The St. John’s basketball team is playing its second game in four days week and each matchup was pegged as the ‘Game of the Year’ in the Big East.
First, the No. 12 Red Storm hosted No. 11 Marquette on Tuesday and immediately after its victory everyone’s attention turned towards a primetime matchup on national television in Storrs, Connecticut.
The Johnnies (20-3, 11-1 Big East) will play its first game of the season against the No. 19 Connecticut Huskies (16-6, 8-3 Big East) in a game that will have major implications on which team wins the Big East regular season title.
St. John’s currently holds a one game lead over Creighton while UConn sits two games behind the Red Storm. A loss would make things very difficult for the Huskies to catch the Johnnies with four weeks remaining in the regular season.
However, head coach Dan Hurley is not as consumed with the race for the regular season crown as much as he is with the challenges that his team will face against St. John’s.
UConn is expecting to have star freshman Liam McNeeley available for the first time since January 1 after suffering a high ankle sprain while guard Aidan Mahaney and Hassan Diarra are game time decisions. Freshman guard Ahmad Nowell will remained sidelined with an ankle injury.
It would be a shock if Diarra doesn’t play and the Huskies need him on the floor after its ball security issues on Saturday night against Marquette, committing 25 turnovers yet still winning by eight points on the road.
“Our ability to guard the ball, our ability to rebound the ball, and our ability to not turn the ball over,” Hurley told reporters on Thursday about his biggest concerns entering Friday night.
“We are going to be at a physical disadvantage.”
St. John’s has won games this year in which very little has gone right for them statistically, including its victory over Marquette in which they did not shoot efficiently from 3-point range or the free throw line.
The effort on the offensive glass remains one of the biggest advantages that St. John’s has in games, entering the game tied for 9th in the country in offensive rebounds per game, and forcing turnovers at a Top-15 rate in the nation.
Hurley compared St. John’s effort on the defensive side of the floor to Houston, one of the three teams that sits ahead of the Johnnies in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency.
It’ll be one of the best atmospheres in the conference this season when Rick Pitino leads St. John’s into Gampel Pavilion on Friday night (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX) as he looked to defeat the Huskies for the first time in his Red Storm tenure.