NEW YORK — Dan Hurley.
Madison Square Garden.
There, that’s all the “click bait” I’ve got for you today. All the efforts to stir up St. John’s fandom, fill the World’s Most Famous Arena with at least half the crowd in red and cheering for the home team and bring the electricity back to Broadway were successful for Pitino. This Saturday matinee, the not-such-a-grudge-match between St. John’s and UConn had all of that.
But, Pitino noted, “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being a rival with them. As far as the crowd, I’m very appreciative of the fans they brought down and sold out Madison Square Garden. I think it could become a rivalry someday, but it’s not now.”
UConn men pull away for 10th straight win, 77-64 over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden
No, right now, with UConn the defending national champs, ranked No.1 in the polls and on a 10-game winning streak, St. John’s, in Year 1 of Pitino’s rebuild, is not even as close as the Huskies 77-64 victory on Saturday before 19,812 fans would indicate.
The Huskies did not have Alex Karaban, the “brain center of our team,” Hurley called him, not to mention a clutch shotmaker and the center in a small lineup. Both their big men, Donovan Clingan and Samson Johnson, were on the bench with four fouls and still nearly 10 minutes left.
Yet with a super-small lineup, the Huskies pulled away. That’s championship toughness, and that’s where UConn is right now. Even if the Huskies should be ripe for an upset, they will never be low-hanging fruit.
“When you’re not where our program is now, and you have a big player out of the game, you start making excuses,” Hurley said. “It’s, ‘Okay if we lose.’ Hell, no. We came here to win.”
So freshman Stephon Castle, who is becoming the lottery pick talent he was projected to be right in front of our eyes, scores 21. Cam Spencer, the fiery transfer, scores 23 and Tristen Newson gets 18, with 10 rebounds and seven assists and the Huskies win going away.
“Just find a way to tough those games out and win those games,” Castle said. “No matter what lineup we have on the court. We might be a liability in the post because we have a smaller lineup, but then they have to come guard us on the other end. So whatever five we have out there, I think we can get it done.”
Pitino’s take was correct, at the moment. As was Hurley’s and Castle’s. It won’t always be so. Castle and Clingan will probably be gone via the draft next season, maybe Karaban, too. Newton and Spencer will be done with college. Hurley will be starting almost from scratch, which puts a premium on maximizing the opportunity that is before the Huskies now.
St. John’s, not bad now, will only get better as Pitino learns how to work NIL and the transfer portal as only the slick operator he is can do.
And when that happens, UConn-St. John’s will be a rivalry as it should be, a fight for recruits, hearts, minds and all elements of branding in and around New York. As an unscientific analysis of the sellout crowd, it looked and sounded about 60-40 St. John’s, with the lower bowl almost all in red. In the second half, as the Huskies pulled away after 17 lead changes, it was obvious there were close to 50 percent UConn fans, distributed through both levels.
Sure feels like home pic.twitter.com/oPrCM5FESp
— UConn Men's Basketball (@UConnMBB) February 3, 2024
It’s easy for UConn fans to get to Manhattan, and in any neutral site game they will take over The Garden, where they are now 4-0 this season. But this was a St. John’s home game, and this is what Pitino was hired to do.
And he did it like an old time Garden boxing promoter. After a closely contested loss in Hartford on Dec. 23, he characterized the national champs as a “decent” team. Then he said he intended to play UConn at his small on-campus gym next year.
The message to St. John’s fans: If you want to see us at the Garden, you better buy up the tickets and show up. He kept fanning the flames, too. Arguing with the refs, he said, was a “form of cheating,” seemingly a ploy to bait Hurley. Then on the eve of the game, Pitino claimed UConn had complained to the Big East about his plan to move the game out to Queens. That brought eye-rolls from AD David Benedict and all others connected with UConn. St. John’s own administration would likely balk at the loss of revenue, and the Big East has a vote in where high-profile games are played when a team uses two venues.
So this game isn’t going anywhere, but all of it was so audacious, so preposterous, you had to admire it. Hurley promised Friday not to provide “click bait,” but he knows such a promise is click bait in and of itself.
And results of all this, nearly 20,000 clicks of the turnstiles, even if though they don’t use turnstiles any more, spoke for itself.
“It was an awesome atmosphere,” Hurley said. “And it’s what you would hope these St. John’s-UConn games going forward would be. This program here is well on it’s way to competing at the top of the league and there are going to be some great battles over the next couple of years, and you look forward to it because a great St. John’s team at MSG is great for the Big East and great for college basketball.”
Another dub in NYC. @UConnMBB pic.twitter.com/ieIAomd4uz
— BIG EAST MBB (@BIGEASTMBB) February 3, 2024
Pitino, 71, and Hurley, 51, engaged in a polite postgame greeting, and unless they meet in the Big East tournament, that will put all this to rest for now. But this rivalry-to-be won’t go away.
And it won’t be like this forever, either, but this, too, speaks for itself: This is UConn’s time, and still UConn’s place.
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