NEW YORK, N.Y. –– Jasen Green made his first seven shots and scored a career-high 19 points to help the Creighton men’s basketball team defeat two-time defending national champion Connecticut, 71-62, on Friday night before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.Twice UConn got within three points on baskets by Tarris Reed Jr., but Neal […]
NEW YORK, N.Y. –– Jasen Green made his first seven shots and scored a career-high 19 points to help the Creighton men’s basketball team defeat two-time defending national champion Connecticut, 71-62, on Friday night before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.Twice UConn got within three points on baskets by Tarris Reed Jr., but Neal stepped into a huge three-pointer with 5:24 remaining to double the Bluejay lead to six (62-56).Solo Ball and Liam McNeeley paced UConn with 13 points each as the Huskies shot 42.6 percent (26-of-61) from the floor and 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from three. Jamiya Neal came out firing out from the opening tip, similar to Creighton’s win in Storrs in January. Neal scored Creighton’s first nine points and assisted on its next bucket as Creighton took an early 11-6 advantage. The teams would play at a frenetic pace throughout the first half with Green scoring nine points during a 12-2 Bluejay run to take a 42-30 lead.NOTES: Jamiya Neal and Jasen Green, who combined for 10 of Creighton’s 85 points last night, scored CU’s first 13 points this evening … Creighton shot 75% in the first half (18-24), its best half in a BIG EAST Tournament game ever. The previous best was 72% (18-25) vs. Xavier in the second half on March 10, 2017. It’s the sixth half under Greg McDermott that Creighton has shot 75 percent or better … Steven Ashworth joined Kyle Korver, Ethan Wragge and Baylor Scheierman as the only Bluejays to make 100 three-pointers in a season … Creighton’s 46 first half points were its most in any half its ever played against UConn … Ryan Kalkbrenner has now blocked at least one shot in 18 straight games and scored in double-figures in 25 consecutive games … Ryan Kalkbrenner is now tied for second in BIG EAST Tournament history with 26 career blocked shots, tying him with Dikembe Mutombo and Patrick Ewing … Creighton now has 145 dunks this season, its most in any season under Greg McDermott. The 2016-17 club also had 144 throwdowns … Creighton is now 9-3 against UConn all-time, with those 12 games decided by 82 points and 10 games being decided by single-digits … Creighton is now 2-0 all-time against the Huskies in the BIG EAST Tournament, having also won in the 2021 semifinals … Creighton is now 5-1 all-time in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament … Creighton is now 4-1 all-time against No. 3 seeds in the BIG EAST Tournament, its most wins against any other seed … Creighton is now 12-10 all-time at the BIG EAST Tournament. Greg McDermott‘s 12 victories are tied for ninth-most in the event’s history … Creighton and St. John’s split two regular-season meetings, with the home team winning each meeting. Saturday night’s final is considered a neutral-site contest by the NCAA for NET purposes … Ryan Kalkbrenner (1,126) tied Bob Harstad (1,126) for second in Creighton history in career rebounds, trailing only Paul Silas (1,751) … Creighton’s four turnovers were its fewest ever in a BIG EAST Tournament game, while UConn’s seven assists tied a program-low for a BIG EAST Tournament game. UConn also set a BIG EAST Tourney low in free throws made (2) and attempts (4).
Green returned to the scoring column down the stretch with a hoop to put CU up 66-58 with 2:43 left, before clutch free throws from Ashworth and Neal sealed the 71-62 victory.CU carried its momentum into the second half. Green hit made two free throws after he was intentionally fouled on a breakaway after a steal, and a Ryan Kalkbrenner basket pushed the Bluejay lead to 50-35. CU’s lead grew to as large as 55-38 and Preseason All-American Alex Karaban picked up his fourth foul before UConn countered with the next 12 points and close the gap to 55-50 with just over 12 minutes to play.The Bluejays will play sixth-ranked and top-seeded St. John’s (29-4), which ousted fifth-seeded and No. 25 Marquette 79-63 in the first semifinal of the evening. This year marks just the second time since 2004 that the top two seeds of the BIG EAST Tournament have played in the final, as it also happened in 2023.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
New York, New York, USA
Madison Square Garden
Creighton Bluejays
Postgame Media Conference
Creighton 71, UConn 62
GREG McDERMOTT: I couldn’t be more proud of our team. UConn’s offense is very complex. There’s a lot to it. A lot of movement, a lot of screening. With an overnight prep, it was more about concepts and when we were going to switch and when we weren’t.
You know, a 56-possession game with UConn tells you that they’re not scoring on their first options, that we’re making them go to multiple things. I thought our guys were really locked in defensively. For us to shoot 30% the second half and still find a way to win, we had to defend. We talked about the necessity to keep them off the free-throw line. We were able to do what we do without fouling. We’ve done that all year, so that’s not a surprise.
Jamiya got us off to a great start, made some huge plays. We thought we had some mismatch opportunities with Jasen in the post. He was absolutely terrific. Then gets a huge rebound on a missed free-throw at a critical juncture of the game.
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Jamiya Neal and Jasen Greene.
Questions, please.
Q. You guys talked about coming to Madison Square Garden to cut down the nets, and now that you are one win away and you are back into the Big East title game, what’s that mean to you?
GREG McDERMOTT: It’s just — like I said, this team, our strength is in our togetherness. We’ve had a lot of adversity this year. I’ve heard coaches talk all year long that we lost because we didn’t have this player or that player. We lost our second leading scorer eight games in, and here we are in the Big East championship game and finished second in the league.
So we had to retool things. Guys had to take on new roles, and they embraced that. We could have hung our heads and felt sorry for ourselves, but instead this group went to work.
Selfishly, I get to coach them one more game, and this has been a very rewarding season and an unbelievable team to coach. This will be our fifth trip to the final. Hopefully five is our lucky number.
Q. Coach, you actually had Big East Championship victories in the past. How meaningful will it be to get this one, especially going against a rising St. John’s team?
GREG McDERMOTT: Obviously we have great respect for St. John’s. They were able to take us out of a lot of what we wanted to do when we were here a month or so ago. They just come at you in waves, and they wear into you with their tenacity and their physical nature of their play.
I told our guys to go to sleep thinking about ball security and box-outs because that’s the game.
Q. Jamiya, do you regret that dunk, and what happened there with Diarra?
JAMIYA NEAL: Definitely. I got caught up in the emotions of the game. Just a lot of emotions going on. So I would like to apologize for that. I respect Coach Hurley and those guys over there. They have a great, great program. Obviously a two-time national champs.
Yeah, I apologize. Just got caught up in the moment, and I shouldn’t have did it.
Q. Coach, Liam McNeeley went for 37 the last time in Omaha. And then tonight you bottled him up pretty well, 6 for 20 from the floor. Did you guys do anything different on him specifically?
GREG McDERMOTT: The second half at our place, he stepped into four threes because we made mistakes. We miscommunicated a couple of switches and lost him in transition. That was the film we watched this morning is we can’t make mistakes. We have to make him shoot it on the move. If he wants to go in and challenge Kalkbrenner, let him go in and challenge Kalkbrenner, and we’ll take our chances with the results. He’s a terrific player.
Jamiya was really locked in from the jump guarding him, and I thought he did an outstanding job.
Q. Jasen and everybody, congratulations. You have a career high. It’s at Madison Square Garden. It’s in New York City. What are your feelings about having this game? I know you are smiling right now just hearing that. How much of a better player are you now compared to the beginning of the season, and how much have you had to grow given everything your team has had to go to with injuries.
JASEN GREENE: It’s definitely a great feeling getting a career high in the first place, and especially at a place like Madison Square Garden. But my growth throughout the season has been pretty large.
I started the season with a bit of an injury, so I wasn’t able to play in our exhibition game, and I slowly worked my way back from that. I mean, it hasn’t just been like one game I was great, like, the game before I was bad. It’s been a gradual thing. Being an everyday guy, being ready when your name is called, and just eventually I was able to get to the point where I am now, and my confidence just kept building.
Yeah, I was able to show it tonight.
Q. For whoever wants to pick this one up. Halftime I was going to get a cup of coffee, and I heard Coach Hurley screaming at the top of his lungs, 75%, 75%. I looked at the halftime box, and that’s what you guys shot in the first half, 75%. So he got you to shoot 30% in the second half. But what I saw was when he put that press on you at the end trying to come back — he did everything he could to get back in this game — you guys hung in there, hung in there tough. You’re going to have to do that tomorrow with St. John’s. I just want to hear your comments on all of that that I just said.
GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, we were extremely efficient the first half. I thought we got the ball to the spots we wanted to. They did a really good job to rally around Kalkbrenner and make those catches tough. So we went some different places, and guys took the right shots. If we take the right shots, chances are we’re going to make some.
Our defense is a little different. You’ve got teams like UConn and St. John’s, a lot of pressure, a lot of physicality, force a lot of turnovers. For some reason they think the way we do it is soft. And I got news for you. I got some tough dudes in my locker room.
It takes toughness to execute the defense the way we execute it. But we’re trying to win the analytic game at the free-throw line, and that takes mental toughness as well to understand and be disciplined. You don’t beat UConn a couple of times in a season if you don’t have tough dudes.
No, we don’t force a bunch of turnovers. No, we don’t get up under you, but there’s a method to our madness and what we’re doing, and this group of guys has executed it extremely well all season long.
Q. Jamiya, 87 minutes in two games for you. How much credit goes to Jeremy and your strength and conditioning staff over there?
JAMIYA NEAL: Yeah, a lot of credit goes to them, obviously the coaching staff and my teammates. Obviously we’re just a together group. We do everything together. Ben too, our athletic trainer, they do a good job of getting us well-hydrated and making sure everything is cool and getting us drips and stuff to keep our legs going and just getting sleep. Shout-out to those guys.Green shot 7-for-7 from the field in the first half, scoring 15 points to eclipse his previous career-high of 14 points. Neal had 13 points, three rebounds and three rebounds to support Green’s extraordinary start. CU shot 75 percent from the field (18-24), won the rebound battle 15-10, and had nine assists to just two turnovers.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
New York, New York, USA
Madison Square Garden
UConn Huskies
Coach Dan Hurley
Hassan Diarra
Postgame Media Conference
Creighton 71, UConn 62
THE MODERATOR: Hassan Diarra and Coach Dan Hurley.
DAN HURLEY: For us I think the two teams that are deserving to play for the championship are going to play. We were the third-best team, I guess, in the regular season. Third-best team doesn’t deserve to play for a championship.
Obviously that first half defensive performance was, you know, not worthy of — not worthy of having a chance to play on Saturday night at MSG against a team like St. John’s this year. We got exactly what we deserved.
Credit Greene. You’re going to lose if a five-point-a-game scorer is at 17 at halftime. Obviously let Neal get going early. But we got what we deserved and we deserve to be going home.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Obviously 75% in the first half, like you said, defense has been an issue all year. What can you do over the next week to kind of clean that up or just improve in that department?
DAN HURLEY: I mean, it’s hard to fix your defense at this point of the year, and there were so many just one-on-one battles lost. I mean, just an inability to guard the ball. Just the way that Neal started the game, just scoring one-on-one in a variety of fashions, and we were just so weak guarding the ball.
They were shooting shots in the restricted — you know, without much — we’ve had an inability to guard the ball the whole year. Part of it’s strength. Obviously this team doesn’t have the physicality in the Big East to be able to win a lot of those one-on-one matchups.
Q. It looked like the game was going similar to yesterday. Like you were behind first half, started to come back. How was it different from yesterday against Villanova, the second half for you?
HASSAN DIARRA: I would say we made a push. We got our defenses right. They were showing 27% at one point. We just strung together some stops, and we were able to get out in transition and get some easy baskets.
Q. Hassan, I have to ask about what happened at the end there with Jamiya. What was going through your head at the moment?
HASSAN DIARRA: I mean, they were already up with 7 seconds left. He didn’t want to dribble the ball out. Went in for a fancy dunk. I just felt it was disrespectful to the game of basketball.
Q. Dan, two years ago you lost in this round, and you kind of flushed it and made obviously — in the long run you triumphed. Can you do that? Do you feel like you can do that again? Do you have that same feeling, or does this somehow feel different because of the way this one played out?
DAN HURLEY: Listen, we have obviously not performed like that team. That team had just a tough couple of weeks in January. Then we played a Marquette team with Ighodaro and Prosper and Kam Jones and Kolek. I mean, that’s a team that we lost to in the semis that year.
I do think, though, that our team, we’re not a very physical team. I think that the way that Big East games get officiated both regular season and in the Big East tournament are officiated way differently than games will be officiated in the NCAA Tournament. If you don’t call holding and off ball, if you don’t allow people to move around, referees will not advance to the next round of the tournament if they don’t call fouls.
So it is less physical, especially in the early rounds of the tournament. They tend to let you play a little bit more as it goes on. So I think the way that we play offense with the movement is more conducive to the NCAA Tournament, so I do think we’re going to take the same approach.
I made that mistake a couple of years back in ’22 by letting it linger. I’m not going to let it linger. We got what we deserved. We’re not championship quality. We didn’t deserve to win anything in the Big East this year.
Q. This is for Hass. Jamiya did apologize before you came in. He said he regretted what he did, just so you know if that didn’t filter its way back to you. For you and your teammates, you will have six or seven days off before you play again. How will you rally specifically in your fraternity with the players and what’s your focus on moving forward over the next six, seven days within that locker room?
HASSAN DIARRA: Like Coach said, we’re going to flush it out, break down the film, watch our mistakes and come together and try to fix them. We’re going to be ready for the NCAA Tournament.Green and Neal led all scorers with 19 points and Ashworth and Kalkbrenner both added 12. Creighton finished the contest shooting 52 percent (26-of-50) from the field and 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from three, while committing a season-low four turnovers.
