No. 1 Kansas Survives No. 9 Creighton's Upset Bid to Advance to Men's Sweet 16

The Kansas Jayhawks are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018 after their 79-72 victory over the Creighton Bluejays in the 2022 NCAA men's basketball tournament on Saturday.

Kansas has now won seven consecutive games since its March 3 loss at TCU. Head coach Bill Self's team cruised to an 83-56 win over Texas Southern in the round of 64 on Thursday.

The Jayhawks had lost in the second round in each of their previous two tournament appearances dating back to 2019.

Creighton advanced to the round of 32 with a come-from-behind overtime victory against San Diego State on Thursday. Head coach Greg McDermott's squad entered this matchup with eight wins in its final 11 games between the regular season and Big East tournament.

KeyShawn Feazell's layup with 1:47 remaining capped off a quick five-point run that allowed Creighton to close the deficit to 73-72.

Creighton got the ball back after a missed layup by David McCormack, but Feazell lost possession when Ochai Agbaji was able to get a steal and an easy layup of his own to put Kansas back up by three in the final minute.

The Jayhawks closed the game on a 6-0 run to hang on for the victory in a hard-fought matchup.

Remy Martin was the hero of the win for Kansas. He scored a season-high 20 points off the bench. Agbaji finished with 15 points, but it came on just 5-of-14 shooting.

Creighton's Arthur Kaluma led all players with 24 points. The Bluejays' starting five scored all 72 points in the loss.

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Notable Game Stats

• Remy Martin (KU): 20 points (7-of-14 FG), 7 rebounds, 4 assists
  
• Ochai Agbaji (KU): 15 points (5-of-14 FG), 8 rebounds
  
• Christian Braun (KU): 13 points (5-of-9 FG), 8 rebounds, 4 assists
• Arthur Kaluma (CU):  24 points (4-of-10 3PT), 12 rebounds
  
• Alex O'Connell (CU): 16 points (3-of-9 FG), 3 assists

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Jayhawks Hold On Despite Ugly Performance

On a day when neither team put its best foot forward, the Jayhawks were able to make enough plays on both ends of the court to advance.

Kansas hasn't shot the ball well in two of its past three games (40.9 percent vs. Creighton). Texas Tech held it to a 43.1 percent field-goal percentage in the Big 12 title game. The total included a 5-of-22 mark from three-point range.

Saturday was yet another day in which the team's shooting from behind the arc was erratic, at least early. Martin, the fifth-year senior who transferred to Kansas after spending four years at Arizona State, was the one saving grace with his best game of the season.

Martin did the bulk of his damage in the first half, scoring 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. His season high in scoring was 17 points on Nov. 26 in a 74-73 loss to Dayton.

The Jayhawks needed all of Martin's contributions in the first half because they only had a 39-38 lead at the intermission.

Agbaji and Christian Braun finally started to get going in the second half when the Jayhawks pulled away. Kansas' two leading scorers during the regular season combined for eight points in the first half. They matched that total less than nine minutes into the second half.

Another bench player who made a key contribution to the win was Jalen Coleman-Lands. The senior guard only had five points, but he made them count with three coming on a key three-pointer midway through the second half to give Kansas a 66-57 lead.

Self and his staff now have six days off to study what was off with this game and how to improve for the Sweet 16. They were at least able to play well enough to advance.    

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2-Point Shooting Woes End Creighton's Season

Perhaps the most surprising part of this game was how well Creighton shot the ball from three-point range. The team finished the regular season tied for 330th out of 358 Division I programs with a 30.3 percent success rate behind the arc.

The trend continued in the first round against San Diego State when it finished 2-of-14 on three-point attempts.

Whatever the Bluejays did to work on their long-range shooting between Thursday and Saturday paid off. They scored half of their points on three-pointers against Kansas (12-of-28 from deep).

Kaluma seemed to evolve into a star over the course of this game. The freshman from Uganda set a career high in scoring and tied his career high in three-pointers made (four).

It turns out the biggest problem for Creighton on Saturday was when it attempted shots inside the three-point line. The team was just 9-of-31 on two-point attempts against Kansas.

The Bluejays made just two two-point field goals in the final seven minutes. Feazell was the only player who made at least half of his two-pointers (2-of-4).

Some of the credit for those offensive issues goes to the Jayhawks defense. Creighton didn't have anyone who could match David McCormack's size (6'10", 250 lbs). Kansas as a team had seven blocks.

McCormack's second block of the game came when Trey Alexander tried driving to the basket but was denied to keep the score 75-72 with 33 seconds remaining.

Those missed opportunities in the paint and from mid-range are ultimately what prevented Creighton from being able to pull off the upset.

Despite the difficult ending to the season, the future does look very bright for the Bluejays.

The Big East isn't a particularly deep conference right now. Villanova is the most reliable team from season to season, but the door is open for someone to take the No. 2 spot in 2022-23.

If Creighton returns its key players next season, there's no reason to think this team won't be a championship contender after the development from Kaluma, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Ryan Nembhard over the course of this year.

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What's Next?

Kansas will play the Richmond-Providence winner in the Sweet 16 on March 25.