St. John's basketball victory against UConn lands over 1.4 million viewers

The rivalry between the St. John’s basketball team and the Connecticut Huskies has quickly become one of the best in the Big East since Rick Pitino’s arrival in Queens and fans around the country have acknowledged it.  

FOX Sports announced on Tuesday that the first installment of the rivalry this season drew over 1.45 million viewers on Friday night as the Red Storm rallied from a 14-point first half deficit to defeat UConn, 68-62.

It was the second most watched college basketball game on FOX this season, only trailing the Indiana vs. Purdue matchup from the week prior, and the fourth most watched Big East game in the history of FOX Sports.

The standalone window on national television certainly helped the network’s ratings.

St. John’s and UConn met in last year’s Big East Tournament Semifinal, which was the most difficult postseason game for the Huskies in its run of being back-to-back National Champions, and it drew 1.27 million viewers.

In comparison, the most watched college basketball game on ESPN this season was Duke’s blowout of North Carolina that generated 2.29 million viewers.

The Red Storm sit at No. 9 in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll and have won ten straight games entering its matchup on Wednesday night (6:30 p.m. ET, FS1) against Villanova. It holds a two-game lead over Creighton for 1st place in the Big East regular season standings after the Huskies upset the Bluejays on Tuesday night.

St. John’s and UConn will have another standalone game on national television for its second meeting of the season inside Madison Square Garden on Sunday, February 23 (12:00 p.m. ET, FOX).

The Red Storm have two more nationally televised games this season, including its matchup against Seton Hall on March 1 (2:15 p.m. ET, CBS) and the regular season finale on the road against Marquette on March 8 (TBA, FOX).