Creighton is too much for Kansas as the No. 1 team in the country is eliminated

OMAHA, Neb. – Creighton has played eight No. 1 teams in its basketball history, and the first six of those games weren’t close. All were losses.

The last two? Bluejays outbreaks at CHI Health Center.

Creighton defeated top-ranked Kansas 76-63 on Wednesday night in a game in which the unranked Bluejays never trailed and led by as many as 17 points.

Ten months ago they beat No. 1 Connecticut 85-66. That was UConn’s last loss before winning 13 straight en route to its second straight national championship.

Five of the Creighton players who were on the court against the Jayhawks also played against the Huskies, including 7-foot-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner. The Big East preseason player of the year returned from injury to score 17 points, surpassing Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson. Kalkbrenner had 15 points against UConn last February.

“Both feel great, of course,” said Kalkbrenner. “Both teams, UConn and Kansas, are elite, high-level programs. We were able to implement the game plan in both games and play at a high level. These victories are a good feeling.”

The crowd was raucous from the start against KU, with the noise level increasing each time Pop Isaacs made one of his six three-pointers and Kalkbrenner made lob passes for dunks. As the final buzzer sounded, students spilled out of the end zone seats onto the field as flames shot up behind both backboards.

“I’ve never had a moment like that in college,” Isaacs said. “I didn’t play against the No. 1 team in the country. I played against No. 2 and No. 3. The first court raid I was involved in. It was the biggest.

Isaacs was very familiar with the way Kansas plays defense from the two seasons he played at Texas Tech, and he said that was an advantage. He scored a season-high 27 points.

“I saw the ball go through the basket,” he said. “The first shot went in. It felt good when I shot it out of my hands. I felt like I looked really good tonight. As coach says, I’m a really good shooter when I make the right shots, and I made the right shots tonight for the most part.”

Jayhawks coach Bill Self praised Isaacs.

“Pop was great,” he said. “We know Pop dates back to when he was five years old. I’ve known his dad forever and coached against him the last two years at Tech. He was great tonight.”

Isaacs and point guard Steven Ashworth missed practice this week due to illness, Ashworth was dealing with soreness from an ankle sprain two weeks ago and Kalkbrenner missed the Bluejays’ win over Notre Dame on Saturday because of a lower-body injury.

When asked if he thought his team was up to the task against the Jayhawks, coach Greg McDermott said he asked his 90-year-old father for a few words of wisdom before the game.

“He said pack your bags and go home,” McDermott said. “He wasn’t very confident after watching us and Kansas play.”

McDermott indicated that beating Kansas meant a little more to him than beating UConn, even though the Huskies are a Big East opponent. McDermott grew up in Iowa and looked after the Jayhawks. He coached at Iowa State for four seasons and never beat Self and the Jayhawks. In fact, he was 0-10 against KU before Wednesday.

“I’ve been watching Kansas basketball forever,” McDermott said. “Going back to coach (Roy) Williams and then coach Self, they are some of the best. We had some close calls at the Hilton (Coliseum) when I was at Iowa State where we left Hilton disappointed because we couldn’t get that.” It’s great for our guys and great for our fans to finally beat them, if they had a great team and were ranked #1 in the country.

Dajuan Harris Jr. had 15 points and AJ Storr and Zeke Mayo added 12 each for Kansas, which shot 36% from the field.

The game was Kansas’ 105th game against an opponent not ranked No. 1 in the AP rankings. Only two other times before Wednesday had the Jayhawks lost by double digits in such instances.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.