No. 2 UConn men's basketball looks to start winning streak in Omaha as it visits Creighton Saturday

OMAHA, Neb. – The UConn men’s basketball program has had some moments playing as a visitor before the hostile Creighton crowd at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.

Until Liam McNeeley’s freshman-record 38-point performance last February, the Huskies were 0-4 on the road against the Bluejays. Creighton got its revenge a month later in the Big East Tournament, where a late breakaway dunk nearly caused punches to be thrown.

There have been multiple games in recent memory where last-second free throws sunk the Huskies. In a top-15 matchup in February 2024, it was a ridiculous 50% shooting effort from the Bluejays that took down No. 1 UConn. Fans stormed the court to celebrate the end of the Huskies’ 14-game winning streak and coach Dan Hurley went viral for apparently telling a fan he’d knock him out as he exited through the tunnel.

UConn, now No. 2, is carrying a 16-game winning streak into Saturday’s matchup.

The Huskies are top 10 in the nation in defending the 3-point line, and Creighton, which lost point guard Steven Ashworth, leads the Big East in made 3-pointers per game at 10.2 per game.

Iowa transfer Josh Dix, a career 40% 3-point shooter who hasn’t hit at quite the same rate this season (31.6%), is the team’s scoring leader at 12.6 points per game. Miami transfer Austin Swartz is averaging 11.9 points and shooting 39.4% from deep, and Omaha local Jasen Green averages 10.7 points at 37.5% from deep.

The Bluejays are also without four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Ryan Kalkbrenner, who is now a teammate of McNeeley’s with the Charlotte Hornets. They’ve had to roll with a smaller lineup with Green and 6-foot-10 Isaac Traudt, a stretch big, manning the front court after a season-ending injury to Jackson McAndrew.

Creighton, allowing 74.9 points per game, is No. 331 nationally in block percentage and No. 346 in turnover percentage. The Bluejays have a negative 1.52 turnover margin, which is last in the Big East and 295th nationally.

“They’re one of the top programs in college basketball. They’ve got one of the best coaches (Greg McDermott), they’ve had some of the best teams. They’ve been consistently competing for the conference championship, getting to the semis, getting to the finals of the tournament, competing for the regular season,” Hurley said on a Zoom call Friday. “They’ve got great players that are now playing in the NBA. They’ve been a top program and credit just to Creighton basketball.”

This year hasn’t been so consistent with the Bluejays, coming into the matchup at 12-9 on the season and 6-4 in the Big East. They didn’t have a loss outside of the top-100 on KenPom until Tuesday, when they were blown out on the road at Marquette, 86-62, after turning the ball over 14 times and seeing the Golden Eagles shoot nearly 60% from the field. Their best win came on the road at Villanova on Jan. 7, 76-72, behind strong scoring efforts from Dix and Swartz, as well as Howard transfer Blake Harper off the bench.

For UConn, the narrative hasn’t changed much since the start of Big East play.

The Huskies are winning games, but they haven’t been pretty. Since the overtime road win at Providence on Jan. 7, Hurley said, “We’ve been just not playing like top-five in the country level basketball from an efficiency standpoint.”

Shotmaking has been a major part of that with the Huskies 47th in the country in field goal percentage (48.15%) and 113th in 3-point percentage (35.33%) midway through conference play. The team’s rebounding margin, just plus-four, is No. 72 nationally.

Braylon Mullins, shooting 47.2% from the field and 36.7% from beyond the arc, has lived up to his billing and looked as comfortable as he’s looked before exiting Saturday’s win over Villanova with a concussion. He didn’t play in Tuesday’s win over Providence and there hasn’t yet been an official update to his status for Saturday’s game, but Hurley sounded optimistic over the phone.

“He’s progressing through all the protocols, he’s taken all of the steps to be able to get out on the court, he was able to get in practice,” Hurley said. “I guess (it depends on) how he’s feeling from here, but he feels good, he’s returned to practice. And we’ll see how he does on the flight, on the overnight, but I think he feels pretty good.”