Jahmyl Telfort, who scored nine of the Bulldogs’ 10 points in the second half, cut their deficit to two with 10 seconds to go but his game-winning attempt hit off the top of the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.

The 80-78 victory helped the No. 19 Huskies improve to 14-5 on the year and 6-2 in Big East play. It was their ninth game this season decided by five points or less, and their fifth victory in such games.

UConn is now 11-0 in its all-time series against Butler (8-11, 1-7 Big East).

Ball, who made a 3-pointer that felt like a knockout blow with 1:39 on the clock in overtime and then missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Telfort another shot at the end, finished with a career-high 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Alex Karaban scored five of his 19 points in overtime and added seven rebounds, six assists and three blocks.

Centers Samson Johnson and Reed scored 14 points a piece.

Five minutes in, Reed, who was challenged by Dan Hurley after a stretch of rough outings, ripped away an offensive rebound and scored a layup, igniting the crowd and elating his coach, who ran over and embraced Aidan Mahaney at the scorer’s table. On the defensive end, Karaban swatted a 3-point attempt from Patrick McCaffery and passed ahead to Ball for a layup in transition, prompting Hurley to smack the scorer’s table in celebration.

That series, which put the Huskies up by nine less than six minutes in, set the tone for most of the first half.

Ball scored 15 points in the opening period, knocking down 3 of 7 attempts from beyond the arc. He rebounded a couple of his own misses and was able to salvage those possessions with points, as well. UConn continued to show off its transition offense, forcing three turnovers in a two-minute span and capitalizing to grow the lead to 15 with four and a half minutes until the break.

The Huskies didn’t make another field goal for the rest of the half and allowed a 9-0 Butler run, but Ball got to the line after a second-chance layup attempt to send UConn into the break with a 39-31 advantage.

In an inspired defensive effort early, UConn blocked seven shots in the first half and held the Bulldogs to 40.7% shooting from the field.

Butler’s Jahmyl Telfort denied any opportunity for the Huskies to pull away through much of the second half, powering to the rim as he scored 10 points after the break. He cut UConn’s lead to four around the eight-minute mark, but Jayden Ross finished a tough layup through contact and Ball nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the night to bring the Huskies’ advantage back to nine.

But UConn’s defense slipped from the first half. In another three-minute offensive slump, the Huskies got sloppy and let Butler back into it again. The Bulldogs took advantage of the miscues and put together an 11-1 scoring run, giving them their first lead of the game after a 3-pointer and a layup from Finley Bizjack (17 points) with four minutes to go.

The Bulldogs didn’t make another shot from the field in regulation but got enough from the free throw line to have the score tied in the final seconds. Hassan Diarra, who missed a desperation shot on what appeared to be UConn’s final possession, stole Butler’s inbound pass with 2.5 seconds left in regulation and came inches away from nailing a half court heave for the win.

UConn is back on the road this weekend, meeting Xavier in Cincinnati for an 8 p.m. tip on Saturday. The Musketeers took the Huskies to overtime at the XL Center when they met on Dec. 18, a 94-89 UConn win.

But Dan Hurley, increasingly frustrated with his team’s lack of will and intensity, remains optimistic that the return of the star freshman can bandage some of his team’s exposed wounds.

Hurley said he saw hints of “vintage UConn basketball” in the game against Georgetown on Jan. 11, where defensive stops and transition offense helped build a lead of as many as 23 points in the second half. But that lead dissipated and the Huskies didn’t show the same fight when they returned home after a week without games and lost to Creighton.

“We haven’t been able to get there just because of the defensive end of the court and your ability to, across the board, rebound the ball,” Hurley said Monday night. “I think that’s why it’s so frustrating. Because it’s such a big season for us, too, and to not be where you want to be because you didn’t play with the life or death urgency that you need to in such an important year, it’s frustrating.”

The buzz before the year, part of the reason both Hurley and captain Alex Karaban turned down the NBA to stay in Storrs, surrounded the unique opportunity to compete for a third national championship in a row.

The word “three-peat” hasn’t been used very much lately.

“I got a lot going on in my mind right now. I’m thinking about a lot of things,” Hurley said, speaking candidly to local reporters before the team took over the press room at the XL Center for another film session before Tuesday’s game against Butler. “Has the success softened us? Has my intensity dropped? Have I lost my edge? Have we gotten soft with our success and feel entitled to it, and don’t have the will to earn it? We do have a lot of people though that haven’t won championships with us or weren’t integral parts of our championships, so I don’t know…”

Can a freshman be counted on to fix that? Can McNeeley be the magical sealant that, with one coat, can make a screen door float above water?

He will certainly help.

McNeeley was the Huskies’ second-leading scorer when he went down on New Year’s Day against DePaul. He was the team’s second-leading rebounder and was improving as a defender, two areas of which the team is in desperate need. McNeeley also played with a fire and an intensity, like Cam Spencer, that Hurley has been searching for.

The one-and-done type prospect “moved around” to test what movement felt like on his ankle during Monday’s practice, though his status hasn’t changed. Hurley’s initial hope was to have McNeeley back toward the end of January, before the team faces a February gauntlet with two games against both No. 10 Marquette and No. 20 St. John’s, as well as a road trip to Creighton, where the program has never won.

“His absence has affected multiple players negatively,” Hurley said.

A player like veteran point guard Hassan Diarra, who started the season coming off the bench, has logged too many minutes and has been drained by the end of games. Production from the center position has suffered, too, without a player like McNeeley drawing some of the attention in the paint and creating opportunities for easy buckets.

McNeeley’s absence takes away a lot of the lineup flexibility that had been so valuable to UConn’s last two national championship teams.

Solo Ball has been a tough player to take off the court with his offensive production, which has proven absolutely critical in keeping the Huskies among the top 10 most efficient offensive teams in the nation. But he’s been exposed, targeted, on the defensive end.

“With Liam in there, it would give you more flexibility to put in a defensive-minded guy if someone was struggling on the perimeter defensively. But with Liam out, obviously you need Solo’s offense, you need Alex’s offense and then obviously you need a point guard and yeah, you could afford to have another guy out there that maybe isn’t a great offensive player but brings intangibles and things like that with one of the centers,” Hurley said.

Ball, shooting 44.6% from beyond the arc, 19-for-36 (52.8%) since he made seven 3s at DePaul, entered Tuesday’s game ranked 18th among qualified Division I shooters in 3-point percentage.

“For guys like Jordan Hawkins, sophomore year I think as we got into like this point in the year, he really became sturdy defensively. I just think that Solo’s got great intentions, it’s not like one of those guys that’s like, ‘Hey, I’m a bucket and I’m one of the best shooters in the country, screw you guys.’ That’s not it with him,” Hurley said. “He feels the stress, the pressure to become a better defensive player for our team and it bothers him as much as any of the coach when he has defensive struggles. But it’s literally at every position. It’s well beyond Solo.”

UConn was projected as a No. 6 seed in Joe Lunardi’s early March Madness bracketology for ESPN, which was released Tuesday morning. In his projection, the Huskies would still have a favorable path of playing the first two rounds in Providence and then, should they advance to the second weekend, making another short trip to Newark, New Jersey.

Right now, the Huskies have a good enough offense to make a run. But the defensive end is what determines this team’s ceiling.

“I think just our defense, our rebounding and our overall toughness, we’ve become a finesse offensive team that runs a lot of good stuff on offense, but we’ve got to get our toughness back,” Hurley said.

How do you do that?

“That’s a tough one,” he said, stumped at the question that’s surely been asked dozens of times in coaches’ meetings.

“You do it with honesty, you do it with evidence, you do it with video. You’re told that with modern athletes or kids these days you have to be careful with how you talk to them, you know? But here, we go with honesty. We go with accountability. We go with, ‘Here’s what the film says, here’s what the numbers say. When you’re on the court with us, here’s your role in how we’re failing defensively,'” Hurley said. “Obviously you’ve spent a lot of time, too, trying to think if there’s a scheme change you could make defensively. But the way we’ve guarded has been really effective for a long time.”

It was the program’s first loss in Connecticut in nearly two years as its 28-game home winning streak came to an end.

One of those close wins came at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Dec. 21, when Butler cut down an 11-point deficit midway through the second half and fought back to get within two in the final seconds, but couldn’t overcome Alex Karaban‘s clutch shooting in a 78-74 Huskies’ victory.

Karaban has been up-and-down since, notably scoring eight points on just 3-for-12 shooting as the streak of nearly two calendar years came to an end on Saturday. He tweaked his ankle in the second half of the game and will be a game time decision, coach Dan Hurley said, on Tuesday.

“He didn’t practice (Monday), but he shot, so we’ll see how he feels with that ankle,” Hurley said. “It’s a sprain, I don’t think it’s as bad as the one he had last year against Providence, where he didn’t play in the St. John’s game at MSG.”

Tuesday’s game will be UConn’s fifth without standout freshman Liam McNeeley, who scored 17 points with five rebounds and seven assists in the first matchup against the Bulldogs. His absence has been critical as the Huskies continue to struggle on the defensive end, on both backboards and with their tenaciousness, which Hurley called out over the weekend.

Dom Amore: For Dan Hurley’s Huskies, the grace period has expired. It’s time for tenacity

“We’ve given up close to 47% from the field in Big East or high-major games this year. Our past teams, those numbers, even years when we had early exits in the tournament, we were holding people to 40% from the field,” Hurley said. “I think just our defense, our rebounding and our overall toughness, we’ve become a finesse offensive team that runs a lot of good stuff on offense, but we’ve got to get our toughness back… (Liam) will fix a lot of our issues when he gets back, but our defense overall, you’re not going anywhere doing that. You can’t compete for anything when you’re 126th.”

UConn, which is ranked No. 7 on offense and No. 127 on defense by KenPom, has never lost to Butler in the 10-game all-time series between the programs, which met for the first time in the 2011 national championship game.

The December loss for Butler came in the middle of a nine-game losing skid, which ended Wednesday as the Bulldogs claimed their first Big East win of the year against Seton Hall. They’ll come into the XL Center on Tuesday after six days without games.

It was the Bulldogs’ frontcourt that gave UConn the most trouble in their previous matchup, as 6-foot-9 forward Patrick McCaffery and 7-foot-1 center Andre Screen scored 17 points a piece. Screen grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked four shots as Butler claimed a 32-31 advantage on the glass – one of four times UConn has been outrebounded in its six Big East matchups. The last three have come in four games without McNeeley, who was the team’s second-leading rebounder when he went down.

Hurley will look for a bounce back game from Tarris Reed Jr. – one of the players who possesses the “nice guy” trait that he is trying to weed out – after he fouled out with just seven points in the previous matchup against Butler. Reed was minus-17 in 16 scoreless minutes on Saturday.

“We’ve got to play better across the board, especially the center spot,” Hurley said, reiterating that Reed needs to play with more force and ferocity. “(Butler is) hard to guard, with (Pierre) Brooks and (Jahmyl Telfort), McCaffery, it tells you just how hard it is to still win Big East games, no matter what the NET says, no matter what the KenPom says or any of the analytics. It’s a tough league to win games in, especially if you look at some of the firepower that they’ve got at the wing there and two pretty good centers and good guard play – and a great coach in Thad (Matta).

“It’s gonna be a hard game for us. We’re gonna be coming in banged up, short rest – they’ve had a week off – and we’re gonna need a great crowd and a real pick-me-up from playing in XL after the haunting experience at Gampel the other day… In an instance where you just lost one at one place, I kind of like the fact that I’m going to my other place.”

As the team continues to find its identity, more will and force across the board, those close games will persist. For now, especially if Karaban joins McNeeley in street clothes, the Huskies just need to find a way to win.

“These games are tougher, they’re grittier, it’s good to be a part of. It’s fun. You want to be in close games, you want to be in these Big East battles,” fifth-year point guard Hassan Diarra said. “We have to continue to do the right things so we can come out on the right side of them.”

UConn announces plan for Coaches vs. Cancer

Dan Hurley’s wife, Andrea, will again lead her memorial button initiative as the Huskies host their annual Coaches vs. Cancer game on Jan. 29 against DePaul. Fans will be able to find Andrea at a table on the XL Center concourse near section 124 when the doors open at 6:30, where they will be able to have a printed out photo (3″ or smaller) turned into a memorial button. Fans can also pre-submit photos by email at UConnHuskies.com/CvC. Cancer awareness ribbons will also be available at the table for fans to wear.

New this season, doctors from the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health will be set up on the concourse to offer free cancer screenings and education, as well as skin cancer checks prior to the game in the atrium. Patients from the Connecticut Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders will be honored on the court during the game.

What to know

Site: XL Center, Hartford.

Time: 7 p.m.

Records: No. 19 UConn: 13-5 (5-2 Big East), Butler: 8-10 (1-6)

Series: UConn leads, 10-0.

Last meeting: Dec. 21, 2024 – No. 11 UConn 78, Butler 74 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

TV: FS1 – Jason Benetti, Bill Raftery

Radio: Fox Sports 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman

Pregame reading:

• Dom Amore: For Dan Hurley’s Huskies, the grace period has expired. It’s time for tenacity
• UConn men’s basketball drops to No. 19 in AP Poll following second loss in three games
• UConn men’s basketball notes: Consistency is key for Jaylin Stewart as Huskies await McNeeley’s return
• UConn commit Darius Adams fits the mold of a future Husky, shows potential at Hoophall Classic

The Huskies are 2-2 since losing standout freshman Liam McNeeley to a high ankle sprain on New Year’s Day, and his absence proved critical as the team failed to get over the hump down the stretch against the Bluejays. Coach Dan Hurley sent a message to his players through the media after the game as he called for “tenacity” both on the defensive end and on the backboards, again calling out his group of “swell guys” after they couldn’t find a way to get the win.

Designated as a Quad 3 loss, the team’s third of the season, UConn fell to No. 32 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Continuing to struggle on the defensive end, where Hurley said “the bar is so low,” UConn enters Week 12 ranked No. 30 by KenPom’s efficiency metrics, where its offense is ranked No. 7 and its defense No. 128.

The AP voters ranked UConn just above St. John’s, which reentered the Top 25 at No. 20 this week, giving the Big East three ranked teams for the first time since Week 4. Marquette, which suffered a two-point loss at home to Xavier on Saturday, came in at No. 10 with its 15-3 overall record.

The Johnnies and the Golden Eagles are the only two Big East teams with only one loss in league play.

Auburn, at 17-1, held onto its top spot in the AP Poll after receiving all 62 first place votes. Duke and Iowa State flipped spots at No. 2 and 3, respectively, after the Cyclones suffered their second loss of the year at West Virginia. Alabama and Florida held in their spots to round out the top five.

Of UConn’s nonconference opponents, Memphis was the only team to remain ranked as it fell to No. 24. Both Gonzaga and Baylor dropped into the receiving votes category.

AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll: Week 12

1. Auburn (62 first place votes)
2. Duke
3. Iowa State
4. Alabama
5. Florida
6. Tennessee
7. Houston
8. Michigan State
9. Kentucky
10. Marquette
11. Purdue
12. Kansas
13. Texas A&M
14. Mississippi State
15. Oregon
16. Ole Miss
17. Illinois
18. Wisconsin
19. UConn
20. St. John’s
21. Michigan
22. Missouri
23. West Virginia
24. Memphis
25. Louisville

Several of those who did stick around were wearing UConn gear, excited to get an early look at the future Husky. Associate Head Coach Kimani Young sat courtside and, after halftime, was all alone in his spot directly across from the La Lumiere bench.

Adams got going early, scoring four of his team’s 11 points in the first quarter. But he didn’t find the bottom of the net again until the last two minutes of the third, when a straight-on 3-pointer fell through in front of his future coach. He exhaled in relief and got back on defense.

Adams finished with nine points on 4-for-15 shooting in a loss to nationally-ranked Wasatch Academy, 63-54. That 3-pointer was his only make on six attempts from deep.

“I’m hard on myself, so I feel like I didn’t play very well,” Adams said.

Don’t fret. Stephon Castle went 6-for-20 from the field when he played in front of UConn coaches at the Hoophall Classic his senior year. He was named a McDonald’s All-American, then Big East Freshman of the Year and a national champion before being selected fourth overall in the NBA Draft.

And Adams, the 23rd-ranked player in the 2025 class who took official visits to NC State, Tennessee and Michigan State before choosing the Huskies, is known to be a viable offensive player.

“I would say that, defense won’t get me off the court, I won’t be a liability. But I think what’s gonna get me on the court is just hard work, being able to make an open shot and make the right reads,” Adams said.

With two minutes and 19 seconds left in Saturday’s game, Adams went down in pain. He limped off the court after being stretched out by the team trainer, the game already looked lost and it appeared his day was done. But, with 44 seconds left, Adams went to the scorer’s table and checked back in.

“(Cramps) in both of my calves,” he said after. “I’m a competitor, I wanted to be in there with my teammates to the end. So it just didn’t feel right (to stay out when) I could’ve went back in. I had enough in me.”

He sprinted the length of the court for a layup after returning.

“I think (Dan Hurley) is gonna be able to bring more dog out of me,” he said. “So I’m excited for that, I’m excited to be in the program. I’m excited to work. … Definitely getting stronger, that’s my No. 1 priority, my body. And then just getting my handle tighter, being stronger with the ball, all those kind of things.”

At 6-foot-5, Adams fits the mold of what UConn has had in its national championship-winning backcourt the last two years.

“He’s got that size that we love at guard, the combo guard skills,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said Friday. “That guy can play in the ball screen, can really shoot the 3, he can get his own shot, he’s got the length and the size to guard multiple positions. When you look at those guards we’ve had, versatile type of guards that can do a lot of different things: Andre Jackson or Jordan Hawkins, Steph Castle or Tristen Newton, Cam – Cam’s 6-3, he’s not 6-5, but he’s still a bigger guard. Those bigger guards that have the size to throw those lobs that we’re accustomed to.”

La Lumiere coach Pat Holmes echoed the same sentiment: “He’ll be great playing (UConn’s) offense, coming off a bunch of different screening actions, get open shots and, as his game continues to progress and evolve, being a playmaker off the bounce which he’s been doing for us. But (he’s) a guy who plays hard, can make shots and is just a guy who’s going to grow within their system.”

Adams is one of three members of UConn’s 2025 recruiting class who were nominated to be McDonald’s All-Americans this year, joining five-star guard Braylon Mullins and four-star center Eric Reibe.

The class, which also includes highly-touted Australian guard, Jacob Furphy, is ranked third-best in all of Division I by 247Sports as UConn reloads after having six players selected in the last two NBA Drafts.

“For (Adams), it’s about getting stronger and just continuing to stay hungry, because he’s a highly-ranked player, he’s got a great shot at the McDonald’s (All-American) game, he’s one of the best players in the country,” Hurley said. “And I think one of the biggest things that hurts young people today is the accolades they get before they get to college and before they get to the NBA.”

“Once you lose that hunger as a young player… Like, you haven’t made (expletive) yet. You haven’t made it until you probably signed your second or third contract in the NBA. But he comes from a great basketball family and a great sports family, a couple old school parents, so we got a great one there.”

UConn is 2-2 in its four Big East games since McNeeley went down with a high ankle sprain on New Year’s Day. Some players, like Jaylin Stewart, have shown how they can step up and contribute. But it hasn’t been consistent.

Stewart broke into the starting lineup and scored 14 points in the loss at Villanova. He was scoreless in the next game at Georgetown, then scored 14 again on Saturday afternoon.

“If we could find enough ways to win games while Liam is out and not get totally demoralized like that January a couple years back… When we reinsert him into the lineup, I mean he’s one of the best players in the league. And on a team that needs its best players on the court, he would make a huge difference,” Hurley said.

“We’ve got to find a way just to try to win enough of these games, just gut these games out until he gets back. And then just hope we can get some consistency from Jaylin Stewart. He’s had these 14-point games that he’s followed up with zero. He’s got to stay consistent.”

Dom Amore: For Dan Hurley’s Huskies, the grace period has expired. It’s time for tenacity

Stewart, a sophomore, has scored in double figures six times over his young college career. But never twice in a row.

“It all just starts in practice with preparation, just holding myself accountable for every little thing and just give it my all every day. On and off the court, just gotta have that professionalism about us,” Stewart said.

Lacking in aura

Over the last two years, there was an intimidation factor that UConn brought when it took the court. Hurley said Saturday he’s worried the program might’ve lost it.

“My fear is that we’re such a weak, kind of a soft team and the other teams that take the court with us, we’ve lost that aura that we’ve had when we’ve taken the court the last couple of years,” he said. “Where they see a little bit of it on film when they prepare for us and say, ‘These guys aren’t as vicious and nasty,’ and then they share the court with us and they feel it as well. That’s becoming a problem.”…

…Hurley didn’t have an update on Alex Karaban‘s ankle after he tweaked it in the second half. Karaban gave his coach a thumbs up and finished out the game with a small limp. … The loss was UConn’s first at home since Jan. 25, 2023, ending a 28-game winning streak between the XL Center and Gampel Pavilion. … Solo Ball scored 15 points, marking his fifth consecutive game with 15 points or more. He’s made 19 3-pointers during that five-game stretch. … Samson Johnson gave Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner problems on the defensive end and finished a team-best plus-12 in his 24 minutes. … Jamiya Neal, who torched the Huskies for 24 points Saturday, played his first three college seasons for Bobby Hurley at Arizona State.

UConn coach Dan Hurley argued the foul in the moment but got over it quickly. In his postgame press conference, officiating was far down his list of concerns.

“Just the theme of our season, obviously we’re not who we’ve been,” Hurley said. “I’m not sure if Liam (McNeeley), when he returns, is going to be able to fix the lack of tenacity that we have right now. Coaches and players, as a program we’re a shell of ourselves from a defensive standpoint. We’ve only won the rebound battle twice in Big East games and the bar is so low for us defensively. We’re just not a tenacious enough team.”

The loss was UConn’s first at home since Jan. 25, 2023 against Xavier, snapping a 28-game home winning streak in a span that featured two national championships. UConn (13-5, 5-2 Big East) is now just 2-8 in its all-time series with the Bluejays.

Creighton’s Jamiya Neal, who came into the game averaging 10.2 points and finished with 24 on 10-of-16 shooting, played a heavy role in taking down the reigning champs as his fifth-year teammates Ryan Kalkbrenner (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Steven Ashworth (12 points, six rebounds, nine assists) drew most of the attention.

“How did we let a dominant righty driver, a guy that loves to go right, just continue to drive the ball right?” Hurley said. “It’s a lack of attention to detail, and it’s a lack of will.”

The Huskies did a decent job on both Kalkbrenner and Ashworth in the first half, holding the veteran duo to just nine points combined on 3-for-11 shooting. But Neal only missed one of his eight shots from the field before the break, single-handedly erasing the early 10-2 UConn advantage bolstered by a pair of Solo Ball 3-pointers.

Ball finished tied for the team-high in scoring with 15 points. Diarra had 15 as well, adding seven rebounds and six assists, a block and a steal. Jaylin Stewart, in the starting lineup for the third time in four games with McNeeley out, scored eight of his 14 points in the second half.

Creighton led for nearly 29 minutes in the game, never by more than eight, and Stewart helped give the Huskies a chance late with a floater that made it a one-point game with 1:12 left. But, on an off night for Karaban (8 points, 3-for-12), UConn ultimately didn’t have enough to overcome the Bluejays, who improved to 12-6 on the year and 5-2 in the Big East.

Karaban had just three shot attempts in a scoreless first half.

“Alex, he should not have taken three shots at halftime. He should’ve taken 16 to 18 shots in this game today. Even with Kalkbrenner in that deep drop, those floaters and those short touch shots at the (Big East) logo were available for him even when they were chasing him over top of the pins,” Hurley said. “He’s just got to fire away in these games. He should’ve went 5-for-17 today, just have no regrets about just letting it rip.”

The three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Kalkbrenner disrupted the Huskies’ offense in a major way despite only being credited for two blocks. Because of his reliability inside, Creighton could guard the perimeter the way UConn did last season with Donovan Clingan. As a result, the Huskies only attempted six 3-pointers in the first half and had to attack the long-armed 7-footer.

It worked for a short stretch, as Aidan Mahaney, Stewart and Ball each finished inside to retake the lead with five minutes until the halftime break. But Creighton answered with a 10-2 run to go into the break up by seven.

“We’ve shown tons of vulnerabilities that our past teams have not shown,” Hurley said.

Neal scored the first points of the second half with a layup over Stewart, but Ball answered with his third triple of the afternoon and Samson Johnson (seven points, three rebounds, five assists) rose up for a two-handed slam over Kalkbrenner, drawing a foul in the process. Karaban tweaked his ankle but insisted on staying in the game with a limp and scored his first basket to tie the score at 41 immediately after he was helped to his feet. He made a pair of free throws on the next possession to give the Huskies their first lead since Ball’s floater at the five-minute mark in the first half.

Creighton had an answer for every UConn run. The Bluejays – shooting 55% from the field in the second half to UConn’s 41.9% – answered Karaban’s burst with a 14-5 scoring run. Diarra scored all five of the Huskies’ points during that stretch with a 3-pointer and a transition layup.

Just as it felt the game might be over, the graduate guard blocked a layup attempt from Neal and found Stewart in the corner for three. Ball made a pair of shots inside and Johnson gave the Huskies a one-point lead from the free throw line with three and a half minutes to go. Creighton didn’t make another shot from the field for the rest of the game, but sealed the victory with Ashworth and Kalkbrenner at the free throw line.

“(Hurley) is absolutely right,” Diarra said. “We just haven’t been able to do the hard things well. Rebounding the ball, on the defensive end guarding the ball, getting loose balls – we just haven’t been able to do so.”

UConn will return to action and look to “find a way” when it hosts Butler at the XL Center on Tuesday (7 p.m., FS1).

If that were the case, he would never have to implore his players to show more aggression on the defensive end or on the backboards. In year’s past, that competitive fire was natural for a number of established players who knew how to control it. With a younger group this year, UConn has “got a lot of nice guys,” Hurley said. “Some really swell guys.”

“They’ve got to get nastier at the defensive end of the court and on the backboards,” he continued Friday. “Great guys. People in the airplanes and the hotels and the meal rooms, they love our guys.”

Hurley will look for his guys to take on some of his fiery personality on Saturday when they host Creighton for the first time since being blown out in Omaha last February. That loss was UConn’s third and last of its second straight national championship season, and Creighton students stormed the court. Hurley displayed his capability for rage at the end of that one.

It will take similar competitive fire to keep Ryan Kalkbrenner – the three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year in his fifth college season – in check.

“We’ve cycled through. … this is our fifth set of centers. Josh Carlton matched up with Ryan… We’re literally on like a fifth tandem of centers and it’s just rare, a player of his caliber, I couldn’t imagine coaching Donovan (Clingan) for five years, or Adama (Sanogo). It’s incredible for Creighton and their program to have a guy that should’ve been a first-round pick by now and gone and we shouldn’t be still dealing with him,” Hurley said.

Kalkbrenner, 7-feet-1, matched up with Carlton as a freshman in 2020-21. Then it was Sanogo and Akok Akok, then Sanogo and Clingan, and Clingan and Samson Johnson last year. It’ll be Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr. Saturday.

“I’ll say the same things about him I said about Zach Edey last year when there were so many questions about where he was gonna go in the draft, people didn’t even have him mocking. How Ryan Kalkbrenner is not a first-round pick, it blows my mind. He should be easily a top-20 pick. This guy is, he causes rare problems for you defensively like Donovan did for other teams and now he’s just like, can’t sit on his left shoulder in the post because he can score over either shoulder,” Hurley said.

“He’s right up there with best player in the league, All-American-caliber player as a fifth-year player. Just to have two really old players like (Steven) Ashworth and him has stabilized things for them when they lost (Pop) Isaacs, which was a big blow.”

Alex Karaban added: “His presence out there just changes so much for us offensively with the way he’s able to protect the paint. Offensively it just seems like he’s taken another jump with the variety of post moves and being able to shoot the three-ball now too. As great of a player as he is, he just continues to elevate every year and just get better and better.”

Creighton lost Isaacs, a Texas Tech transfer, to a season-ending hip injury after he led the Bluejays to a 76-63 win over then-No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 4, scoring 27 points with five rebounds and four assists. The injury rattled the Bluejays, who’d gone through their own three-game losing skid in the nonconference just over a week prior. They dropped consecutive games against Nebraska, San Diego State and Texas A&M, and ended the nonconference slate with a loss to Alabama before beginning Big East play with another defeat at Georgetown.

But Kalkbrenner’s 17.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game, Ashworth’s 17.3 points and 6.6 assists, and Jamiya Neal’s 10.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists have helped keep the Bluejays above water. They enter Saturday’s game with a 4-2 record in league play, the second loss coming at Marquette.

UConn will be fresh, aside from missing Liam McNeeley again (high ankle sprain), after its week without games.

“For the most part for us it was just trying to get the defense right, trying to get the intensity level right and the rage, the competitive rage at the defensive end and the backboard,” Hurley said. “This like, life-or-death type of competitive fire at that end that we’ve had with our past teams for a lot of years. We just haven’t been able to get that yet and it’s cost us probably two or three games to this point in the year.”

“Off the court you can be nice, goofy, have fun with your teammates, but then on the court you just have to be that killer and go out there and play as hungry as possible,” Karaban said. “You just have to be two different people.”

Hurley’s optimistic update on McNeeley

McNeeley, the Huskies’ standout freshman, will miss his fourth consecutive game since going down with a high ankle sprain at DePaul on New Year’s Day. The week without games served almost as a free week of recovery for the high-impact forward.

“He’s been out of the boot. We’re getting closer, I think maybe you can start putting him on a watch in the next couple of games here. He’ll maybe find himself in the dreaded ‘game-time decision.’ I can’t wait for that, it’s gonna be great. … We’ve always said that if you hope to see him at some point in January, that would be nice.”

What to know

Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs.

Time/Day: Noon/Saturday

Records: No. 14 UConn: 13-4 (5-1 Big East), Creighton: 11-6 (4-2)

Series: Creighton leads, 7-2

Last meeting: Feb. 20, 2024 – Creighton 85, UConn 66 in Omaha

TV: FOX – Jason Benetti, Donny Marshall

Radio: Fox Sports 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman

Less than two minutes into the game, an Andover defender turned his head and the 6-foot-6 Toure made a backdoor cut, floating to the rim as he caught a two-handed alley-oop pass for a slam.

After what ended up being a 51-37 win for Toure and the reigning CIAC Division I champs, Fazio shrugged, accepting the reality. That box on his prep sheet was never going to be checked off. Toure, No. 44 in ESPN’s 2026 rankings and No. 31 by 247Sports, is the top-ranked junior in Connecticut. He’s the top-ranked junior in all of New England, for that matter.

His coach at Notre Dame, Jason Shea, would take it a few steps further: “He’s one of the best 16-year-olds in the world, it is simple as that.”

There is evidence to back it up.

After leading the Green Knights to a 28-0 season and state championship in 2023-24, he wasn’t done. Over the summer, Toure, now 17, went to Turkey and represented Guinea – where both of his parents, mother Bountou and father Mamadou, are from – in the U17 FIBA World Cup. His uncle coached the team, which included some of his cousins who he saw and played with for the first time, and he starred.

Averaging 23 points over seven games, the born and raised New Haven product was the highest-scoring player in the tournament ahead of names like Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa, two of the top three players in the Class of 2025 – they, of course, played together on the loaded USA roster and won the whole thing.

In his final World Cup game, Toure scored 50 points against China on 21-for-27 shooting from the field, 6-for-11 from beyond the arc and just 2-for-2 from the free throw line. His college recruitment hit new heights after that performance.

So Fazio could live with the 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists his team allowed Thursday night in Springfield College’s Blake Arena. Notre Dame “showed them some Connecticut basketball,” Toure said, as it improved to 9-2. Toure was named MVP.

Andover didn’t have much of a chance with the Green Knights coming off a loss to Hillhouse on Monday, in front of UConn coaches Dan Hurley and Kimani Young. Later that night, Toure announced on social media that he received an offer from the Huskies.

“Coming from Connecticut, it’s a big accomplishment. Even though we lost that game I was still excited,” Toure said. “Two times, back-to-back national champs, that’s a big one right there.”

“Best team in the country wants you to play there and thinks you could help them win national championships,” Shea added. “If that doesn’t give you a little confidence, what’s gonna?”

Great first impression

Shea first heard of his star at accepted students night before Toure’s freshman year at Notre Dame. Toure’s father approached the coach and told him about his son and three other relatives who played for the Green Knights, two of them were captains.

“I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ You don’t think too much of it,” Shea said.

That night, Mamadou Toure added Shea as a friend on Facebook.

“I saw a clip of him bouncing the ball off the ground and dunking it at the Nike site and I said, ‘Well that’s a pretty good find right there,'” Shea said. “The first time I actually met him in person was our summer workouts that June. I walked in the gym, obviously a great body but it was his personality that attracts you to him. He’s just so personable, he’s a great teammate and he’s carried that through. And he had a lot of work to do. What you’re seeing now is not who he was.”

Shea remembers telling Toure as a freshman: “You’re a Division I athlete, but you’re a Division III shooter.

“I’ve never told this to another player, but I told him, ‘You fix that form, you’re gonna play in the NBA someday,'” he said. “Everybody says ‘don’t put that on him,’ I don’t care. I know what I see, I know what I know, and you’re not gonna convince me otherwise.”

The UConn factor

Having the UConn coaches in the gym didn’t exactly help Notre Dame’s performance on Monday.

Everyone knew who they were watching, and Toure’s teammates felt just as much pressure to make sure he’d stand out.

“Our kids care about each other, so the way we played that game was very much like, ‘Man, I really hope this works out for you Abdou.’ We didn’t play aggressive, it was kind of like, ‘How can I get you the ball?’ And we weren’t getting him the ball in a good spot,” Shea said.

“I’m just happy for him and his family, but relieved, too, for our team. Because when (UConn) comes to a game now, they’re not evaluating, they’re recruiting. And there’s a big difference when guys are recruiting you versus evaluating you, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

When the Green Knights took to the court on Thursday, Toure only had one thing on his mind: “Just get buckets,” he said.

That, he did. Letting the game come to him, Toure made 8 of his 16 shots from the field, mixing some smooth pull-up midrange jumpers in throughout his dunk showcase. He went 10-for-13 from the free throw line and was 0-for-6 from beyond the arc – just an off night, Shea said. He’s shooting 44% for the year.

That 50-point game against China, when he made 6 of 11 from 3, is what Toure pinpoints as the moment his recruitment really picked up. He had received offers from 16 other Division I programs – heavyweights like Alabama and Arkansas, even Bobby Hurley at Arizona State – before UConn finally made the call.

Providence and Syracuse, two of the many programs that offered him that summer, were each represented in Blake Arena Thursday night.

“He’s dealt with everything great. He’s really humble, he has a humble family. They’re not caught up in things, there’s no ‘handling’ of him,” Shea said. “He takes phone calls, he’s respectful to coaches, coaches love to come to our gym and be around him and then they’re finding they like to be around our team. He is a great centerpiece for team culture and the guys who are recruiting him see that when they get in our environment. His ability to relate to players who he’s so much better than and make them feel important, there’s not a lot of guys who are ranked what he’s ranked that are like that.”

As UConn took its time through the process, Shea was constantly being asked whether the Huskies were “in” on his top prospect. He assured them, “I talk to Kimani Young at least once a week, they’re very interested. This is what it is. They’re at that level, they’re taking their time, they want to be sure.”

He’ll no longer have to answer whether UConn is involved. Now the questions have morphed into: “Should we get involved if UConn is involved? Should we expend resources and time and effort knowing that UConn is involved?”

The answer is yes. Toure is in no rush to pick his landing spot – “I can’t really say too much about where I’m gonna go right now, but I could see myself there. Maybe,” he said.

When that time comes, he’ll have plenty of options to choose from.

Life hasn’t been easy for Gordon, who’s had battles with mental health since his 11-year NBA career ended in 2015, but he got back to Connecticut and ensured reporters that he was “in a good place.” Gordon was “smiling the whole time” when he went to breakfast with Calhoun prior to the event.

“It was so good to see, because he was back with his family,” Calhoun said.

Gordon will be back in Connecticut, “with his family,” on Feb. 7 to be inducted personally into the Huskies of Honor – a recognition years in the making.

For a special day, Ben Gordon finds his way back to his UConn basketball family

This time the 2004 Big East Tournament MVP will return to Storrs and be honored as UConn hosts Rick Pitino’s revitalized St. John’s program in an 8 p.m. tip-off at Gampel Pavilion.

Gordon more than meets the criteria for the honor, which most recently saw two-time national champion guard Tristen Newton inducted immediately upon the team’s return from the 2024 Final Four in Arizona. Emeka Okafor, Gordon’s co-star on that 2004 title team, was inducted in 2007.

Taliek Brown, another member of that ’04 team, is expected to be in attendance as an assistant coach for the Johnnies.

Gordon accumulated 1,795 points, 437 assists and 415 rebounds over three years in Storrs. He was named All-Big East second team as a sophomore, when he averaged 19.5 points, 4.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game, and first team as a junior, remaining consistent with 18.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game. Gordon shot 44% from the field over his career and 42.3% from beyond the arc.

Opting to enter the 2004 NBA Draft following the championship, Gordon was selected with the third overall pick by the Chicago Bulls, right after Okafor was taken second by the Charlotte Bobcats.

Averaging 15.9 points, 2.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds his rookie season, Gordon finished second in rookie of the year voting – to none other than Okafor – and was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. He played five strong years in Chicago, three with the Detroit Pistons and two with Charlotte before spending his final NBA season as a member of the Orlando Magic.

He wrote about his mental health challenges that came after that final season in an essay for The Players Tribune in 2020 and has dealt with some legal trouble since. But he was in a good place when he came back to Connecticut in 2024 and had “some awesome things to say,” coach Dan Hurley said, in the team’s locker room following that romping of Xavier.

“Ben’s a special guy. It’s hard to put into words, but I think him not being him all the time, it’s very burdensome. It’s been devastating, he’s one of the best guys I’ve ever had, he’s like a son to me in so many ways,” Calhoun said on that day. “I just wanted him to know, ‘if you’re looking for love, it’s here. People here love you.’”