UConn basketball struggles in defeat at St. John’s, 89-75.
UConn basketball had previously won their last eight games at Madison Square Garden. This streak came to a crashing halt as St. John’s won in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score suggested.
St. John’s was clearly the better team and it showed on the hardwood in tune to a 50-32 halftime lead. St. John’s fans turned out and had The Garden rocking in a building that is used to seeing UConn fans taking over.
The Red Storm is rising and they appear all but certain to be the Big East Regular Season Champions for the first time since 1992. This win also completed the season sweep over UConn basketball for St. John’s after winning in Gampel Pavilion earlier this season.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Final@keybank pic.twitter.com/E2XbGaczKj
— UConn Men’s Basketball (@UConnMBB) February 23, 2025
Takeaway #1: St. John’s is a terrible matchup for UConn.
Sometimes the easiest way to explain a loss is that one team is a bad matchup for another. This appears to be the case for UConn basketball against this St. John’s team.
Everything that UConn struggles with is something that St. John’s can exacerbate. UConn has difficulties handling on ball pressure and this is something St. John’s prioritizes by utilizing their athletic wings to wreak havoc on opponents.
This was evident after UConn was forced into 40 turnovers over two games against St. John’s. And on the defense end, UConn basketball’s strategy is to force teams into mid-range 2 point shots, but this is actually what St. John’s wants to do on offense as Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis excel at those kind of shots.
There is no magic fix for this as it’s just a matter of personnel. UConn is still a good basketball team but they will continue to struggle against St. John’s should they match up again in the Big East Tournament.
UConn basketball fans should hope they are matched up as far away from St. John’s as possible in any future brackets.
Takeaway #2: St. John’s is National Championship level good.
St. John’s is absolutely rolling right now and are a scary team for anyone. Their defense has been outstanding all season but their offense at times struggles to score. Not a lot of programs would be able to win as many games as St. John’s has this year shooting under 30% from three.
But St. John’s is aware of this and uses offensive rebounding and mid-range shots to overcome this. In today’s era, too many teams shoot threes just to shoot them, but to St. John’s credit, they do not fall into that trap.
But what was apparent on Sunday was seeing just how dangerous St. John’s can be when some of their deep shots go in. Going 8-19 against UConn was huge for the team as they were able to use these shots as run-killers every time UConn tried to make a run.
St. John’s deserves to be a top 2 seed come NCAA Tournament time and have all the makings of a team that can win it all.
Takeaway #3: UConn’s defense resorts back to their old ways.
UConn basketball had difficulties on the defensive end earlier this season. It appeared that this was improving as they had gone over a month not allowing an opponent to score more than 70 points.
This all went out the window as UConn found themselves falling into their old habits of allowing lane penetration too easily. This resulted in several easy dunks and layups for St. John’s as well as open looks for jump shooters.
The offense for UConn will always be able to keep them in games, but they need to step up on the defensive end to close out games. UConn at one point had cut a 22-point deficit to 9 with 12 minutes remaining but they couldn’t string together multiple stops following this to put more game pressure on St. John’s.
It’s back to the drawing board for this UConn basketball team and they will need to find answers quickly.
Next up for UConn basketball (18-9, 10-6): vs. Georgetown (16-11, 7-9) – Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. EST
Next up for St. John’s basketball (24-4, 15-2): at Butler (13-14, 6-10) – Feb. 26 at 9 p.m. EST