"We're a shell of ourselves": Dan Hurley speaks candidly after Ryan Kalkbrenner's Creighton upsets UConn

Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies had their 28-game winning streak at home snapped on Saturday, losing 68-63 to the Creighton Bluejays at Gampel Pavilion. The Huskies had no answer for Jamiya Neal, who scored a career-high 24 points on the road.

Neal entered the contest against UConn averaging 10.9 points on 44.8% shooting. He more than doubled his offensive production against the Huskies, who lost for the second time in three games. Neal shot 10-for-16 from the field, including 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Dan Hurley rued the poor performance of the Huskies, who surrendered another late lead.

"Just the theme of our season where obviously we’re not who we’ve been. "I’m not sure if Liam (McNeeley) when he returns is going to be able to fix the lack of tenacity that we have right now."

"Coaches and players, as a program, we’re a shell of ourselves."

Dan Hurley also talked about Neal’s performance in the postgame press conference.

"Neal was the difference in the game and (Isaac) Traudt," Hurley said (Timestamp 0:36). "That rarely happens on the road where two guys that are averaging a combined 15 points scored a combined 35."

"So just in that first half, when we were doing a great job on [Ryan] Kalkbrenner and [Steven] Ashworth, we had a window there where we really should have been up six to eight points, 10 points at halftime. But Neal and Traudt killed us."

Hurley singled out the team's defense as UConn's main problem.

"From a defensive standpoint, we’ve only won a rebounding battle twice in Big East games. The bar is so low for us defensively. We’re just not a tenacious enough team. Long winning streak at home goes out the window, but this team wasn’t responsible for those long winning streaks."

Creighton's balanced offense dooms Dan Hurley's UConn Huskies

It wasn’t just Jamiya Neal who punished Dan Hurley and the No. 14 UConn Huskies as three other players scored in double figures for Creighton. Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to record his sixth double-double of the season. Steven Ashworth added 12 points and nine assists.

Creighton Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) and guard Jamiya Neal (5) look to the sideline as they take one the UConn Huskies in the first half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Photo: Imagn

Isaac Traudt provided the firepower off the bench, scoring 11 points in 22 minutes of action. He shot 3-for-6 from the field, including 2-for-5 from deep. He also made all three of his free-throw attempts.