SI:AM | Creighton’s Historic Upset

Plus, taking stock of the rest of the men’s bracket.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I don’t know yet what I’ll write about tomorrow before the NBA comes back but I’m sure it will be a humdinger.

In today’s SI:AM:

🐦 UConn’s streak snapped

🏀 Men’s bracket watch

📝 Where will Chris Jones go?

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Who’s No. 1 now?

The UConn Huskies were a unanimous choice for the No. 1 ranking in the men’s AP poll this week for the first time in program history. So what did they do in their first game after achieving that historic ranking? Lose by their widest margin since 2019.

UConn traveled to Omaha last night to take on the No. 15 Creighton Bluejays and lost 85–66. It was Creighton’s first-ever win over a No. 1 team and moved the Bluejays into third place in the Big East standings.

For the Huskies, it was their biggest blowout loss since they got trounced by the Houston Cougars, 84–45, in the 2019 AAC tournament. UConn allowed a whopping 1.45 points per possession, its worst defensive efficiency in any game in the last 25 years, according to Stathead’s Katie Sharp.

Creighton jumped out to an early lead, ending the first half on a 22–6 run, and never looked back. The Bluejays made an impressive 54.7% of their shots, including 50% from three, while UConn had an uncharacteristically bad shooting night from beyond the arc, hitting just three of its 16 attempts (18.8%).

“We did a bad job coaching tonight. Our players did a bad job playing, and I did a bad job coaching,” UConn coach Dan Hurley told reporters. “We were definitely stunned. This wasn’t the game we expected. We knew this was a dangerous game and a quality opponent, and one of the better teams in the country. But we didn’t expect this to happen.”

The result was particularly surprising after what UConn did in its last game, dismantling a Marquette Golden Eagles team that was ranked No. 4, 81–53.

“When I watched that Marquette-UConn game, I’ve got to admit I wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about our chances,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

The Huskies’ dominant win over Marquette in Hartford on Saturday appeared to cement them as the team to beat this season. Over the past few weeks, UConn and the Purdue Boilermakers had emerged as unstoppable forces. So when Purdue suffered a shocking upset one day later against a mediocre Ohio State team that had just fired its coach, UConn was the only team left that seemed infallible. Now, not so much.

And UConn has one more serious test on the horizon before the end of the regular season, traveling to Milwaukee on March 6 for a rematch against Marquette. Despite how their first matchup went, the Golden Eagles are still an elite team (ranked 14th in KenPom) and will have home court advantage on their side this time. History isn’t on the Huskies’ side there. They’ve now lost 19 games in a row on the road against ranked opponents, a streak that stretches back 10 years.

UConn is still deserving of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament right now and will have a chance to bank some more impressive victories in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, but a loss to Marquette would make that debate more interesting.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

• For more on the men’s NCAA tournament, check out Kevin Sweeney’s latest bracket watch.
• A video shows UConn coach Dan Hurley telling a Creighton fan “I will knock you out” as he left the court last night.
• Matt Verderame analyzes the best landing spots for pending free agent Chris Jones.
• Augusta National is making its longest hole even longer. Gabrielle Herzig breaks down what that will mean for players at the Masters.
• Two men were charged with murder in connection with last week’s shooting at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade. 
• Despite how much negative press the NBA All-Star Game got, TV ratings for the game were higher than last year.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Connor McMichael’s concentration and patience to score against the Devils.

4. Steven Ashworth’s long three for Creighton.

3. The foul ball Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz hit during live batting practice against Hunter Greene that shattered a window on Greene’s car. De La Cruz and Greene posed for a photo next to the damaged ride later.

2. Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky throwing punches during a scrap against the Senators.

1. Quinton Byfield’s coast-to-coast goal for the Kings, featuring incredible stickhandling.

SIQ

Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell played his entire 20-year MLB career with the Detroit Tigers. What number did the team retire in his honor in 2018?

• 1
• 3
• 6
• 11

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which former MLB player, born on Feb. 20, 1975, was the last pitcher to throw 150 pitches in a game?

• Freddy García
• Liván Hernández
• Sidney Ponson
• R.A. Dickey

Answer: Liván Hernández. He threw 150 pitches in a start for the Washington Nationals against the Florida Marlins on June 3, 2005. He pitched nine innings but did not get a decision, as the game went into extra innings and Washington won in 11. He allowed two runs on seven hits, walking five and striking out three. Incredibly, despite throwing 150 pitches, he only got one swing-and-miss.

Hernández, the younger brother of former Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernández, didn’t have a great career. His career ERA+ (where 100 is average) was 95, or just below average. His career win-loss record was 178–177. But Hernández was valuable to his teams because he could go deep into games. In an era where teams started getting cautious about the number of pitches and innings they were asking their pitchers to throw, Hernández was a workhorse. He led the league in innings pitched three times (from 2003 to ’05) and pitched at least 200 innings 10 times in his career. Since 1990, only 10 pitchers have had 10 200-inning seasons. That list includes all-time greats like Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina. It also features borderline Hall of Fame guys like Mark Buehrle and Andy Pettitte. Then there’s Hernández and James Shields—two largely unremarkable players whose main skill was durability.