Dan Hurley knows what a team must have in order to win a National Championship, and the UConn head coach thinks the St. John’s basketball team has some of the characteristics to win a title.
The No. 10 Johnnies downed UConn on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, 89-75, for the second time this season and swept the regular season series with the Huskies for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.
Hurley watched as St. John’s was more physical with his team and threw off its entire offensive rhythm, shooting 39.0-percent from the floor and 26.1-percent from 3-point range.
“They’re elite,” he said about the Red Storm’s defense. “They’ve got a championship level defense.”
“They’ve got championship level offensive rebounding and, obviously how their season goes from here – in large part – is going to come down to being able to make enough shots from the perimeter.”
On this day, St. John’s was more than ready for the challenge of making 3-pointers, hitting 8-of-16 in the first half while building an 18-point advantage behind 50 points. Its shooting didn’t necessarily carry over to the second half, attempting only three triples.
“If they shoot the ball like that from the perimeter, they’re going to be a problem for anyone.”
The Johnnies landed 15 offensive rebounds in the victory that turned into 23 points despite being outrebounded by UConn for the second time this season, 39-36.
“Obviously they’ve had a dominant Big East regular season. They had a pretty good non-conference run there, but it’s hard to prepare for their physicality and their defense,” Hurley added.
In its two games this season, St. John’s forced 40 turnovers from UConn – 18 coming on Sunday afternoon that resulted in 24 points for the Red Storm.
“The press is one thing, it’s disconcerting to start your possession, just surviving to get the ball inbounds versus the pressure, but then I don’t even think it’s the full court pressure with them, I think it’s the positionless switching that they’re able to do on ball, off ball.”
The two rivals could meet again in three weeks at the Big East Tournament, an event the Red Storm have not defeated the Huskies in since 2010.