Roger Rubin: St. John's vs. UConn will be theater, and the Red Storm hope the show will have a good ending
St. John's men's basketball coach Rick Pitino and UConn mens' basketball coach Dan Hurley. Credit: Getty Images/Dustin Satloff
St. John’s and Connecticut will command the attention of the college basketball world when they collide Friday night before a sellout crowd at the Garden and a prime-time network television audience. This matchup between the Red Storm and the Huskies, the Big East’s two best teams, has been eagerly anticipated since they opened the season nationally ranked No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.
Much has transpired during the past three months. UConn has beaten a virtual who’s who of top programs, with its only stumble coming against top-ranked and unbeaten Arizona, and now sits at No. 3. The Red Storm came up short in every early high-profile game, tumbled out of the rankings and finally look right with an eight-game winning streak and the No. 22 next to their name.
One thing that should be lost on no one as the 8 p.m. tipoff approaches is that this game means much more for St. John’s (17-5, 10-1) than it does for the Huskies (20-1, 12-0).
Rick Pitino declared St. John’s “backs to the wall early” after the disappointing loss to last-place Providence on Jan. 3. And the Red Storm have responded in kind, knowing that they couldn’t drop any more games they should win lest they become a bubble team.
Pitino explained that mindset after the 12-point win at DePaul on Tuesday when he said, “I just stressed to them that this was a much bigger game than Connecticut, much bigger. If we [lost] this game tonight, it really hurts us. If we lose to UConn, it doesn’t hurt us.”
Unspoken is how much a win over the Huskies can help St. John’s.
On one level, the Red Storm would draw even with UConn in the loss column in the Big East standings; defending their conference title is a stated goal. But on a much higher level, there is the matter of NCAA Tournament positioning.
The Red Storm did themselves no favors early in the season with losses to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn and Kentucky. Right now their best win is at Villanova, and it’s tough to envision that getting better than a No. 5 or No. 6 seeding in the 68-team draw. But one win over the Huskies — a so-called “signature win” — would raise the ceiling on what Selection Sunday could look like.
Keep taking care of business and then beat UConn a second time on Feb. 25 in Hartford? It’s a Red Storm fan’s fever dream, but no one should get carried away. The Huskies are the heaviest lift St. John’s has attempted.
No Big East team shoots it better or defends the shot better than Connecticut. It has a pair of candidates competing with Zuby Ejiofor in the race for conference Player of the Year in center Tarris Reed Jr. and forward Alex Karaban, along with the conference’s top assist man in Silas Demary Jr. And no one has forgotten that coach Dan Hurley and the Huskies have won two of the last three national titles.
Hurley sees a heavy lift too in the Red Storm.
“What they put together is tailor-made for Big East Conference play: the rebounding assault on the glass, the relentless physicality, the style, the pressure. Obviously, this year’s team was built better than last year’s team,” he said Thursday. “We’ve turned the ball over this year way more than we should, and at times we have not been [great] on the backboards. Those are two things that St John’s exposes.”
Physicality will be a factor, as Ejiofor noted Thursday of his matchup with Reed when he said, “I’m going to try to impose my physicality and my will down there.”
Another factor will be the environment, one more intense than any of the new Red Storm players have experienced. Dillon Mitchell said, “The crowd plays a big part . . . supporting us, gives us a little extra push. [Some] know how it’s going to be tomorrow night. I don’t, but I’ve heard it from Zuby and Coach P.”
One of many St. John’s talking points is approaching every game the same. Mitchell was asked if the Red Storm can say that with a game of this magnitude and replied, “Technically, it is the next game on the schedule, yes, but it’s a big game. We’re both fighting over something and playing for something. So yes, it is a big game.”
As big a regular-season contest as St. John’s has played in a long time.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
