Creighton Basketball: Takeaways from crucial victory over UConn Huskies

Creighton Basketball was on the bubble heading into the matchup with UConn. It ended up as one of the bigger victories of the season.

‘JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN!’

Creighton tops Connecticut, 59-55.

It feels like quite some time has passed since Omaha natives have got to hear the radio voice of John Bishop commentate a close Creighton win. In fact, this was the Jays’ first victory by a margin of five or fewer points since November. But they did it, and it could not have come at a better time.

Creighton got ahead of UConn early, ending the first half with a ten-point lead concluding with a Ryan Hawkins three-pointer at the buzzer. The Bluejays outrebounded UConn in the first half by 11, which was eye-opening. Although a lot of this was due to UConn’s shooting woes, Creighton was every bit as tough as UConn inside.

Hawkins had 13 points on 4-5 shooting in the first half. He carried that hot hand with him all day, ending with 23 on 67% from the floor. The other spark for Creighton was freshman Trey Alexander. While Nembhard and Kaluma draw most of the chatter about Creighton’s freshmen, Alexander has been quietly putting up a really solid season. He had 11 points including 5-6 from the free throw line down the stretch. Sinking game-deciding FT’s is not the easiest thing for a freshman on the road.

Creighton improves to 4-0 against UConn in Big East Conference play, and 13-7 on the year. After back-to-back losses to Butler and Xavier, the Jays desperately needed this one. The NCAA Tournament is still quite a ways away, but it’s never too early to start prepping your resume. After this win, Creighton likely will need to win five of their last eight to ensure a postseason birth regardless of what they do in the Big East Tournament.

Isaiah Whaley was perhaps the lone bright spot for Dan Hurley and the Huskies. Whaley went 8-13 from the field including 4-8 from three-point range. For much of the game, it seemed Creighton was content allowing Whaley to shoot jumpers, and he capitalized. Whaley also recorded four of UConn’s six blocks.

Another important piece of this game that has not been mentioned yet is the lack of Ryan Kalkbrenner for essentially the whole second half for Creighton. The 7’1 Bluejay sophomore sustained an ankle injury at the beginning of the half. Although he sat out the rest of the game, coach Greg McDermott did not seem overly worried about Kalkbrenner in his postgame presser. Kalkbrenner is perhaps the most vital piece to this Creighton team and losing him for an extended period of time could be detrimental.

With Kalkbrenner out, UConn outrebounded Creighton by 12 in the second half and bodied KeyShawn Feazell in the paint. The Huskies made two separate charges to get within striking range in the second half but fell short. Large in part to making just two of their last 11 shots.

Personally, I am not a huge believer in +/- in too many instances. However, there is one thing that is quite interesting from Creighton’s plus-minus splits from today. Trey Alexander’s +/- was +10. Everyone else’s number fell between -1 to +3. In short, the Jays were resoundingly better with Alexander on the floor.

Next up for Creighton is Seton Hall on February 4th. A lot will depend on whether Ryan Kalkbrenner is available for that one.