Stephon Castle gets hyped up as Liam McNeeley scores more than half of UConn's points in Dan Hurley's first Omaha win vs Creighton

UConn Huskies swingman Liam McNeeley may have just solidified his case as the 2024-2025 college basketball season's Rookie of the Year. Earlier on Tuesday, the freshman went on an absolute tear in the Dan Hurley-coached team's 70-66 Big East conference win over the Creighton Bluejays, marking the first time Hurley would beat their opponent in the away arena.

Playing all but two minutes of the entire fixture, McNeeley dropped a career-high 38 huge points on 12-for-22 overall from the field, including five 3-pointers, 10 rebounds, an assist and a steal. The forward out of Richardson, Texas scored more than half of his team's 70 points total.

Following the game, McNeeley garnered praise from all corners, including Stephon Castle, a former UConn standout and current San Antonio Spurs player. The NBA rookie shared his support for the 6-foot-7 swingman through X, where he wrote:

"LIAM MF MCNEELEY," with a dog and telephone emoji.

Castle is going through his first stint at the league after playing a one-and-done season for Hurley in the 2023-2024 campaign, where they would eventually go all the way and win the national championship.

Hurley's team were no longer nationally ranked for the first time since the start of the 2022-2023 season, following a 68-62 loss to the St. John's Red Storm on Friday. This meant that McNeeley's 38-point explosion was even more important in preventing them from suffering consecutive defeats like they did at the Maui Invitational.

With praise coming from many people, McNeeley has more up his sleeve considering that this was his first game after missing eight games.

Liam McNeeley joined elite college basketball company on Tuesday

Per OptaSTATS on X, Liam McNeeley has joined NBA legends Steph Curry and Kevin Durant in being the only three Division 1 freshmen in the last 20 years to have ever scored 30 plus points, five plus 3-pointers and grab 10 plus rebounds in an away game.

Given the talent, the freshman possesses, only time will tell if he will declare for the 2025 NBA Draft or if he will stay with the UConn Huskies program given the time he has previously missed.

For now, McNeeley and the rest of the team are preparing to face the Seton Hall Pirates on Saturday once again on the road.