Prior to the national anthem at Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday night, No. 5 UConn held a moment of silence for Kelly Dix, the late mother of Creighton men’s basketball senior Josh Dix.
Creighton decided against doing so at CHI Health Center Omaha for the two home games following Kelly’s passing because it “was hard enough on Josh already,” according to Coach Greg McDermott. However, when UConn reached out to ask Josh and Creighton if they could honor Kelly before the game, he gave his blessing.
“I want to start by acknowledging the class of recognizing a moment of silence for Josh’s mom before the game,” McDermott said to open his postgame press conference after the Bluejays’ 91-84 win in Storrs. “There’s a lot to like about the UConn program, and it is a program. It’s one of the best programs in the country. But I think that speaks to the people in charge of the program … That was unexpected and went above and beyond what anybody needed to do. So I really appreciate their athletic department and Coach [Dan] Hurley for doing that.”
Then Creighton went out and took it to the Huskies, leading for just over 23 minutes and by as much as 12 points en route to the seven-point win over a team favored by 15.5 heading in. It was just the second home loss for UConn this season, and first with its full rotation available. The Bluejays answered multiple UConn runs in kind, lived in the paint early and rained 3s late to take down a top-10 team for the 11th straight season.
“Obviously, they’re a much different team,” Hurley said. “I look at the way that they started league play, tonight looked more like the way they started league play. They dealt with some serious emotional pain, and it obviously affects the whole team, not just with Josh, but with Blake [Harper], with his loss as well. I’ve got so much respect for Creighton, for Mac, for their program, for the way they came into what was an awesome environment.”
Dix played his finest game as a Bluejay to lead the way in what was a total team effort. Josh hasn’t missed a game since losing his mom, though he said he couldn’t get through it alone.
“Basketball brings a lot of joy to a lot of people, so I think getting out there and playing with my teammates, that kind of takes your mind off a lot of stuff … They’ve meant a lot,” Dix said. “Something like this can either separate you or get you closer with teammates, and I feel like they’ve all been right by my side, and we’ve gotten closer through this. The last couple weeks haven’t been easy, but they stuck by my side, and I feel like we deserve this win.”
Dix scored a season-high 21 points on 6-of-10 from the field (3-of-4 from 3) and 6-of-6 from the line while grabbing eight rebounds. Thirteen of that total came in the second half, and each of his three 3-pointers felt like a body blow to a UConn team that eventually wore down. Dix has been fighting with his own shot most of the season even before the feeling of loss began weighing down on him, but he looked like his true self against the Huskies.
“Thirty-seven years, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of a player, and nobody deserved what happened tonight as much as he did,” McDermott told 1620 the Zone. “What he’s doing defensively for us, and we should all be helping him, but I think, in a lot of ways, he’s helping us through it. He’s just an incredible human being, and obviously a terrific basketball player. I couldn’t be more proud of him.
“I’ve been proud of a lot of teams in a lot of situations, but tonight’s different. Tonight’s different, for what we’ve been going through, where we’re at as a program and the struggles we’ve had the last couple, two or three weeks, to come together as a group. I think that togetherness and the way we were connected was a big reason we were able to get out of here with a win.”
One of those connections showed up in a big way in the clutch as Dix hit Harper in transition for the dagger 3 that gave Creighton a 10-point lead with 90 seconds to play. Harper lost his own mother to cancer in 2023, and his teammate’s loss has hit him especially hard as he’s reflected on everything he went through at the time — and what he continues to go through even three years later. The two have developed a close bond this season.
“I feel like I’ve known him for years … I told my dad the other day, we had the most important talk I’ve had in my lifetime, really, with this dude right here, and I love him unconditionally,” Harper said. “He’s got my back forever. I’ve got his and it’s a different type of bond, coping off trauma for real and just having that buddy that went through the same thing with you, and it makes a whole lot easier. I love that boy. He’s a soldier, for sure.”
Another word for soldier is “warrior,” which Dix has tattooed on his forearm in his mother’s handwriting. Kelly Dix was certainly a warrior, battling colon cancer for three years to be there for her family as long as she could, and her son has more than lived up to the title this season as he’s balanced off-court obligations with on-court struggle in a season that hasn’t gone according to plan, though certainly through no lack of effort on his part.
As he has on multiple occasions since Kelly’s passing, McDermott became emotional when fielding a question about Dix.
“He’s an incredible young man,” McDermott said. “A 21 year old should not have to do what he’s had to do the last few weeks. Starting with playing at Georgetown on the day he found out his mom passed, and he wanted to be in practice. He’s an incredible young man. He wants absolutely no spotlight on him whatsoever.
“But all of us on our staff, his teammates, they don’t understand now the lessons that they learned from how he’s handled this, but they’re going to look back on it at some point in their life, and it’s going to help them big-time. He’s been so strong, and you don’t expect to lose your mother when she’s 46 years old.”
Wednesday was just Creighton’s second win since Kelly’s death. The first came on Nik Graves’ game-winner at home against Seton Hall on Feb. 7. That shot gave the Bluejays a moment of solace and euphoria during a very difficult week, but four days later a loss at lowly DePaul (after 23 straight wins over the Blue Demons) snapped them back to harsh reality.
However, Wednesday didn’t require a crazy comeback, a prayer at the buzzer or some help from above. Instead, it was just 40 minutes of solid, determined basketball — the closest this year’s squad has looked to a vintage McDermott Creighton team.
“That locker room is still healing, and they needed a shot in the arm,” the head coach said. “We’ve struggled the last six or seven games, and we’ve been through a lot as a group. There’s been a lot of tears, and they needed something like this. It’s a great win for us. It’s obviously a hard road trip coming here and then going to St. John’s on Saturday, but to come here and get this win, like I said earlier, I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder of a group.”
