UConn opened last season with a 14-game winning streak, made a third straight NCAA Tournament and secured the 2023 national championship before returning to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll this season for six straight weeks. Add it up, and the Huskies have won 55 games since the start of last season — but, somehow, exactly zero contests against ranked opponents on the road. And what makes this confusing fact even stranger is that it’s actually been more than a decade since UConn last beat a ranked opponent on the road.
It seems impossible.
But it’s true.
So that was the backdrop as the top-ranked Huskies traveled to Omaha for Tuesday’s showdown with Creighton. They made the first three baskets of the game but eventually crumbled in front of a capacity crowd at the CHI Health Center and lost 85-66 to extend their streak of losses to ranked opponents on the road to 21. To put just how weird this is into perspective, understand that LSU is 5-7 in the SEC but actually coming off of a win over a ranked opponent on the road. Meanwhile, UConn has won two national titles since the last time it beat a ranked opponent on the road — specifically No. 17 Memphis inside FedExForum back in January 2014.
“It just felt like today we ran into [Creighton] playing great and us not playing as well as we need to here in Omaha,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said minutes after his Huskies’ 14-game winning streak was snapped. “We were definitely stunned. We knew this was a dangerous game [against] one of the better teams in the country. But we didn’t expect this to happen.”
The 19-point loss brings an end to UConn’s two-day run at No. 1 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Purdue has returned to No. 1 on this Wednesday morning based on my belief that the Boilermakers once again simply have the sport’s best body of work. Purdue, Houston and UConn are all 9-3 in Quadrant 1 with zero additional losses. But where the Boilermakers separate themselves, in my opinion, is by having seven wins over schools ranked in the top 25 of the NET. UConn only has four. Houston has just three. So with those three teams’ loss-columns now equal, the edge should go to the school with the best wins, and Purdue clearly has more great wins than UConn, Houston and everybody else.
What about Creighton?
The Bluejays have been a little up and down but consistently maintained strong computer numbers, never falling lower than 19th in the NET. Now they’re on a four-game winning streak highlighted by Q1 wins at Butler and over UConn. As a result, I’ve moved Creighton from 18th up to No. 9 in the Top 25 And 1, which caused Duke, Dayton, Auburn, Alabama and Illinois to be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own. Similarly, Utah State and BYU, after notable Tuesday night wins, went from unranked to No. 19 and No. 21, respectively, which caused South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Saint Mary’s to be pushed down two spots each, no fault of their own.
Wednesday’s Top 25 And 1 rankings
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