Akron’s Enrique Freeman Makes NCAA History in Pittsburgh

Freeman finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds to join Navy’s David Robinson, who set the record in 1986 and North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, who tied the record back in 2022 in the National Championship game against Kansas with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

“Obviously the accolades feel nice,” Freeman said following the game. “I’m just in real good gratitude with how this team, throughout the entire season, throughout my entire time here, we worked very hard, and I think we did something very special in Akron, and I’m glad we were able to put on for the city.

Despite the record-tying performance, Freeman and the 14th-seeded Akron Zips, who made the short two hour drive to Pittsburgh, could not hang around in the second half against No. 3 Creighton as the Bluejays went on to win 77-60.

The Zips were attempting to advance to the Round of 32 for the first time in school history as they trailed 39-34 at the halftime break. The loss drops 14-seeded teams to 32-121 all-time against No. 3 seeds.

Freeman, a Cleveland, Ohio native, was assigned to cover Creighton’s 7-foot-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner. However, the All-Big East performer was a matchup nightmare, scoring 23 points and bringing down eight rebounds.

“He’s a big player,” Freeman said about Kalkbrenner. “He has good size, but I think match-up wise, we did a good job. I thought the entire game tried to take away their good tendencies, but overall I think they just caught us in transition and they’re really good at the three-point line. So they hit some good threes.”

Creighton moves on to face the winner of No. 6 South Carolina and No. 11 Oregon as the 2024 NCAA Tournament continues with first and second round games in Pittsburgh.