UConn basketball, St. John’s meet again with massive Big East implications
HARTFORD – An off-putting aura snaked its way through the innards of PeoplesBank Arena Tuesday ahead of UConn basketball’s (25-3, 15-2) top 15 rematch with St. John’s (22-5, 15-1) on Wednesday night.
It was the type of feeling that had Dan Hurley, who insisted on standing exactly one foot in front of the podium lined with cushioned leather chairs for his pre-game media availability, tapping the wooden table behind him to ward off the malevolent jinxes that plagued his responses.
The air was thick and colder than usual – and it reeked of revenge. The court, which looked unusually cavernous surrounded by 15,000 empty seats, sat vacant under a lone spotlight that shined down on the Husky logo at mid-court.
It was the calm before the – literal and figurative – storm.
“For us, it’s about playing really, really hard,” Hurley said, looking through his eyebrows. “It’s about, when a shot goes up, hitting first rather than getting hit.”
Connecticut didn’t hit first three weeks ago, when it traveled to Madison Square Garden just to get punked by a St. John’s team eager to pounce on the haughty Huskies.
UConn, then ranked third in the nation, had its 18-game winning streak snapped at the hands of Rick Pitino’s vaunted, bottlenecking press defense, which forced nine Silas Demary Jr. turnovers and out-muscled the Huskies on the glass.
Hurley knows that his team can’t match the physicality that Pitino has embroidered into his surging Johnnies, but he knows how to work around it.
“Guarding the ball, guarding screening actions to the paint. They played a lineup with three guys that don’t shoot a lot of 3’s, don’t make a lot,” Hurley paused and shook his head. “To give up as much paint as we did – and free throw block outs, and turnovers, just getting the ball stolen from us; taken out of our hands and being picked.”
It’s safe to say he and his staff have studied the tape from Feb. 6’s drubbing on 7th Avenue. So how can Connecticut stave off St. John’s hopes at a second consecutive Big East regular season championship in Hartford?
What do the Red Storm not do well?
Well, it’s tough to poke a hole in the Johnnies’ hardy outfit. St. John’s hasn’t lost since its blunder to open Big East play against Providence on Jan. 3 and is riding the nation’s second-longest winning streak (13) heading into Wednesday.
Since that Jan. 3 loss, the Red Storm grade out as the 12th best team nationally on Bart Torvik, buoyed by its trademark hyper-aggressive defense.
Zuby Ejiofor, the runaway favorite for Big East Player of the Year and Pitino’s trusty on-court leader, is the crown jewel of St. John’s top-ranked paint attack, which ranks 6th nationally in second-chance points and 32nd in paint points.
“He leads his team in points, rebounds, assists and blocks,” Hurley said of Ejiofor. “The guy’s tenacious. He’s probably one of the most tenacious players in the country.”
Bryce Hopkins is there, too, and has scored in double-figures 11 times during the Johnnies’ win streak.
But the catalysts of the Red Storm’s midseason renaissance are defensive pests Dillon Mitchell and Dylan Darling, who tortured Connecticut in Manhattan three weeks ago.
“That guys is tough as nails,” Hurley said of Darling. “Clutch performer, he’s got a strong will, and he made huge plays (on Feb. 6). I thought it was a difference in our game at the Garden when things got tight and we climbed back to within a point or two, he made all the big shots, including the 3 off the dribble.”
But remember, St. John’s doesn’t shoot a lot of 3’s – and they don’t make a ton, either. The Red Storm rank 302nd in 3-point attempt rate (33.7%) and 167th in 3-point percentage (34.2%), and, conversely, rank outside the top 100 in 3-point defense.
It’ll be paramount for one of Solo Ball, Alex Karaban (preferably not the cargo ship variant) or Braylon Mullins to get looks from the perimeter early.
That is, if they play.
Hurley, with a wry smile, didn’t elaborate past the fact that there will be players on Wednesday’s injury report.
“We’ll let you know about that tomorrow,” said Hurley, referencing the Big East Injury Report that comes out three hours before tip-off. “Not going to help you today.”
Injuries notwithstanding, Wednesday’s game in Hartford has massive implications in the race for the Big East Regular Season Championship, which could be determined as early as Saturday evening.
“The true testament of a team, the resiliency and the fortitude of a regular season, especially a 20-game Big East regular season [is] the will of the men involved; the coaches, the players, the mental toughness, the physical toughness – all those things,” Hurley added. “The regular season championship is special in that way.”
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