STORRS, Conn. — The last thing St. John’s did as a team early Friday night, just before taking the ride over to Gampel Pavilion, was pull up one last video.
But not of UConn.
Nor any other basketball team.
It wasn’t a video of any team, in fact.
It was the 400-meter men’s final from the 2024 Olympics.
The 400-meter dash is considered the most grueling race of them all. One full ring of fire around the track, the race pushing the human body to its physical limits, mandating an all-out sprint from start to finish. Bodies burn as lactic acid builds to the point of seizing muscle. It’s unlike anything else in sports, let alone track and field. Quincy Hall’s animated scramble last summer in the Paris night instantly became one of the most iconic races in Olympic history because of its visceral nature and movie-like ending.
That’s the last thing No. 12 St. John’s (21-3) watched before beating No. 19 UConn (16-7) on Friday night.
Rick Pitino wanted to show his team the exhilarating come-from-behind glory to remind them that their season is a race, but it’s also a sprint, and just like Hall, they’ve got it in them to win out. Even if they’re not at the front of the chase now, in early February. Game by game, St. John’s is gaining ground.
Watching Hall’s dash for gold turned out to be as symbolic as it was prophetic.
It was a proper motivational tactic for a Red Storm team that was sitting atop the Big East but facing its toughest challenge yet: ranked UConn on the road, with Huskies star freshman forward Liam McNeeley finally back after missing more than a month with a high-ankle sprain.
The Johnnies immediately fell behind in Friday’s race, if you will, a 26-12 deficit and a deafening Gampel being their reality eight minutes in. In that moment it seemed we were on our way to an outcome that would put the Big East up for debate.
Then St. John’s got its gait — and quickly made up ground.
“We don’t rattle when we’re down,” Pitino said.
After blasting out of the blocks, the Huskies were tracked down in the mud. St. John’s put on another devastating defensive masterpiece to win 68-62 and continue its best start in Big East play since the 1984-85 season.
That year, SJU went to the Final Four. Its last Final Four.
Friday night’s affair was sealed with 10.1 seconds to go, when RJ Luis scored the final two of his game-high 21 points after St. John’s put a wrinkle on a baseline out-of-bounds set that it had not shown the entire season.
Pitino deferred to his offensive coordinator, Bob Walsh, who calls all of SJU’s out-of-bounds plays.
“It’s called a ‘wrap,'” Walsh told CBS Sports. “RJ goes under and then curls back over to the rim, and most people follow him under the 5-man right in front of the ball. Then they’re trailing them and we [usually] just pop it up to the rim.”
Time and score: 64-62, three seconds left on the shot clock, 12.1 seconds to go. A missed shot is the more likely outcome in this scenario. A miss could have given a UConn team that finished plus-10 on the glass one more opportunity at a board and a chance to tie or win the game.
“I said, ‘RJ, they’re gonna go under because they know it’s coming,'” Walsh continued, referencing the UConn staff’s reputation for elite scouting. “‘They’re gonna expect you to go through. You’re just gonna bounce it to the corner, 15-footer.’ And he’s about as good as making that shot.”
Everything worked to perfection. Luis was clean off the screen, the wrinkle breaking him free with plenty of room to catch, gather, rise.
Swish.
“RJ never met a shot he didn’t like,” Pitino said. “There was no doubt in my mind he would make the shot. 100% he would make the shot.”
A St. John’s team that ranks 342nd nationally in 3-point accuracy and only made four of its 21 3-point attempts Friday night wound up clinching the game with their specialty: the mid-range shot. Luis’ bucket made it 66-62 and it was a wrap — literally — the last big play to keep UConn at bay, coming after a peppering of defensive paper cuts that forced the Huskies to take a painful seventh loss.
Ironically enough, Luis’ shot was one of two beautiful plays St. John’s pulled off Friday — the other being a devastating Kadary Richmond crossover on UConn big Tarris Reed to make it 56-62 with 4:27 to go. Richmond used a screen to get McNeeley out of the way, then put Reed on a skateboard with a hesitation move, dipped into the paint and went left-to-right, under the hoop, for a reverse layup. It was the prettiest bucket of the night.
Maybe that’s what will make this SJU team special. It’s winning games with gruel, grit and gumption. But a few times each game, Richmond, Luis or point guard Deivon Smith will bust a move that can pop you out of your seat.
The Johnnies’ 2024-25 ongoing takeover of the Big East is one of the bigger stories in college hoops at this stage. To come into Storrs and win this game after being down 26-12 is outrageous. The Red Storm was collectively stone-faced with Gampel going nuts and UConn — for about 20 minutes in real time to start the game — looking a lot like the past two teams that won national titles.
The defense, though. He’s doing it again. Pitino is creating a menace to face. This group has taken on the type of iron-tough defensive identity that some of his best teams at Kentucky and Louisville possessed.
“We look at the ball as food. We’re just trying to take it,” Luis said.
In light of this victory, the Johnnies are up to No. 2 in per-possession defense at KenPom. They deployed a full-court press Friday night, the likes of which hadn’t been used so far this season, Pitino said.
“We felt it could take legs out of their shooting, felt it could take time off the clock,” he said.
It did. St. John’s ended the game outscoring Connecticut 56-36.
“They’re a unique team that way,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “What’s made them so great in Big East play is obviously the physicality, one of the best defenses in the country and an awesome rebounding team.”
UConn was above 1.80 points per possession in the first eight minutes; it was less than .75 for the final 32. The Huskies were induced to 22 turnovers one game removed from having 25 in a win at Marquette. It’s the program’s most in consecutive games since giving away 48 against Indiana and Saint Peter’s in December 2019.
Sophomore sharpshooter Solo Ball had all 13 of his points in the first half. He’s one of the best 3-point archers in the country, but he couldn’t get a clean look after the break.
“They have about 65 different plays. That’s not easy to prepare for,” Pitino said.
They made it looked easier than it was. A UConn team averaging 19 assists was held to 11.
“We’re not good enough to dominate people from the start,” Pitino said.
But they’re good enough to suffocate many in the end. Pitino is famous for his high-endurance practices, conditioning his players to never tire even in the most competitive of games.
You could even say they look like track meets at times.
“The thing that’s great about this team is we take nothing for granted,” Pitino said.
We shouldn’t take them for granted either. On one hand it’s no surprise Pitino has pulled this off again, but consider how understandable it would have been if he never reached these heights after taking a St. John’s job that had fallen many rungs from its prestige in the 1980s and ’90s. This program hasn’t been relevant and dangerous this deep into a season since the turn of the century.
The drought is over.
St. John’s is turning out its best season in at least 25 years and remains atop the Big East mountain. This program won 20 games last season; it bested that with 21 by the seventh day of February — tying SJU’s mark for the most the wins in a season since 2000-01.
Pitino is again coaching a top-10 team, and if they keep playing this way, they’re going to take the Big East for the first time since 1992. The offense has its issues, but the defense if Final Four-good.
The season is far from over, but it can be officially declared: St. John’s is all the way back and one of the best stories in college basketball.
