St. John’s is in the midst of a dream season. UConn knows a little something about dream seasons — and now the Huskies are learning about the challenge of rediscovering that form.
St. John’s will look to earn another signature win while UConn aims to slow down the hottest team in the Big East on Friday night, when the No. 12 Red Storm visit the No. 19 Huskies in Storrs, Conn.
Both teams are coming off wins against Big East rival Marquette. Host St. John’s edged the No. 11 Golden Eagles on Tuesday night while visiting UConn earned a 77-69 victory on Saturday night.
The win was the ninth straight for St. John’s (20-3, 11-1 Big East), which has its best record through 23 games since it was also 20-3 in 1985-86. The 11-1 conference record is the best through 12 games since 1984-85, when St. John’s reached its most recent Final Four.
The Red Storm’s best season in decades has been fueled by an old-school approach. St. John’s is shooting 29.6 percent from beyond the arc, which ranked 344 out of 364 Division I teams entering Wednesday. But the Red Storm rank fourth in the nation in defensive efficiency at KenPom.com and are pulling down 14.5 offensive rebounds per game, ninth-most in the nation entering Wednesday. St. John’s had 21 offensive rebounds Tuesday, leading to 16 second-chance points and 36 points in the paint.
Zuby Ejiofor had 13 rebounds Tuesday while RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond each collected 11 boards for St. John’s, which became the first Big East team this season to have three players finish with at least 10 rebounds in the same game.
“I’ve been proud of a lot of teams, but I’m so proud of this team,” said St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who has steered five schools to the NCAA Tournament and directed Kentucky and Louisville to national championships. “They are just so refreshing with the way that they play, how hard they play. They deserve all the credit in the world.”
Credit has been plentiful the last two seasons for UConn (16-6, 8-3), which is trying to become the first team to win three straight national titles since UCLA won seven straight from 1967-1973.
But the road to a three-peat has been arduous for the Huskies, who rank 119th in defensive efficiency, which would be their lowest ranking since Dan Hurley’s first season at the helm in 2018-19.
UConn has lost twice as many games as it did last season. The Huskies, who ended last season with a 13-game winning streak in which they won by double figures 11 times, have earned their eight Big East wins by an average margin of 6.8 points and overcame double-digit deficits in wins over Providence on Jan. 5 and DePaul on Jan. 29.
The Huskies never trailed Tuesday, but Marquette cut a 15-point lead to six points three times in the final 2:51. Solo Ball helped keep the Golden Eagles at bay by scoring 17 points in the second half.
“There was a stretch in the second half where it was like we weren’t desperate enough or urgent enough,” Hurley said. “It’s been the story of our season. These are the things that we haven’t done this year that our past teams have done. They were just way hungrier to the ball, especially in the second half. … I’m proud of the win, but we don’t play with that tenacity that our past teams have played with.”
–Field Level Media
