikely was Creighton’s comeback. KenPom’s site had DePaul with a 98.2 percent win probability when the Blue Demons went ahead by 11 with two minutes to play. It ranked as the 33rd most unlikely comeback of the season per KenPom. Per OptaStats, Thursday in college basketball had the lowest average margin of victory (7.3), highest percentage of games decided by single digits (75.0%) and highest percentage of games decided by 5 or less (50.0%) out of any day in the last 40 years with at least 45 games between two Division I teams. • Creighton’s 36-21 halftime deficit last night matched its largest halftime deficit of the season. Creighton’s last win after trailing by 15+ points at halftime came on March 18, 2008 when it trailed Rhode Island 45-30 and won 74-73 in the NIT. The aforementioned Rhode Island game was also Creighton’s last comeback from down 17 or more at any point in a victory in the month of March or April. Creighton became the first team to overcome a 15-point halftime deficit at the BIG EAST Tournament since South Florida was down 49-33 and beat Villanova 70-69 on March 8, 2011. • Yesterday saw both Marquette (46-36 vs. Xavier) and Creighton (36-21 vs. DePaul) overcome halftime deficits of 10+ points. It’s the first time in BIG EAST Tournament history that it happened multiple times in the same day at the BIG EAST Tournament. • Creighton had its largest comeback victory ever in a BIG EAST Tournament win, as the previous best was when down 11 against UConn in a 2021 semifinal win.
It was also CU’s largest comeback win of the year, and tied the second-largest under Greg McDermott, as it overcame an 18 point hole on Nov. 19, 2014 vs. No. 18 Oklahoma and was down 17 on Nov. 30, 2011 at San Diego State.
• Greg McDermott‘s 11 BIG EAST Tournament wins at Creighton are four more than any other coach at their current school. Dan Hurley has seven to rank second.
McDermott’s 11 wins are 12th-most in league history, one shy of Lou Carnesecca, Jamie Dixon and Kevin Willard to move into a tie for ninth place. The 11 men above him have combined to win 30 of the league’s 44 tournament titles.
• Including last night, Creighton has now won 17 straight games when scoring 80+ points, the longest active streak in the BIG EAST. The Bluejays are 189-21 under Greg McDermott when scoring 80+ points, including a 6-0 record in the BIG EAST Tournament.
Creighton has won 14 conference tournament games in a row when scoring 80+ points, last losing in 1982 to Tulsa by a 106-81 count. • Creighton had a season-high nine steals last night, eclipsing its previous high of seven. Five of the steals came in the final 1:26 of regulation and overtime. Creighton had 24 points off turnovers last night, tied for its second-most all season. Creighton finished +12 (24-12) in points off turnovers, its best margin of the year.
• Creighton’s 21 first half points were its lowest scoring half of the season. CU’s only other win under Greg McDermott when scoring 21 points or less in the first half was on Jan. 7, 2011, when it trailed 25-18 at Southern Illinois and won 72-66 in overtime. CU is now 2-12 under McDermott when scoring 21 points or less in the first half.
• Creighton owns 143 dunks this season, one shy of its most of any season under Greg McDermott (144 in 2016-17). Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 90 dunks this year, 15 more than the previous high Kalkbrenner had last year. Kalkbrenner owns 323 dunks in a Bluejay uniform…next closest under McDermott is Martin Krampelj’s 121.
• Creighton improved to 11-10 all-time in 11 BIG EAST Tournaments with last night’s win. The Bluejays are 4-1 all-time in the semifinal round. Creighton is 8-4 all-time as a “better” seed than its opponent and 3-0 in the semifinal round as the “better” seed.
• Ryan Kalkbrenner blocked a shot for the 17th straight game, had his 24th straight game with 10 or more points and had his 19th straight game with seven or more rebounds last night.
Ryan Kalkbrenner became the fourth player in CU history with multiple seasons of 600 point seasons, joining Doug McDermott, Bob Portman and Marcus Foster.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 20 points or more for the 14th time this season and 38th time in his career. It was his third game of 30+ points this year and fourth of his career.
Ryan Kalkbrenner (32 points) joined Cole Huff (35 on 3/10/16 vs. Seton Hall) and Doug McDermott (35 vs. DePaul on 3/13/14 and 32 vs. Xavier 3/14/14) as the third Bluejay to score 30+ points in a BIG EAST Tournament game.
In last night’s game Ryan Kalkbrenner became the first player in BIG EAST Tournament history with 32+ points, 9+ rebounds and 5+ blocks in a game. The only other player, in any league, to do it since 2002-03, is Texas’ Kevin Durant (37/10/6) vs. Kansas on March 11, 2007.
Ryan Kalkbrenner tied Creighton’s single-game BIG EAST Tournament blocked shot record with five rejections against DePaul. Kalkbrenner had five swats last year vs. Providence and Jacob Epperson had five blocks vs. Providence in 2018.
Ryan Kalkbrenner has 25 career blocks in 10 BIG EAST Tournament games (2.5 per game). Georgetown icon Patrick Ewing had 27 blocks in nine BIG EAST Tournament games, while the all-time tournament record is 33 by Alonzo Mourning over 11 games from 1989-92. Mourning, Ewing and Kalkbrenner combined to win 11 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Ryan Kalkbrenner has become the sixth player in NCAA history with multiple seasons of 600 points and 85 blocked shots in a season, joining David Robinson (3x), Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Keith Benson and Mike Gminski. Kalkbrenner is the only player in that group to have done it while also making 10 or more three-pointers in those two seasons.
Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 1,122 career rebounds, four shy of Bob Harstad (1,126) for second-most in CU history. Paul Silas owns the Bluejay record with 1,751.
Ryan Kalkbrenner owns 391 career blocked shots and is nine shy of 400. The school-record is 411 by Benoit Benjamin. Kalkbrenner’s 391 swats are 34th-most in NCAA history, one behind D’Or Fischer and Tim Perry for 32nd and five behind Mickell Gladness for 31st.
Ryan Kalkbrenner’s 32 points give him 2,384 in his career, moving him from 140th to 129th in NCAA history. Among those he can pass on Friday include Dell Curry (2,389), Kyle Singler (2,392), Todd Day (2,395), and Malik Sealy (2,401). To crack the top 100, Kalkbrenner would need to reach 2,460 career points.
Among Creighton’s BIG EAST Tournament career records held by Ryan Kalkbrenner are points (150), rebounds (59), field goals made (62), field goal attempts (85), field goal percentage (.729), free throws made (23), free throws attempted (34), blocks (25), minutes (291), games played (10), games started (7), different years played (5) and wins played in (6).
• UConn coach Dan Hurley is one of several coaches who has lauded the play of Ryan Kalkbrenner in recent weeks. Here’s what he had to say on Feb. 11th after the teams met in Omaha:
“I would love to play Creighton again in the BIG EAST Tournament in the Championship game or something but I cannot wait until I don’t have to play against Kalkbrenner again. I just have no idea what he’s still doing in college with how great a player he is. He’s a First Team All-American. He’s who I would pick to be BIG EAST Player of the Year without question.”
• Seniors Ryan Kalkbrenner, Jamiya Neal and Steven Ashworth scored Creighton’s first 21 points of the second half and finished with 51 of CU’s 85 points overall on Thursday.
• Jamiya Neal played all 50 minutes last night while Ryan Kalkbrenner played exactly 47:00. It was the seventh time that Kalkbrenner has played 41 minutes or more in his career.
Neal had a career-high 24 points in Creighton’s win in Storrs earlier this season. He spent the previous three seasons at Arizona State playing for Bobby Hurley, the brother of UConn coach Dan Hurley. • Last night was Creighton’s first overtime game of the season and 117th in program history. Creighton is now 64-53 all-time in overtime games.
Creighton is now 14-9 under Greg McDermott in overtime games (9-8 in OT, 4-1 in double-OT, 1-0 in triple-OT). CU’s last double-OT game had been its NCAA Tournament win over Oregon last March that helped CU advance to their third Sweet 16 in four seasons.
Creighton is now 1-1 all-time in overtime games at the BIG EAST Tournament. CU had never played a conference tournament game to go more than one overtime before last night. Looking ahead to what might happen on Friday, Creighton has played back-to-back overtime games just five times in school history, most recently on Dec. 9 (South Dakota) and Dec. 13 (Saint Mary’s) in 2014. Last night was the seventh game in BIG EAST Tournament history to go multiple overtimes, and first since Cincinnati beat Georgetown 72-70 in the 2012 quarterfinals.
• Creighton’s bench scored 28 points last night, giving the Bluejays 48 wins in a row when scoring 17+ points. The bench, led by Fedor Zugic and Ty Davis, was responsible for 11 of Creighton’s 23 points in the overtime sessions.
• Fedor Zugic scored a season-high 13 points last night, cracking double-figures for the first time all season. He hit back-to-back three-pointers to initiate the 11-0 run to end regulation. Zugic has averaged 9.0 points in his last four appearances, sinking 6-of-14 three-pointers. CU is 16-3 when Zugic plays this season but 7-6 when he doesn’t.
• Ty Davis entered last night with 17 points and 5-for-11 marksmanship at the free throw line all season long. But CU turned to the freshman from Alabama after Steven Ashworth fouled out and Davis delivered, scoring a season-high seven points and making 5-of-6 foul shots in his first trips to the charity stripe since February 1st.
• Steven Ashworth has made 99 three-pointers this season. Only Kyle Korver (129 in 2002-03 and 100 in 2000-01), Ethan Wragge (110 in 2013-14) and Baylor Scheierman (110 in 2023-24) have more.
Ashworth also moved up to fourth on CU’s single-season three-pointers attempted list with 265, trailing only Scheierman (289 in 2023-24), Korver (269 in 2002-03) and Ty-Shon Alexander (266 in 2018-19).
