The St. John’s Red Storm pulled off a major upset win over the weekend, defeating UConn, 81-72. At the time of the game, UConn had been ranked No. 3 in the AP men’s basketball poll, and St. John’s used the win to vault themselves into the top-20 at No. 17. The Red Storm had previously been ranked right at the end at No. 25.
St. John’s snapped what was an 18-game win streak for UConn, and the Huskies also fell to No. 6 in the latest AP men’s basketball poll. Not only that, but it was the first win that St. John’s has had against a team ranked in the top-10 in the AP poll since Rick Pitino took over as head coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.
This is his third season at the helm as head coach, and earlier in the year, Pitino reached a career milestone of 900 coaching wins. During his short tenure so far, he’s lead the St. John’s program to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, breaking a drought of five consecutive seasons of missing out on March Madness.
Following the win against UConn, St. John’s improved to 18-5 overall, and 11-1 in the Big East standings. They trail only UConn who is now 12-1 in conference play. Villanova is two games back of the Red Storm at 9-3. St. John’s has a matchup against Villanova on Feb. 28 in what could have major implications for conference tournament seeding.
Against UConn, it was senior forward Zuby Eijofor who led the way with 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and three blocked shots. Eijofor has been St. John’s leading scorer this season at 15.9 points per game. He’s shooting 53 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from the 3-point line.
