Unfortunately, it was never close.
UConn men’s basketball failed to make it a contest against St. John’s in the Big East championship game, losing 72-52 on Saturday night. Rick Pitino’s squad jumped on them from the start, opening with a 10-0 killshot as the Huskies trailed by as much as 17 in the first half.
Turnovers, fouls, and a lack of low-post or really any defensive toughness reared their heads for UConn in this major matchup. The Huskies had 11 giveaways in the first half and let the Johnnies
hit half their shots through 20 minutes as they took a 13-point lead into halftime. They finished with 17 turnovers and the Johnnies finished at 48 percent from the field.
The Huskies closed in slightly to start the second half, cutting it down to seven by the 12:24 mark, leading to a Pitino time-out. But the Huskies could not hold on to the ball and let the lead bloat back up. A Hopkins block led to a Mitchell dunk on the other end to push it to 13 with 9:08 left.
One minute later, a Jayden Ross steal led to a Malachi Smith lay-up to cut the lead to 10. But the Huskies didn’t have enough to come back. They finished 3-of-18 from three and just 34 percent from the field, winning the rebounding battle but failing to make enough of a dent in the lead as things got out of hand late.
The Johnnies were up by 20 with 3:27 as the end result became clear. They would be the Big East regular-season and tournament champions for the second year in a row, a tough pill for any Husky to swallow, regardless of the program’s national success.
Maybe Dan Hurley’s team is missing something this year. Maybe they’ll explode outside of the rough and tumble Big East. They still have a final chapter of the season to write, but there is also not much reason to expect this team to do something unprecedented, like significantly cutting turnovers or developing an alpha dog who you can count on to take over games.
We’ll find out the Huskies’ NCAA Tournament placement on Sunday’s Selection Show at 6 p.m., and the tournament begins Wednesday. The Huskies are most likely landing a two-seed and are expected to spend their first weekend in Philadelphia but anything can happen between now and when the bracket is finalized.
