UConn's Dan Hurley Compares Creighton Star Big Man To Donovan Clingan

Creighton snapped UConn's 28-game home win streak on Saturday at Gampel Pavilion
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
In this story:

The UConn Huskies suffered their second Big East loss of the season on Saturday to Ryan Kalkbrenner and the Creighton Bluejays.

The seven-foot-one Kalkbrenner finished the day with 16 points and 10 rebounds on 5-for-11 from the field to go along with three assists and two blocks.

Kalkbrenner wasn’t Creighton’s scoring king on the day (Jamiya Neal went off for 24 points), but his interior defense was characteristically impactful, something that Huskies head coach Dan Hurley spoke about following the game.

“(Kalkbrenner) impacts the game defensively the way that Donovan (Clingan) would impact the game defensively for us where he allows you to do things in ball-screen and with three-point defense that is rare.”

It’s true — having Kalkbrenner as a rim protector allows Creighton’s perimeter defenders to be ultra-aggressive, which has a ripple effect on their defensive intensity overall.

To say that Kalkbrenner outplayed UConn’s two bigs on Saturday would be an understatement. Huskies starting center Samson Johnson was held to just 7 points and a meager 3 rebounds. Even more alarming for UConn: Tarris Reed Jr. put up a donut in the scoring department and finished with just four boards in 16 minutes.

Kalkbrenner, a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, came into Saturday’s game with a reputation for being far better than both Johnson and Reed Jr., and neither of UConn’s bigs did much to disrupt that status quo.

Hurley’s Clingan comparison for Kalkbrenner is not only a fair characterization of Creighton’s center; it’s also a painful reminder of UConn’s decline in frontcourt quality this season as compared with the Clingan/Johnson duo of last season and the Adama Sanogo/Clingan duo of the year prior.

The good news for Hurley and UConn is there aren’t any other Ryan Kalkbrenners walking around college basketball. It’s not wrong to think that UConn’s still okay at the center position, for the most part.

When they visit Creighton in February, though, expect the Huskies to have a dreadfully challenging experience yet again.

More NCAA: Ranking The 10 Most Talented Players Dan Hurley Has Coached At UConn


Published
Colin Keane
COLIN KEANE

Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org