There is too much season left for this to be the “Game of the Season,” just as there are too many decades to go to call anything the “Battle of the Century.”
But the first of the long-awaited 2026 showdowns between UConn and St. John’s, presciently pushed to the later stages of the season by the Big East, will be the most electric version of Friday Night Fights that Madison Square Garden has hosted in many a February.
It is possible to overstate the importance of this game, in fact, that’s what we do. But it may not be possible to estimate just how loud, how crazy, how wild this is going to get. It’s a St. John’s home game, but thousands from Connecticut will find their way in, just not as many as was the case before Rick Pitino.
“It’s UConn, Friday night, MSG, what else can you ask for?” St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor told the New York Post after the Red Storm won its preliminary against DePaul in Chicago on Tuesday night.
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While St. John’s was winning its eighth in a row, UConn put more distance between itself and the few less-impressive-than-normal victories in January. They faced Richard Pitino and the Xavier team he is trying to revive, and they won 92-60 at PeoplesBank Arena. It was perfect symmetry, facing the son before the Hall of Fame father; UConn handled Frank Jr., and now they get Sinatra at The Garden in the Main Event. Ticket prices have been rising all week, a sampling Wednesday night: $200-plus for two in the nosebleeds on Ticketmaster, $700-plus to sit down low, pushing $3 grand for a last courtside pair on StubHub.
“Now we’re going to play a team that is the best offensive team in the league,” Rick Pitino, St. John’s Hall of Fame coach, said in Chicago. “The best defensive team in the league, one of the elite teams in the nation. They don’t really have a weakness. They have two great centers, they have three or four great shooters they put out there. Different from last year, they’re a great defensive team now.”
Rick being Rick, every word of that UConn-pumping paragraph above only makes one more curious to see what he’ll have stashed up the sleeve of his black suit when he comes out to work the big room Friday night at 8 p.m.
And in the other corner, in the blue and white trunks, from Jersey City, N.J., will be Dan Hurley, two-time championship coach of the Huskies, best-selling author, the puncher going into the ring with a swagger after blowout wins at Creighton and over Xavier. UConn is 22-1, has won 18 in a row, is 7-0 in true road games, ranked third in the nation, and the coach is no longer lamenting a lack of killer instinct, but showing the lack of respect card.
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This is the same UConn team that won five of six against ranked teams in the nonconference, and leads the Big East at 12-0, isn’t it?
“Winning those games against teams, I see there are teams we beat that are ranked, efficiencywise, ahead of us,” Hurley said. “These analytical things to judge how good a team is, it seems strange because we beat those teams, but we haven’t always been good at beating average teams or not great teams by a lot. But the way we played against BYU (Nov. 15), the level we played for 25 minutes. I felt great coming out of the Illinois game (Nov. 28), the Florida game at The Garden (Dec. 9), winning at Kansas (Dec. 2). At times, the team has shown what we’re capable of.
“Now, we’re showing more dominance, we’ve cleaned up the rebounding, cleaned up the offensive end. This is closer to the expectations. But winning all those hard games, with Tarris (Reed Jr.) hurt, Braylon (Mullins) hurt, I was really high on he team. Not a lot of teams would have been able to do that because, look, we took care of business in the nonconference. So I’m proud.”
UConn’s only loss, with Reed and Mullins both out, came to top-ranked Arizona.
St. John’s, by contrast, did not do well in the nonconference. Ranked up high with UConn at the start of the season, picked first in the preseason Big East coaches poll, the Red Storm lost to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn and Kentucky, then lost early in the conference season to Providence. At the time, there was growing frustration over St. John’s point guard play, while transfer Silas Demary Jr. has been the difference-maker at that position for UConn. Now St. John’s has won eight in a row and back in the AP poll at No. 22.
“I feel great about our momentum,” UConn captain Alex Karaban said. “Obviously we’ve found our stride right now. St. John’s is a really good team, second in the Big East right now, really talented team, obviously well coached. We’re going to treat it as another Big East game, every single game in this league counts as one.”
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Mathematically, yes, that is certainly true. But just as the metrics are only one way to rank teams, the standings are only one way to gauge the significance of a sporting event. You know, this one just feels like a bigger deal. There are certain implications. Both coaches are long beyond having anything to prove, but they’re frenemies.
Pitino, 73, came to St. John’s to bring the electricity back to The Garden, retake it as home court, and this he has done. He came to challenge UConn at the top of the league and start winning his share, and this St. John’s did last year, winning the two matchups after losing three times to the juggernaut UConn national champs in 2024. Last season, St. John’s, a No. 2 seed, was ignominiously dumped from the NCAA Tournament by Arkansas in the second round, while underdog UConn went out after giving eventual champ Florida a tough second-round fight.
Now UConn and St. John’s go toe-to-toe again, and they will meet again on Feb. 25 in Hartford and then, it appears more than likely, yet again on March 14 in the conference tournament final right back at MSG. Within the context of college basketball in 2026, this feels like Ali-Frazier I, II and III in a six-week span.
Oh, it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be fun, it’s going to get crazy Friday night, right on the edge. No, it won’t be the end of the world, won’t be the end of the season, the loser of this game could still end up winning the whole thing … but, damn, is there another place on earth you’d rather be?
