OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Creighton has played eight No. 1 teams in its basketball history, and the first six of those games weren’t close. All were losses.
The last two? Bluejays blowouts at the CHI Health Center.
Creighton took down top-ranked Kansas 76-63 on Wednesday night in a game the unranked Bluejays never trailed and led by 17 points.
Ten months ago, they knocked off a No. 1 Connecticut 85-66. That was UConn’s last loss before winning 13 in a row the way to its second straight national championship.
Five of the Creighton players on the court against the Jayhawks also played against the Huskies, including 7-foot-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner. The Big East preseason player of the year came back from injury to score 17 points and outperform Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson. Kalkbrenner had 15 points against UConn last February.
“Both feel great, obviously,” Kalkbrenner said. “Both those teams, UConn and Kansas, are elite, high-level programs. We were able to execute the game plan in both games and played at a high level. You feel good about those wins.”
A raucous crowd was involved from the opening tip against KU, the noise level increasing every time Pop Isaacs swished one of his six 3-pointers and Kalkbrenner flushed lob passes for dunks. At the final buzzer, students poured out of the end zone seats onto the court as flames shot out of the goal standards.
“I haven’t quite had a moment like that in college,” Isaacs said. “I haven’t played against the No. 1 team in the country. I’ve played against No. 2 and No. 3. It was hyped. The students showed up and it was electric out there. That wasn’t the first court storming I’ve been in. It was the biggest one.”
Isaacs was well familiar with the way Kansas plays defense from the two seasons he played at Texas Tech, and he said that was an advantage. He scored a season-high 27 points.
“I saw the ball go through the basket,” he said. “First shot went in. It felt good coming off my hands. I felt I had some really good looks tonight. Like Coach says, I’m a really good shooter when I take the right shots, and I took the right shots tonight for the most part.”
Isaacs and point guard Steven Ashworth missed practice time with illness this week, Ashworth was still dealing with soreness from an ankle sprain two weeks ago, and Kalkbrenner had missed the Bluejays’ win against Notre Dame on Saturday with a lower-body injury.
Asked if he thought his team would be up to the task against the Jayhawks, coach Greg McDermott mentioned that he had called his 90-year-old father before the game for some words of wisdom.
“He said pack your bags and go home,” McDermott said. “He wasn’t very confident having watched us play and having watched Kansas play.”
McDermott indicated that beating Kansas meant a little more to him than beating UConn even though the Huskies are a Big East opponent. McDermott grew up in Iowa paying attention to the Jayhawks, and he coached four seasons at Iowa State and never could beat Bill Self and the Jayhawks. In fact, he was 0-10 against KU before Wednesday.
“I’ve been watching Kansas basketball forever,” McDermott said. “Back to coach Williams and then coach Self, they’re one of the best. We had some close calls at Hilton when I was at Iowa State where we walked out of Hilton (Coliseum) disappointed we couldn’t get the job done against a good Kansas team. To finally beat them when they had a great team and they’re ranked No. 1 in the country, it’s great for our guys and great for our fans.”
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