MADISON SQUARE GARDEN (NEW YORK) — Profanity-laced chants directed at UConn head coach Dan Hurley began ringing around the arena during the national anthem, at times overshadowing a tremendous rendition of the song. “F— you, Dan!” one St. John’s student shouted, alcoholic beverage in hand. “F— Dan Hurley!” a few others answered.
The modern Big East’s most thrilling rivalry came to life before the ball was even tipped.
It didn’t used to look and feel this way inside The World’s Most Famous Arena, where a sell-out crowd on Friday night bathed the building in red. The split, according to St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, was “90-10” in favor of the Red Storm. That certainly didn’t happen in years gone by, when legions of fans supporting UConn — a program that refers to Madison Square Garden as “Storrs South” — routinely filled the seats after a short train ride into Grand Central Terminal.
Two seasons ago, though, the hiring of Pitino changed all that. He injected a dormant program with life, with verve, with expectations and — most importantly — with the same level of winning he’s experienced across more than five decades of coaching. There were 20 wins in his first season and 31 in his second, a campaign punctuated by Big East regular season and tournament titles. Suddenly, gobs of New Yorkers began hawking tickets that used to be purchased by opposing fans. That’s why this environment roared and reverberated, rocked and rollicked as No. 22 St. John’s completed an upset of No. 3 UConn, 81-72, to snap the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak and reopen the Big East race.
“I thought The Garden was as good as I’ve seen it,” Pitino said.
Here are my takeaways:
1. This was a historic victory for St. John’s
Dillon Mitchell #1 of the St. John’s Red Storm dunks in the first half against the Connecticut Huskies. (Photo by Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
As reporters congregated in the media room following the final buzzer on Friday night, waiting for the postgame news conferences to begin, a member of the St. John’s athletic communications department began contextualizing the team’s victory for all to hear.
Not since the 2020-21 season had St. John’s beaten a team ranked third or higher in the AP Poll. Not since the 2010-11 season had the Red Storm beaten a team ranked third or higher in a game that was played at Madison Square Garden. And not since the 1999-2000 season had the Johnnies won three consecutive games over UConn, a streak Pitino’s team matched on Friday night after sweeping both matchups last year. What St. John’s accomplished here before a sold-out crowd embodied everything the program has become under Pitino.
“Everybody from top to bottom was really engaged,” St. John’s center Zuby Ejiofor said. “The moment when the buzzer sounded and it was over and you realize that you just beat a really well-coached team, all the emotions really just flew out of me. I can’t really remember what was done or what was said. But I just let it all out. Just a fantastic atmosphere to be in.”
Historical significance aside — this was also Pitino’s 903rd career win, tied with Roy Williams for third-most all time — the Red Storm’s victory should prove incredibly important in the race for this year’s regular season conference title. UConn entered Friday’s game with an unblemished 12-0 mark in league play, which was the program’s best start to a Big East slate since 1995-96, and it was good enough to give them a 1.5-game advantage over St. John’s.
Now, the two teams are tied in the loss column with only four weeks remaining before the Big East Tournament. It’s entirely possible that the rematch at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford will effectively crown the league’s regular season champion.
2. Zuby Ejiofor stakes his claim as the Big East’s best center
Zuby Ejiofor #24 of the St. John’s Red Storm reacts following their 81-72 win against the Connecticut Huskies. (Photo by Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
There is a drill that UConn’s frontcourt players and coaches work through prior to each game, long before fans have entered the arena. Some of the assistants surround the 3-point line, whipping the ball from side to side in simulation of a normal possession. Others protect the paint as one Husky center at a time fights for position on the block. Each rep ends with some form of entry pass and a finish around the rim.
In this particular setting, fouls are nonexistent. The staffers hack, claw, scratch and nearly tackle the shooter on every attempt. UConn assistant coach Luke Murray, who works directly with the big men, is the most violent with his attempted pilfers, talking trash all the while. The level of physicality players push through in warmups is designed to be even greater than what Big East officials will eventually allow once the ball is tipped.
And while there are pugilistic matchups across the league — Seton Hall might play with more raw force than anyone under head coach Shaheen Holloway — the drill was always going to be most applicable when the Huskies faced St. John’s, a team with arguably the best and brawniest center in the league: Zuby Ejiofor, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound chiseled statue who was picked as the Preseason Player of the Year in the Big East and entered the night averaging 15.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. How well UConn centers Tarris Reed Jr. and Eric Reibe could, or could not, contend with Ejiofor seemed likely to play a significant role in determining the outcome.
What followed was a 35-minute masterclass from Ejiofor in which he cemented himself as not only the league’s best post player, but one of its best players, period. Ejiofor poured in 21 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and tied a career high with seven assists, stuffing the stat sheet even further with three blocks and two steals. He singlehandedly outproduced UConn’s pairing of Reed and Reibe, who combined for just 14 points and seven rebounds.
“You know you’re gonna make me retire,” Pitino said in his postgame news conference, turning to face Ejiofor, who sat beside him on the dais, as he spoke. “Because I’m not living life without you.”
3. Dylan Darling is an unsung hero for St. John’s
Silas Demary Jr. of the Connecticut Huskies drives to the basket as Dylan Darling of the St. John’s Red Storm defends in the second half. (Photo by Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
When Pitino assembled the nation’s top-ranked transfer class last spring, few people in the college basketball world focused their attention on Dylan Darling, an unheralded addition from Idaho State and Washington State before that. Darling was rated the No. 419 overall player and No. 69 point guard in the portal, per 247Sports.com — hardly a needle-mover within a group of newcomers that included four other players ranked among the top 60.
And yet, aside from Ejiofor, whose impact against the Huskies was irreplicable, an argument can be made that Darling was the second-most influential player for St. John’s in just under 21 minutes off the bench. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Darling applied gnat-like defensive pressure in his matchup with UConn point guard Silas Demary Jr., who scored a team-high 18 points but also turned the ball over nine times — a number that prompted Hurley to describe the overall performance from his primary ball handler as “the f—— great adventure” and “a roller coaster ride.”
One of the crowd’s biggest roars of the night came when Darling picked Demary’s pocket near midcourt and then dove to the floor to secure the loose ball. He also made a clutch floater to give St. John’s a 64-60 lead with 6:06 remaining and then buried a dagger 3-pointer three minutes later.
“He’s a great point guard, you know?” Hurley said. “That guy is a heck of a player. And to be able to do what he does, [with] whatever his minute situation is game to game — when they need that guy to step up, I mean, he made a huge difference in that game.”
So much so that Pitino expanded on his colorful description of Darling from last month, when the backup guard scored 11 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists in a narrow road victory over Xavier. On that night, Pitino said Darling has “balls as big as church bells” because of how unflappable he is during critical moments. And on Friday night, after Darling made one winning play after another, Pitino said those church bells “just keep growing and growing.”
“His level of wanting to take over a game is amazing to me,” Pitino said. “He comes off a play, breaks the play and goes to the rim. Makes a great steal, gets to the floor [for the loose ball]. Makes a big 3. It’s really amazing what he’s doing right now.”
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4. UConn’s high-level defense has an Achilles’ heel
Zuby Ejiofor #24 of the St. John’s Red Storm handles the ball as Tarris Reed Jr. #5 of the Connecticut Huskies defends. (Photo by Evan Bernstein/Getty Images)
Even after allowing 81 points to St. John’s on Friday night and 81 to Providence fewer than two weeks ago, UConn ended the evening with a defense still ranked fifth nationally in efficiency behind only Michigan, Arizona, Duke and Michigan State. The Huskies remain incredibly proficient at defending the 3-point line (sixth), forcing opponents into difficult 2-point shots (14th) and blocking shots (12th). They are, unquestionably, one of the best defensive teams in the country.
But UConn also has one undeniable, unavoidable flaw on that end of the floor — an Achilles’ heel that proved too difficult to overcome when facing a St. John’s team ready and willing to attack the rim with aggression: The Huskies cannot seem to defend without fouling. They committed 23 fouls on Friday night, which led to 22 points at the free-throw line for the Red Storm, a plus-17 advantage over UConn. And when this game was factored into the formulas used by KenPom, the Huskies careened all the way to 314th nationally in opponent free-throw rate.
“Will you pay the fine?” Hurley said when asked about the officiating. “How many reprimands am I on right now? There’s just a couple of [plays], like when Silas [Demary] is driving down the lane and he gets fouled by two different people. And I thought Alex [Karaban] got fouled on at least one of those two drives in the paint [during crunch time]. And then when we fouled, they called it. We’re undisciplined as a fouling team.
“A lot of it has to do with St. John’s. I mean, they’re grown-ass men. [Dillon] Mitchell, [Bryce] Hopkins and Ejiofor, when you have to play them in Big East games, the way that the game is going to be officiated in conference play, I mean, they’re built for Big East games.”
Those three players combined to draw 17 fouls by themselves on Friday night — two more than UConn’s entire team.
4½. What’s next?
The Huskies will return to action Wednesday night at Butler for the first of three consecutive games against teams with a combined conference record of 16-21 — a reprieve of sorts before embarking on a difficult finishing kick. UConn’s closing stretch includes tricky rematches with Villanova, St. John’s and Seton Hall, all of whom are in the top four of the league standings, across a seven-day stretch in late February before the regular season finale at Marquette.
St. John’s, meanwhile, has a tight turnaround before hosting Xavier on Monday night in the second father-versus-son coaching battle of the season, with the Musketeers coached by Richard Pitino. The first such matchup ended as an 88-83 victory for the Red Storm last month. The rematch with Xavier marks the beginning of a considerably more favorable closing stretch for St. John’s in which six of the final eight games will come against teams with league records of .500 or worse entering this weekend.
