UConn is once again alone at the top of the Big East standings. Did you see how the Huskies got there? They did this by embarrassing St. John’s, ending the Red Storm’s 13-game winning streak and to bully Tuesday Game of the Night.
Final score: UConn 72, St. John’s 40.
The Red Storm were limited to just 11 field goals in 40 minutes after going 0-for-12 in the first half and then missing their final 24 — 24! — game field goal attempts. They shot just 19.6% from the field.
“Give [UConn] full credit,” said St. John’s coach Rick Pitino. “They played a great game. That’s probably only happened to me twice in my career.”
With the win, UConn improved to 26-3 overall, 16-2 in the Big East. St. John’s is 22-6 overall, 15-2 in the Big East. Both teams will be favored in each remaining regular season match. So becoming co-champions at 18-2 in the league remains a possibility because of Tuesday’s result. However, had the game gone the other way, the Red Storm would have had a two-game lead in the loss column of the standings and a strong hold on the outright Big East title.
So that’s it enormous from UConn.
It was a dominant win — one so dominant that Pitino thought he had only been on the wrong side of such a head coaching career once, which began at Boston University in 1978. The win pushed UConn to No. 10 in net, to No. 9 on KenPom.com, to No. 8 on BartTorvik.com and to No. 6 in Thursday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 daily college basketball rankings. which dropped Houston, Purdue and Nebraska one spot each in the Top 25 and 1, through no fault of their own.
St. John’s is now number 18.
Unless there is a big upset, the Huskies and Red Storm will be the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Big East Tournament. That means if they meet again, the next time will be March 14 in that event’s title match at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Top 25 and 1 rankings
Biggest movers
3
Connecticut
3
St. John
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