Saint John’s vs. UConn College Basketball prediction, preview
Is this the game UConn can get over the hump against Saint John’s? Despite the Huskies’ dominance, they’ve struggled against the Red Storm recently. They lost at Madison Square Garden to the Johnnies earlier this month, and lost both head to head matchups last season.
In the game at MSG this season, the Johnnies were tenacious on defense and made things very uncomfortable on UConn. Now, with the Huskies playing at home, I expect their best effort of the season in a must-win game if they want to claim the regular season Big East crown. The motivational edge has to go to UConn in this one, and it should have a tremendous home court advantage playing in its favor.
I’m expecting UConn to come out of the gates with a new game plan in this one that should catch Rick Pitino and the Red Storm a bit off guard. While both teams rank elite defensively, UConn does have the edge offensively, and we actually saw that in the first matchup. The Huskies shot much better from the field than Saint John’s in the loss, but got out-rebounded and committed 15 turnovers.
I’m anticipating those things to change in the rematch. UConn has been the better rebounding team this season, particularly at home. Of the 15 turnovers at MSG, nine of them were by starting point guard Silas Demary. UConn would be silly not to have a plan to take some pressure of Demary in this game, and I also expect the point guard to be much more conscious of his ball handling.
I have a lot of respect for Saint John’s and its ability to step up against who most consider to be the best team in the conference. So this isn’t a fade of the Red Storm, more having faith that the Huskies have the ability to dig deep and play their best game against a team that’s had their number recently. While I do like UConn to win the game, I’m looking to back a hot start from the Huskies. I think the revenge angle along with the home crowd and some adjustments to style of play will have UConn taking a lead into the locker room at halftime in this one.
I’ll lay the points with UConn for the first half, and we’ll see where things go from there.
