It’s been a strange men’s college basketball season.
Some of the nation’s top teams have taken big losses of late.
The Purdue Boilermakers, ranked second in the AP Poll at the time, lost 73-69 to the Ohio State Buckeyes over the weekend. The seventh-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels lost 86-79 to the Syracuse Orange on Feb. 13. The list goes on and on.
Tuesday night, it was time for the top-ranked UConn Huskies to take a loss, their first since Dec. 20 against the Seton Hall Pirates.
UConn headed to Omaha to take on the No. 15 Creighton Bluejays, and Creighton came away with an impressive 85-66 victory.
Guard Steven Ashworth led Creighton with 20 points, including a deep three-pointer in the first half to help extend the lead.
Creighton’s three-point shooting played a pivotal role in the upset victory. The Bluejays went 50% (14-for-28) from long-range and never let the visitors get comfortable. Ainsworth made five three-pointers on his own, while UConn, as a team, made just three long-distance shots in the entire game.
Incredibly, as CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander points out, this is Creighton’s first win over a top-ranked team in school history. It also is UConn’s 21st straight road loss to a ranked opponent.
The upset took many on social media by surprise, even though college basketball has been rife with upsets this season.
About Robert O'Neill