Those faithful to the Big East Conference are in for an interesting one to kick off their Saturday of College Basketball. The Creighton Blue Jays (11-6, 4-2) travel to Gampel Pavilion to take on the natives of Storrs, the Connecticut Huskies (13-4, 5-1)
Both teams are in situations where they have not necessarily met expectations so far this season, but also have their share of triumphs to boast. the reigning National Champion Huskies are still recovering from a rough Feast Week, and also fell to Villanova not long ago. The Blue Jays have a major win against Kansas on their resume, but their six losses have not been pretty whatsoever.
Creighton has also been a bit banged up throughout the year, most notably a crucial loss of Pop Isaacs for the rest of the season. He was showing signs of becoming a major spark plug and scoring outlet for this team, but they no longer have his services. That has forced this Blue Jays team into a tough spot in terms of where their offense has to come from.
Both of these squads are heavy three-point shooting teams as they are both in the top four in the Big East in terms of attempts from behind the arc. But the difference here is when you look at Creighton, they are third in attempts per game, but sit at seventh in the Big East in terms of percentage made.
UConn and Dan Hurley have always been prideful of their efficiency too, and their status as first in the Big East in field goal percentage shows that. Creighton has been a team that tries to feed star big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, and create space on kick outs through him, but the shots have not been there as much as Coach Greg McDermott would like.
This is a turning point for both of these teams, and we will look back on this one as having major implications for both programs, no matter the result. A win by UConn is a key resume piece for the Huskies, and would help them right the ship to get back to their dominant ways. Creighton, on the other hand, would have a much harder road to travel to the NCAA Tournament with their seventh loss this early into the season. A Creighton win, however, would immediately place them back in the hunt not only as an at-large bid but for their hopes to get a bye in the Big East Tournament going forward.
The game will be won by the Blue Jays if they can control the crowd in Gampel, start fast, and find ways to knock down outside shots. UConn, on the other hand, has to control Kalkbrenner, get their crowd fired up, and continue to be efficient. Both teams definitely understand this one has a bit of extra juice to it, as it always does between these two teams. Last year, Creighton blew out UConn as McDermott picked up his 600th win as head coach, that being when the Huskies were No. 1 in the land.
So will the Huskies get revenge for that rough loss just a season ago? We will soon find out at 12:00 P.M when these two teams clash for the first time this season.