Once again, coach Greg McDermott has knocked off the top-ranked team in the country.
His Creighton team rolled over No. 1 Kansas 76-63 on Wednesday night at the CHI Health Center in Omaha in the Big 12-Big East Battle. That marked the first loss of the season for the Jayhawks, who have spent the entire season at No. 1 in the AP poll.
The Bluejays have now beaten a No. 1 team at home in consecutive seasons, following last year’s upset win over UConn. That was the program’s first-ever win over a top-ranked team. Naturally, the second such win led to a huge celebration on the court in Nebraska.
“I think with every team, you’re selling a dream, you’re selling a plan,” McDermott said. “Until you’re able to validate that plan with a victory like this, I’m not sure the buy-in is what it’s going to be now … Everybody stepped up and did a great job when we needed them. What can you say? This is the building No. 1 teams go to die evidently.”
Creighton led the entire way on Wednesday night, and it opened the game on a quick 10-2 burst to take control of the game right away. Steven Ashworth even drained one from the logo before halftime for the Bluejays, who took a 10-point lead into the locker room.
Though Kansas opened the second half on a 9-0 run, Creighton responded with a 10-0 run of its own to take the momentum away instantly. The Bluejays poured it on late, too, and nothing Kansas was doing worked. The Jayhawks went more than four minutes without scoring down the stretch, which allowed Creighton to push its lead to 16 points. From there, the Bluejays rolled to the 13-point win without much issue.
Creighton big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, who dropped 49 points in their season-opener, was questionable going into the game with a lower body injury. The 7-footer missed their last game against Notre Dame, which snapped a three-game losing streak that dropped them out of the rankings completely. Kalkbrenner, however, more than held his own against Kansas big man and All-American Hunter Dickinson. Kalkbrenner finished with a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The biggest impact he had, however, was on the defensive end. He held Dickinson to just six points and two field goals.
“It’s just a gutsy, gutsy effort,” McDermott said. “He doesn’t practice all week, and we had to do some different procedures to get him on the floor today. He showed a lot of courage, a lot of guts. There’s two great big guys playing today, I’m sure glad Kalkbrenner is on my team.”
Pop Isaacs led Creighton with 27 points while shooting 6-of-9 from the 3-point line. Ashworth added 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Dajuan Harris Jr. led Kansas with 15 points and five assists, and Zeke Mayo added 12 points. Rylan Griffen did not play for Kansas due to the flu.
Kansas entered Wednesday’s game at 7-0 with several key wins under its belt already. The Jayhawks edged out a three-point win over North Carolina after nearly blowing a 20-point lead, and then they beat Cooper Flagg and Duke in Las Vegas last week to stay undefeated. Kansas will take on Missouri next on Sunday before hosting NC State and Brown to close out its nonconference slate.
Though Kansas’ success this season will likely come down to how it holds itself in the Big 12, Creighton has finally proven that Bill Self’s group is beatable. Perhaps more importantly for McDermott, though, the Bluejays’ losing skid is now clearly behind them.