St. John's faces tough task at UConn

Learning to play defense at the major-college level comes as a shock to the system of most incoming recruits, so imagine the problem for a St. John's team with five freshmen and one junior-college transfer in a seven-man rotation. But the Red Storm's young players proved they are willing to work at it in their 91-67 blowout of Providence in Tuesday's Big East opener.

Now St. John's kids will try to take a huge leap up against defending national champion Connecticut at noon Saturday in Hartford. The No. 9 Huskies (11-1, 1-0 Big East) have a significant size advantage and preseason All-American Jeremy Lamb, who is averaging 19.3 points and shooting 51.6 percent from the field, plus 6-10 freshman center Andre Drummond, a 60.7-percent shooter.

But freshman forward Moe Harkless says the Red Storm (7-5, 1-0) is up to the challenge. "A lot of people didn't expect us to win like that," Harkless said of the Providence game.

Describing the adjustment to the defensive demands of assistant coach Mike Dunlap, who is running things while head coach Steve Lavin recovers from prostate cancer surgery, Harkless added: "It's been tough, especially at first. We worked on defense the last couple practices."

Dunlap said St. John's recruits have a better grasp of the system and that he's trying to refine it by working on the tedious details of the 2-3 zone. "It's been really difficult for them just to stay on point with really long days with weights, the basketball, film, our notebook system," Dunlap said.

"It's like a class. We expect a lot, but to try and ascend in the Big East and be one of the better teams in the country takes an extraordinary effort, and you have to have talented players. That we have . . . We knew it wouldn't be easy with new players, but everybody watching our team is realizing they're improving."