Welcome to the thread for Wednesday’s St. John’s men’s basketball matchup against UConn. Please be respectful in the comment section and do not share any illegal streams of the game.
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Game information
Who: No. 15 St. John’s Red Storm (22-5, 15-1 Big East) at No. 6 UConn Huskies (25-3, 14-2 Big East)
When: Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 7:00 p.m.
Where: PeoplesBank Arena, Hartford, Connecticut
TV: Peacock/NBC Sports Network (Ugh.)
Radio:ESPN New York 880 / 1050
Series History: St. John’s leads all-time series, 40-34. After four consecutive losses, including three to begin the Rick Pitino era, the Red Storm have won each of the last three meetings with the Huskies dating back to last season. The Johnnies were also the last team to defeat the Huskies in Hartford back on January 15, 2023. Coincidentally, UConn was ranked No. 6 in the nation at the time of that game.
KenPom Predicted Score: UConn to win, 76-70 (30% chance of St. John’s win)
Injury news
According to Roger Rubin from Newsday, Ian Jackson (ankle) has returned to practice and will play in Wednesday’s game against UConn. Jackson missed Saturday’s game against Creighton after suffering an ankle injury in the first half of the Red Storm’s contest with Marquette a week ago.
Kelvin Odih (undisclosed) is out for Wednesday’s game.
What to watch for
Battle of the Bigs: There is no surprise that the player matchup to focus on is the center duel of Zuby Ejiofor versus Tarris Reed, which could garner more importance if both coaches decide to play smaller lineups and push more paint responsibilities onto those two. Ejiofor got the better of UConn’s big man in their first meeting, recording 21 points, ten rebounds, and seven assists to Reed’s 12 points, six rebounds, and two assists. Can Ejiofor do it again, this time in a hostile environment?
Locked Up: The Red Storm are among the country’s best at defending this month. According to BartTorvik, the Red Storm has the second-best adjusted defensive rating in the country in the month of February at 87.8. Only Arizona is better, with a rating of 86.8.
St. John’s is holding opponents to shooting 46% from two-point range and 29.5% from three-point range, both ranking within the top-45 in the country in this span.
Scatter-Shot: The Red Storm rank 319th in the country in effective field goal percentage (46.7%) over the past four games, and their offensive inconsistency nearly sank them against Xavier and Marquette. St. John’s also ranks 337th in three-point percentage in that span, hitting only 27.4% of their shots from deep.
Something will have to give in Hartford, though. Although UConn ranks top-20 nationally in three-point defense this season, they’ve struggled to stop opponents from lighting it up recently, allowing teams to shoot 38.3% from three to rank 306th in the country since they last met St. John’s.
Drawing a Line: Despite their clunky shooting performances, the Johnnies manufactured offense by driving to the basket and getting to the line. In six games played this month, the Johnnies rank 16th in the country with a 48.2% free throw rate. Meanwhile, their opponents have a 29.6% free throw rate in this span. Overall, St. John’s ranks fifth in the country in free throw attempts per game this season with 27.1.
Of course, forcing opponents into foul trouble has also helped them. According to CBB Analytics, St. John’s ranks first in opposing personal fouls per game with 22.3. Six UConn players, including their entire starting lineup, were charged with three or more fouls in their first meeting against the Red Storm.
Stopping Silas: You could make the argument that Silas Demary, Jr. was UConn’s best or worst player in their loss against St. John’s earlier this month, and you would have a convincing case either way. Yes, he did have a team-high 18 points on an efficient 11 shots, gave out five assists, and made a handful of electric plays like a posterizing dunk over Zuby Ejiofor, but he also gave up nine of the Huskies’ 15 turnovers that night. He’s been the same kind of player since, supplying chunks of offense and turning the ball over more than Dan Hurley could probably stomach.
UConn breezed past Villanova with a dominant second half, but Demary gave up the ball seven times to the Wildcats. The Huskies will likely beat Red Storm in the shot-making department, so Wednesday’s game will come down to whether St. John’s can force Demary into giving up a batch of turnovers again and limit Connecticut’s spurtability with their ball pressure.
Pregame links
- Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley’s chilly relationship adds even more juice to St. John’s-UConn rivalry — Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
- Bryce Hopkins, Zuby Ejiofor, and Dillon Mitchell appeared on the digital cover for SLAM Magazine this week. Max Resetar also wrote a feature on the Red Storm’s frontcourt trio.
- And they also appeared in a video on SLAM’s YouTube channel as they answered some questions about themselves like who is most likely to become TikTok famous and who is most likely to chirp at opposing fans. Pretty entertaining ten minutes if you’re interested in watching.
- If you thought the St. John’s/Providence fight discourse was laid to rest, you were wrong. Bryce Hopkins was asked about why he walked away from the brawl in Tuesday’s media availability, stating to Adam Zagoria that he “wanted to be the bigger person” and was only focused out getting out of Amica Mutual Pavilion “with a win”.
- St. John’s canceled their final “One Piece” promotion for this Saturday’s game against Villanova amid security concerns. Scalpers flooded Madison Square Garden’s Seventh Avenue entrance in hopes of buying the collectible cards fans were given after the St. John’s-UConn game earlier this month for hundreds of dollars, creating a logjam at the doors.
- Seventeen NBA personnel will be in attendance for Wednesday’s game