Teams go through shooting slumps in college basketball. Defensive ruts happen, too.
The UConn men have experienced both this season. And on Wednesday in the Big East’s biggest game of the year, the Huskies broke through with a statement, 72-40 decimation of 15th-ranked St. John’s inside a rocking PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford.
After a stretch of defensive regression that began in the first meeting of the league’s heavyweights, in which the Red Storm claimed an 81-72 victory on Feb. 7, the Huskies put the clamps on St. John’s on Wednesday. They allowed only 11 made shots from the field, just two in the second half and none in the last 17 minutes and 28 seconds. St. John’s 40 points were the lowest total for a Rick Pitino team in any of the 1,224 college games the Hall of Famer has coached.
UConn looked like a legitimate national title contender for the first time in months.
UConn lands knockout blows early in historic 72-40 Big East beatdown of St. John’s
“It was just our night. They obviously – it just starts snowballing on you when you have a night like this. Obviously we played really good defense on them and I thought we demoralized them a little bit when the score gets where the score got,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “I just think it was one of those nights where everything went great for us and everything went wrong for them. But we did a lot to make that happen.”
Tarris Reed Jr. played the way he needs to for the Huskies to win it all, scoring an efficient 20 points with 11 rebounds and six blocks and holding Zuby Ejiofor – who had 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the first meeting – to just six points and four rebounds. Solo Ball and Braylon Mullins hit shots and showed significant improvement on the defensive end. Alex Karaban came through in big moments as he’s done his whole career, Silas Demary Jr. played an all-around game and limited his mistakes, and Jayden Ross and Malachi Smith made an impact at both ends off the bench.
“We played better, they played worse (from the first meeting). We screwed up less things, we switched more things and did a good job of keeping the ball from getting all the way to the front of the rim. We felt like, in the first game, we gifted them so many points in the game on pick-sixes, stealing our ball and going and laying it in, stealing a reverse pass, going and laying it in, not being able to rebound a free throw – we did all those things in the first game,” Hurley said.
“It was like bad charity, people that take money and then don’t use the money for people they’re supposed to give it to. We did that (expletive) the first time. We didn’t do it this time.”
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Did Wednesday night change what the ceiling is for this UConn team?
“No,” Hurley said, citing the program’s 52-6 record in nonconference games, including the NCAA Tournament, over the last four years. “I just think the Big East is tough. It’s a grind, it’s physical, the people know us well, they know how we play offense. We’re a better nonconference team and an NCAA Tournament team than we are a Big East team.”
“I think our ceiling has always been winning big-time games and pushing for a Big East and even a national championship,” Demary said. “I think we just kind of went through a stretch of letting things slide, and when we kind of locked back in all the way and (started) doing the things we needed to do, our ceiling is what we showed tonight.”
Karaban finishes career 31-1 in Hartford
Wednesday was Karaban’s final game in Hartford, where UConn’s all-time winningest player has had the most success in his career, going 31-1 in the capital city.
That one loss came to a St. John’s team coached by Mike Anderson that went 7-13 in league play in 2022-23. The team heard boos as it came during the stretch of six losses in eight games that preceded back-to-back national championships.
It was a completely different environment on Wednesday, certainly the loudest home crowd of the season in a game where the Huskies gave their fans plenty to cheer about.
“This probably was like the best crowd I’ve been a part of. The crowd really showed out tonight, we greatly appreciate them and they really made a big advantage for us,” he said. “But yeah, that loss, we just got out-toughed, everything that (could’ve) went wrong, went wrong… It was bad, fans were leaving early, we got boos, yeah it was bad. It’s mixed in that January spurt freshman year, so I just include that in January and, not fun.”
Karaban will be recognized on Senior Night before the Seton Hall game on Saturday at Gampel Pavilion. He went through it last year, but there will be no option to come back this time.
“I definitely almost shed a tear coming off this court today, realizing all the great memories I had, all the great games I’ve played here. Just knowing I won’t play another game in here again, it hit hard for me,” he said. “Saturday, I try not to think about it. I can be emotional, so I think I probably will cry.”
Demary has textbook game as Huskies’ QB
Demary didn’t put too much pressure on himself knowing the ball security issues he’s had against St. John’s in the past, turning it over nine times in the Feb. 7 matchup after his career-high 10 turnovers against the Johnnies while at Georgia last year.
He only gave it away once on Wednesday, while the Huskies led by 30 with seven minutes left in the second half. He finished with seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.
“Silas has got a lot of weapons. This team is about balance, and Silas did the right things today. He took five shots, he got on the glass, he took care of the ball, he found his teammates. He quarterbacked the team today,” Hurley said.
