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St. John's coach Rick Pitino didn't like the shots UConn was getting early on, didn't like the shots his usually incredible defense was allowing early on, didn't like his team eventually falling behind by as many as 14 points in Friday night's first half.
So he started pressing.
And then UConn started turning the ball over and never really stopped. By the time the final buzzer had sounded, the Huskies had given the ball away 15 more times than the Red Storm, which limited UConn to 14 fewer field goal attempts. And, as coach Dan Hurley more or less acknowledged afterward, if you take 14 fewer shots than a team as good defensively as St. John's has been this season, and then lose the points-off-turnovers battle by 18, you're not winning that game.
Final score: St. John's 68, UConn 62.
After falling behind 24-10, the Red Storm outscored UConn 58-38 the rest of the way to extend their winning streak to 10 games while improving to 21-3 overall, 12-1 in the Big East.
"What the press has done for me, for 40 years, has worn people out, legs-wise, where they don't shoot the ball as well," Pitino explained afterward. "It's always been the gift that my teams have had. If we can wear out their legs, they won't shoot as well. But they were coming at us, and they were getting too many easy shots. So I felt the full-court press would take a little starch out of their shots, take a little time in the backcourt [and] make us ultra-aggressive.
"We pressed more tonight than we normally have," Pitino added. "But that's because of what they were doing to us offensively early on."
That decision flipped the game.
UConn scored 26 points in the first 7:22 and just 36 points in the final 32:38. As a result, St. John's now has the second-best defense in the nation, according to BartTorvik.com. And that defense actually ranks No. 1, by a significant margin, during the Red Storm's current 10-game winning streak.
What. A. Story.
As I said on Wednesday's episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast, what's happening at St. John's right now, in Year 2 under Pitino, has turned into my favorite story of this season. The 72-year-old Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer — and two-time national champion who was nonsensically exiled from power-conference basketball for six years — has taken over a historically big brand that's been mostly bad for much of the past three decades and turned it into a Final Four contender less than two years after accepting the job, which means Pitino becoming the first person to ever lead four different schools to the Final Four is very much in play. Put another way, this man who was fired at Louisville and reduced to coaching mid-major basketball has built a team in his second year at St. John's better than the teams currently at Kentucky and Louisville, two places where he previously built national championship teams.
It really is incredible.
St. John's is up to No. 8 in Saturday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, which caused Marquette, Iowa State, Texas A&M, Memphis, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Missouri, Kansas and Texas Tech to all be pushed down one spot each, no fault of their own. The Red Storm are now projected to win the Big East by two games, according to KenPom.com. That's another testament to Pitino's brilliance given that the program hasn't even won a share of a Big East title since 1992.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Johni Broome finished with 15 points and six assists in Tuesday's 98-70 win over Oklahoma. The Tigers' next game is Saturday against Florida. | -- | 27-4 |
| 2 |  | Tyrese Proctor finished with 16 points and two assists in Wednesday's 83-54 win at Syracuse. The Blue Devils' next game is Saturday at Clemson. | -- | 28-3 |
| 3 |  | Mark Sears finished with 20 points and six assists in Saturday's 90-69 win over Georgia. The Crimson Tide's next game is Saturday at Arkansas. | -- | 24-7 |
| 4 |  | Igor Milicic Jr. finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 85-81 win over Missouri. The Vols' next game is Saturday at Oklahoma. | -- | 25-6 |
| 5 |  | Will Richard finished with 21 points and 7 rebounds in Tuesday's 86-75 win over Vanderbilt. The Gators' next game is Saturday at Auburn. | -- | 27-4 |
| 6 |  | L.J. Cryer finished with 18 points and three rebounds in Tuesday's 72-63 win over Oklahoma State. The Cougars' next game is Saturday at Colorado. | -- | 27-4 |
| 7 |  | Trey Kaufman-Reen finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds in Friday's 90-72 win vs. USC. The Boilermakers' next game is Tuesday at Michigan | -- | 21-10 |
| 8 |  | RJ Luis finished with 21 points and seven rebounds in Friday's 68-62 win at UConn. The Red Storm's next game is Wednesday at Villanova. | 9 | 27-4 |
| 9 |  | Stevie Mitchell was 1-of-6 from the field in Tuesday's 70-64 loss at St. John's. The Golden Eagles' next game is Saturday at Creighton. | 1 | 22-9 |
| 10 |  | Joshua Jefferson was 3 of 13 from the field in Monday's 69-52 loss at Kansas. The Cyclones' next game is Saturday against TCU. | 1 | 24-8 |
| 11 |  | Wade Taylor IV finished with 25 points and two assists in Saturday's 76-72 win at South Carolina. The Aggies' next game is Saturday at Missouri. | 1 | 22-9 |
| 12 |  | PJ Haggerty finished with 23 points and three assists in Wednesday's 83-71 win over Tulsa. The Tigers' next game is Sunday against Temple. | 1 | 26-5 |
| 13 |  | Jase Richardson was 0-of-6 from the field in Tuesday's 63-61 loss at UCLA. The Spartans' next game is Saturday against Oregon. | 1 | 26-5 |
| 14 |  | Matthew Murrell finished with 24 points and five rebounds in Tuesday's 98-84 win over Kentucky. The Rebels' next game is Saturday at LSU. | 1 | 21-10 |
| 15 |  | Mark Mitchell was 0-of-6 from the field in Wednesday's 85-81 loss at Tennessee. The Tigers' next game is Saturday against Texas A&M. | 1 | 21-10 |
| 16 |  | Zeke Mayo finished with 17 points and eight rebounds in Monday's 69-52 win over Iowa State. The Jayhawks' next game is Saturday at Kansas State. | 1 | 20-11 |
| 17 |  | Chance McMillian finished with 19 points and four rebounds in Tuesday's 73-59 win over Baylor. The Red Raiders' next game is Saturday at Arizona. | 1 | 24-7 |
| 18 |  | Will Tschetter finished with 17 points and three rebounds in Wednesday's 80-76 win over Oregon. The Wolverines' next game is Saturday at Indiana. | -- | 22-9 |
| 19 |  | Koby Brea was 4 of 10 from the field in Tuesday's 98-84 loss at Ole Miss. The Wildcats' next game is Saturday against South Carolina. | -- | 21-10 |
| 20 |  | Michael Nwoko was 0 of 5 from the field in Saturday's 88-61 loss to Missouri. The Bulldogs' next game is Saturday at Georgia. | -- | 21-11 |
| 21 |  | John Tonje finished with 15 points and five rebounds in Tuesday's 76-64 win over Indiana. The Badgers' next game is Saturday at Iowa. | -- | 23-8 |
| 22 |  | Caleb Love finished with 18 points and six rebounds in Tuesday's 85-74 win at BYU. The Wildcats' next game is Saturday against Texas Tech. | -- | 20-11 |
| 23 |  | Skyy Clark finished with 14 points and three assists in Tuesday's 63-61 win over Michigan State. The Bruins' next game is Saturday against Penn State. | -- | 22-9 |
| 24 |  | J'Vonne Hadley finished with 22 points and four rebounds in Wednesday's 84-58 win at Boston College. The Cardinals' next game is Saturday against Miami. | -- | 25-6 |
| 25 |  | Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with 35 points and 12 rebounds in Friday's 80-69 win at Providence. The Bluejays' next game is Saturday against Marquette. | -- | 22-9 |
| 26 |  | Ja'Kobi Gillespie was 3 of 11 from the field in Thursday's 73-70 loss at Ohio State. The Terrapins' next game is Sunday against Rutgers. | -- | 24-7 |
