NEW YORK — Seven 3-pointers had already come and gone before the corner triple that finally broke UConn’s back. It was buried from the left corner with 1:36 remaining in the first half — only a few feet from where the two-time defending national champions stood slack-jawed in disbelief.
Associate head coach Kimani Young, lauded by his boss for many of the excellent game plans that he has compiled during the program’s historic two-year run, simply threw up his hands in a virulent blend of disgust and disbelief.
How had St. John’s, which entered the game ranked 343rd in the country for 3-point field goal percentage, suddenly transformed into the Golden State Warriors? How had a team that only eclipsed eight made 3s in a game six times all season (and only twice since Nov. 22, 2024) managed to explode for 24 points from beyond the arc in less than 19 minutes on Sunday afternoon, all but burying rival UConn before halftime?
None of it made sense, statistically speaking, which is why the Huskies built their game plan around letting the Red Storm's cadre of subpar shooters fire away. If RJ Luis Jr. (26.6%), Kadary Richmond (21.9%), Aaron Scott (29.7%) and Simeon Wilcher (30.8%) were happy enough to launch from 3-point territory rather than bullying their way into the lane, then opposing head coach Dan Hurley was more than happy to let them. To Hurley and his staff, the strategy was mathematically sound. Until, of course, it wasn’t.
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In a sign that perhaps Rick Pitino’s team could last far longer in March — or even April — than most people are currently anticipating, the Red Storm ignited for their most complete performance of the season during an 89-75 undressing of UConn that leaves them within a whisker of capturing the school’s first outright Big East title since 1985.
A quintet of double-figure scorers powered the Red Storm to a 50-point first half and a lead that stretched to 22 points in the opening minutes of the second, reducing what many expected to be a nip-and-tuck affair into the kind of beatdown that Hurley won’t soon forget. The fact that St. John’s married such an offensive outburst (46.9% shooting) with the arresting defense it has inflicted on opponents all season (11 blocks, 11 steals, limited UConn to 39% shooting) should serve as a warning shot across the bow of college basketball at large just three weeks from Selection Sunday. When the Red Storm play like this, it’s nearly impossible to beat them.
"You play against this team with that defense and that rebounding and those type of wings and [Zuby] Ejiofor [in the post] and the pressure they can put on the paint," Hurley said, his thoughts dangling in midair. "If they shoot the ball like that from the perimeter, they’re going to be a problem for anyone."
Though Sunday’s eruption against the Huskies was arguably the Red Storm's finest offensive performance of the season, especially from beyond the arc, a trio of preceding games against DePaul, Creighton and Villanova suggested Pitino’s team was beginning to trend in the right direction after bricking its way through most of the winter.
St. John’s drilled 26 combined triples during that three-game stretch, including 11 against the Wildcats, after only averaging 4.7 made 3s per game over its previous six contests. The Red Storm ranked well outside the top 350 nationally in percentage of points scored via the 3-point shot at less than 24% overall, clustered among the likes of Milwaukee, Mississippi Valley State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
But Pitino connected the uptick in potency to the healthy return of point guard Deivon Smith, a lightning-quick transfer from Utah saddled with shoulder and neck injuries since the turn of the year. In Smith, the Red Storm have a ball handler whose first step is nearly indefensible for opposing guards, which almost always draws rotations from weak-side defenders. That’s when Smith, who led St. John’s with eight assists against UConn, willingly dishes to open shooters on the perimeter. Smith’s five assists in the first half all led to 3-pointers: three for Luis and one apiece for Scott and scarcely used reserve Lefteris Liotopoulos.
"Deivon Smith is so fast off the dribble," Hurley said. "He’s like an American ninja, you know? These guys, you’ve gotta pick your poison. It’s a dangerous proposition, and you play the numbers. For us this year, with our defense, we can’t take everything away. We’ve got to pick something that we want to try to take away [and we chose to defend the paint]. And they stepped up and made them [from the perimeter]. They haven’t shot like that a lot, but credit them, they stepped up and made them."
With each successive 3-pointer, more and more electricity coursed through the sold-out crowd of 19,812 that was fending for the program’s first regular-season sweep of UConn since 1999-2000 under former coach Mike Jarvis.
The energy had radiated through Madison Square Garden for hours since shortly after 10 a.m., when thousands of UConn fans arrived in New York by train and began mingling with a fan base that is reveling in the program’s resurgence, gobbling up tickets at rates unseen for decades.
Such a reinvigoration of the Red Storm faithful produced the kind of one-sided crowd support that clearly favored Pitino’s squad, an overwhelming ratio that would have seemed downright laughable prior to his arrival two seasons ago — especially when facing a Connecticut team that had won eight straight in this building, most of which felt more like home games courtesy of robustly pro-Huskies gatherings.
An electronic billboard outside The Garden’s freshly remodeled entrance advertised this matchup as another sellout for St. John’s, the latest in a string of them amid this magical season with sky-high expectations. Film director Spike Lee meandered to his courtside seat more than an hour before tipoff during early warmups and shook hands with several admiring UConn players between the team’s stretches. Former New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury was here, too, another celebrity ensnared by Pitino’s gravitational pull.
Spike Lee was at Madison Square Garden to watch St. John's handle UConn. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
Chants of "Let’s go Johnnies!" and "F--- UConn!" rang around the arena amid the first verse of the national anthem. "This is our house! This is our court! This is our city!" the public address announcer bellowed in the waning seconds before tipoff. The Red Storm student section, which passed around a cardboard cutout of notable alum Mike Repole, the billionaire booster spearheading the program’s NIL efforts, launched into a chorus of "F--- Dan Hurley!" during UConn’s first defensive possession — and several more times after that.
"I can assure you we had most of the fans today," Pitino said. "We did not last year, but it was about 70-30 this year. [The Huskies] are a great fan base. I mean, they are like Kentucky, the Kentucky of the East. They travel great, they show up, but our fans were there in a big way tonight."
Never were they more appreciative than during St. John’s second-half push, which thwarted the only sliver of momentum UConn generated and narrowed the margin to nine at 62-53 with 12:36 remaining. That’s when Pitino called timeout and began reminding his team about the number of close games they’ve already survived this season, which includes seven single-digit victories.
His message was interrupted by Ejiofor, the hulking center who racked up 18 points and nine rebounds — while also drawing seven fouls — to provide the ballast for when Pitino’s team cooled from 3-point range in the second half. Ejiofor told his teammates, "We don’t wilt," a message that his coach wholeheartedly endorsed, and the Red Storm quickly pushed the lead back to 20 in the waning minutes.
In the end, UConn walked dejectedly off the court following the final whistle, its season once again at a crossroads. Pitino’s team had sent them to the train station early with white-hot perimeter shooting.
"We want this Big East crown badly," Pitino said. "Not only for the players, but for the fans who came back like I never expected. So we’re very excited about being in the hunt."
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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