STORRS, Conn. — The first trickles of sloshed and saddened UConn fans descended from the upper level of Gampel Pavilion with 3:11 remaining in a game that was supposed to reanimate the two-time defending national champions but instead devolved into the passing of a conference torch from one regional power to the upstarts from Queens. “F— it,” one man shouted as he waved an arm in disgust and slugged the last few gulps of his adult beverage, searching for solace in the dregs of $2 beer night. By then, the Huskies trailed by eight following a pair of free throws from Red Storm standout Kadary Richmond, a thorn in Connecticut’s side for the whole of his collegiate career, and nothing about the home team’s turnover-filled malaise suggested any kind of storybook comeback was in play.
But suddenly, Tarris Reed converted two free throws and Liam McNeeley flipped in a runner down the right side of the lane, shrinking the margin to four. The fans who’d begun their sullen march toward the exits reversed course and craned their necks to catch a final glimpse. Back and forth these old Big East rivals went in a choppy and frantic finish that left the Huskies needing one defensive stop to give themselves the chance to tie in the waning seconds. And that’s when St John’s assistant coach Bob Walsh drew up a brilliant play to free shooting guard RJ Luis Jr. for a baseline jumper that rippled the nets and ripped the hearts of anyone who clung to hope, restarting the Husky exodus en masse.
“[Luis] never met a shot he didn’t like,” St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said, “and there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make the shot. I was 100 percent sure he would make the shot.”
The 17-footer from Luis with 10.1 seconds on the clock lifted St. John’s to an eventual 68-62 victory that snuffed out any lingering questions about the veracity of Pitino’s group, which entered the week with a gaudy overall record but just a single Quad 1 victory on its résumé. But in disposing of No. 11 Marquette and No. 19 UConn in a four-day stretch — suffocating both with a corrosive blend of defensive intensity, rugged physicality and timely shotmaking — the Red Storm have authored the program’s finest and most nationally relevant moment in decades while simultaneously wrestling control of the Big East away from its last two regular season and tournament champions, respectively. St. John’s now sits alone atop the standings at 21-3 overall and 12-1 in the league while harboring realistic expectations of competing for titles both inside and out of the conference, a sentiment that seemed unimaginable before Pitino arrived from Iona two years ago.
The last time Pitino brought a team to Gampel Pavilion with this much anticipation surrounding the matchup was Jan. 29, 2011, for an old-school Big East showdown between No. 23 Louisville, where he coached for 16 seasons, and fifth-ranked UConn. An afternoon matinee before a sold-out crowd of 10,167 swiftly accelerated into a double-overtime classic as Cardinals point guard Peyton Siva contorted his body mid-air for a hanging leaner that forced the first extra session and later knifed into the lane for a right-handed jam that necessitated the second. Two more layups from Siva, whose seven field goals all came from inside the arc, secured a 79-78 win for the visitors.
So irritated was Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun with his team’s inability to impede the diminutive Siva, generously listed at 6 feet tall and 185 pounds, that he kneecapped the Huskies’ defensive effort in a memorable postgame retort: “I have no explanation for it — none,” Calhoun said. “If I did, I would have tried to solve it. I tried to use different centers, but they both got out of the way to make sure [Siva] had a clearer view of the rim.”
So elated was Pitino that his group persevered despite trailing by nine midway through the second half and surrendering 21 offensive rebounds — “We were totally, physically outmanned on the glass,” he said — that the eventual Hall of Famer spent a portion of his news conference waxing poetic about just how much he adored Louisville’s roster: “This is one of the gutsiest teams I’ve ever coached,” Pitino said. “I’m really lucky to coach this team.”
In spirit and diction alike, the sentiment that January day matched what Pitino said about his current team following a pugilistic win over Marquette on Tuesday night, kickstarting a week that will launch the Red Storm toward their highest ranking of the 21st century when new polls are released early next week. St. John’s overcame ghastly performances from the free-throw line (17-for-31, 54.8%) and the 3-point line (3-for-16, 18.8%) by bludgeoning the Golden Eagles for 36 points in the paint and a plus-22 rebounding advantage. Afterward, Pitino gushed about just how much fun his players are to coach, how he finds their demeanor “refreshing with the way they play, how hard they play,” and suggesting that his pride in this year’s team is on par with any other from an illustrious career that includes seven Final Four appearances and two national championships.
The sheer brutality of that game seemed to stun Marquette head coach Shaka Smart, who opened his postgame news conference after a 70-64 loss by praising the “incredible violence” and “force” with which the Red Storm had played. Such unfiltered poignancy from one of Hurley’s closest and most-respected colleagues struck the UConn head coach during his preparation for St. John’s. Long regarded as a snarling proponent of legalized aggression, Hurley encouraged his players to watch the movie “Gladiator” in preparation for the level of physicality they would encounter on Friday night. “It’s gonna be a war,” Hurley told them.
And the Huskies roared into battle. Buoyed and bolstered by the emotional return of McNeeley, a five-star recruit who missed nine games with a high ankle sprain, and a raucous crowd that wound snake-like lines through the concourse in pursuit of highly discounted adult beverages, Hurley’s team exploded for 24 points in the opening seven minutes by splashing five 3-pointers that built a double-digit lead. The home crowd of 10,299 throbbed and thrummed over the possibility of a season-defining week of its own, with the Huskies having notched an unexpected win over Marquette last Saturday.
But neither Pitino’s brow nor his immaculately tailored suit ever seemed to wrinkle, with the 72-year-old coach pacing miles along Gampel Pavilion’s sideline in his trademark stance: both arms behind his back, the fingers from one hand engulfed by the palm of the other, leaning forward at the waist to bark instructions and peck at officials. The coolness radiated from Pitino to a collection of players that appeared equally unflappable, even as the Red Storm ditched their original defensive game plan in favor of an unrelenting full-court press. When Pitino asked his team to harry and harass an undermanned UConn backcourt — with point guard Hassan Diarra limited by an ailing knee and the absence of a secondary ball handler — St. John’s responded by forcing 22 turnovers and transforming them into 18 points the other way.
“What the press has done for me for 40 years is it has worn people out legs-wise where they don’t shoot the ball as well,” Pitino said. “It’s always been the gift that my teams have had. If we can wear out their legs, they won’t shoot it as well. But they were coming at us and they were getting too many easy shots. So I felt the full-court press would take a little starch out of their shots, take a little time in the backcourt, make us ultra-aggressive. We pressed more tonight than we normally have, but that’s because of what they were doing to us offensively early on.”
Point by point, possession by possession, the Red Storm seized control of the game. They climbed out of the 14-point first-half hole with a barrage of mid-range jumpers from Luis, who made 10 of 21 attempts from the field for a game-high 21 points with a shot chart that effectively condemned what is considered analytically sound. They eroded a six-point second-half deficit when Richmond began wriggling his way through traffic for one brutish layup after another, scoring all 12 of his points in the final stanza. There was a six-minute stretch in the latter stages of the second half when Luis and Richmond combined to score 16 of the team’s 18 points. Even Hurley admitted that the Red Storm were physically stronger than UConn at seemingly every position on the floor.
“I think we look at the ball as food,” Luis said. “And we’re trying to just take it. I feel like we’re a bunch of dogs who play hard, and I feel like we just wanted it more than them.”
A missed layup from McNeeley with three seconds remaining ultimately sealed the Huskies’ fate, at which point reserve St. John’s center Ruben Prey began waving the remainder of the student section goodbye. In the handshake line, where Luis absorbed one playful shove after another from his adoring teammates, the exchange between Hurley and Pitino was uneventfully curt. They briefly embraced and then went their separate ways with both men understanding exactly why this game unfolded the way it did.
And then the celebration kicked into high gear as St. John’s assistant coach Taliek Brown began thumping chests with seemingly every player who walked off the court, each exchange more powerful than the last. It was a painful scene for the handful of UConn greats seated just a few feet away, behind the Huskies’ bench, as their former teammate reveled in another school’s victory. Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor and Rashad Anderson looked on as the starting point guard from their 2004 national championship team relished the Big East torch changing hands for at least one season.
“We’ve got it going right now,” Pitino said, “and we’re not gonna let it slide one bit.”
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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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