Big Easts elite teams are still a notch above improving St. John’s
For a fair chunk of Saturday afternoon, you didnt even need to see the basketball game taking place on the floor of Madison Square Garden.
For the first 28 or so minutes, as St. Johns desperately tried to look Connecticuts Huskies in the eye, you couldve closed your own eyes for long stretches of time, simply listened to the wonderful symphony of old-school Big East ball, let it take you away.
I got goose bumps during the anthem, UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
A great atmosphere for a college basketball game, St. Johns coach Rick Pitino agreed.
Of course, once you opened your eyes again what you saw shouldnt have surprised you. The Huskies are the No. 1-ranked team in the sport right now, and thats nice. They are also one of a mall handful of teams who can expect to still be playing on the final weekend of the season in Phoenix come April. Thats better.
Theyre better than us, Pitino said with a shrug, and that four-word summary really does tell much of the story of this 77-64 victory for UConn, now 20-2, which managed to roll on despite the absence of Alex Karaban.
4Dan Hurley said St. Johm’s is on its way to competing at the top of the conference. Robert Sabo for NY PostThey may have shared an area code 212 and a ZIP code 10001 for 2 hours and 3 minutes, but the Huskies and Johnnies reside in far different properties within the college basketball grid.
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Connecticut has already scaled its highest summit, and is now merely defending what it has, and what its had five times in the last 25 years.
St. Johns is still at a staging area at the base of that mountain. It is a flawed team ensnared in the toughest part of its schedule, and its showed. Its lost five out of six, and only the Xavier game from last week stands out as one that felt like a whiff.
The Red Storm are still a team that controls its NCAA Tournament destiny, but whatever margin of error they once had as recently as two weeks ago is gone. They need to start winning games.
Playing DePaul, maybe the worst of all Power-6 teams, is a helpful start Tuesday. But there are eight games waiting thereafter. Its hard to believe theyd still be on the right side of the bubble if they win any fewer than five of them.
4Rick Pitino said UConn was “better” than St. John’s. Robert Sabo for NY PostI think we come close a lot, Pitino said, and hes right the Johnnies have been right there with Creighton and with Marquette, and went to the final minute when they played UConn the first time, in Hartford.
Theyre No. 1 in the country. Theyre better than us, he said. That doesnt mean you cant beat the No. 15 team, though. We hope to get there someday.
Thats for then.
4UConn defeated the Red Storm 77-64 on Saturday. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConFor now, there is the reality that St. Johns resides squarely in the Big Easts coach section, the curtain fully drawn between them and the triumvirate of Huskies, Bluejays and Golden Eagles easing their seats back in first class.
It means having to get to the other side of this. It means minimum sweeping the four games still to come against league dregs DePaul and Georgetown, it means needing to probably take two out of three of the games left against Providence, Seton Hall and Butler, all of whom they will be closely judged alongside on Selection Sunday.
And it would be helpful to steal one of the two remaining games against the conference heavyweights left on the schedule either at Marquette next Saturday or home to Creighton on Feb. 25.
Really, what it mostly means is this: They need to start playing better. They were good enough for 28 minutes Saturday afternoon, and for that stretch the Garden sure felt like a damn fine home-court advantage.
4St. John’s Red Storm fans cheer during the lineup introductions prior to the game. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConThe final 12 sounded like Gampel Pavilion South, which is exactly how its supposed to sound when theres 19,812 people and two rooting interests in the house.
This program here is well on its way to competing at the top of the league, Hurley, always a gracious winner, said of St. Johns. There will be some great battles over the course of the next couple of years here. I look forward to it.
Pitino, equally gracious in defeat, made a point of reminding everyone if anyone needed the prompting that whatever rivalry St. Johns-UConn is must be discussed in the future tense.
I dont think were anywhere close to being a rivalry, he said. This could become a rivalry someday. It isnt now.
It isnt. But for 28 minutes Saturday afternoon, you could close your eyes, let your ears do all the work, and let it take you away to a day when it certainly could be. For now, thatll have to be enough.
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