UConn’s defensive regression comes to a head in Creighton loss

STORRS – Dan Hurley warned his team about their defensive regression after Monday’s practice.

The slide started in the St. John’s game, when Rick Pitino’s frontcourt trio of Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell, and Bryce Hopkins combined for 50 points on 65% shooting from the field. The team felt the carryover into the Butler trip last week as it gave up 38 points on 54% shooting in the first half, and again on Saturday, when Georgetown shot 48% from the field and 54% from 3-point range in the second half to nearly come back and win.

“Across the board, there’s just things from a defensive standpoint that are major slides back to film sessions that look like last year, and that’s something that’s a problem,” Hurley said Monday, noting that the starting lineup doesn’t have a “shutdown wing defender” and that his centers have to do a better job protecting the rim.

It all came to a head in the 91-84 loss to Creighton Wednesday night.

“This has been brewing,” Hurley said, his message echoed by point guard Silas Demary Jr.

“I think we’ve just got to be tougher, man,” said Demary, who had been credited with turning the defense around from last year. “And be mentally stronger knowing that the person we’re guarding, we’re gonna try our best not to let them score. And we’ve just got to do a better job of that. We’re not doing the best at it and we’ve got to figure it out as soon as possible.”

UConn let the undersized Bluejays drive through the lane and to the basket at will, where they were met, or not, by a late contest, either drawing a foul or finishing around it. While outrebounding the Huskies, 41-35, Creighton shot 49% from the field for the game and went 10-for-21 (47.6%) from beyond the arc, while also making 27 of its 32 free throw attempts.

“Creighton just went at us from a one-on-one standpoint,” Hurley said. “That’s what’s been going on the last couple of games. Coaches are smart, they’re targeting our guys that can’t guard and if we can’t fix that, we’re gonna obviously have issues moving forward.”

The Huskies have been rated in the top five defensively by KenPom for most of the season. They fell to No. 13 after Wednesday’s game. Hurley said his team might’ve been a bit lucky to not have been exposed on that end until recently.

“We don’t have the rim protection, so people are driving the ball and our frontcourt players are not getting to drivers to protect the rim,” Hurley said. “Especially with Creighton, neither one of their centers really are 3-point shooters, so our centers were slow to try to cover for guards at the rim the way Donovan (Clingan) would and Samson (Johnson) would, the way Adama (Sanogo) would. We just were getting one-on-one scored on. And the problem with Creighton is you can’t provide a lot of help from the perimeter, because if you help from the perimeter, now they’re driving and kicking and they’re 10-for-21 from 3. So you’re really on an island and you’ve got to be able to guard the ball and win one-on-one matchups.”

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“There’s multiple players on our team that aren’t great individual defenders and are getting worse as the season’s getting later. And it’s not fatigue,” he said.

In search of that wing defender – in 2023 it was Andre Jackson Jr., in 2024 it was Stephon Castle – the Huskies turned to Jayden Ross for 27 minutes off the bench. He could see himself mixed in with the starters to provide a jolt at times moving forward.

“Defense is a bunch of things. It’s smarts, it’s awareness, it’s technique, it’s toughness, it’s competitive fire, it’s discipline, it’s scouting. I mean, we screwed up more things from a scouting standpoint,” Hurley said. “Things that we don’t do typically, we did. So defense is all those things, plus heart.”

UConn holds moment of silence for Kelly Dix

Josh Dix, a senior guard at Creighton, lost his mother, Kelly, following a three-year battle with breast cancer just a few days after UConn met the Bluejays in Omaha for their annual “Pink Out” game. Before Wednesday’s return matchup, there was a moment of silence in Gampel Pavilion to honor Kelly, who was 46.

“Starting with playing at Georgetown on the day he found out his mom passed, and wanting to be in practice, he’s an incredible young man. He wants absolutely no spotlight on him whatsoever. But all of us, our staff, his teammates, they don’t understand now the lessons that they’ve learned from how he’s handled this, but they’re going to look back on it at some point in their life and it’s going to help them big time. Because he’s been so strong,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

Creighton decided against having a moment of silence before its home games since, because dealing with the loss was hard enough already. But UConn reached out and asked.

“He was lukewarm on it, but I just think to honor his mom is the reason he let it happen,” McDermott said. “That was a true class act.”

Dix went on to score a career-high 21 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field, and grabbed eight rebounds.

Karaban, Demary named to Naismith Trophy late-season list

Both Alex Karaban and Silas Demary Jr. were among 30 players named to the Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Late-Season Team on Thursday.

Karaban, dealing with a leg injury, which caused Hurley to question whether he should’ve played him in Wednesday’s game, is averaging 13.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists on the year. He is shooting 47.5% from the field and a career-high 40.8% from beyond the arc.

Demary had 17 points and nine assists on Wednesday and has been the Huskies’ top defender all season long. In his first year at UConn after transferring in from Georgia, the junior is averaging 11.5 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game while shooting a career-best 48.8% from the field and 45.2% from 3.

UConn has never had a Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year winner. Members of the Late-Season Team are eligible for All America honors and more, according to a release.