UConn St John's rivalry | The Boneyard

UConn St John's rivalry

superjohn

superjohn

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A St. John's fan was here the other day and he asked how we think the two teams match up? I can't find the post but i'm absolutley giddy about the juice the two teams are going to bring to the Big East and college basketball next season with this rivalry so let's discuss...

This is what I wanted back in the day with the UConn Ray Allen teams vs. the Camby UMass teams under Calhoun and Calipari. It's also what I envisioned with the Hurley Jay Wright rivalry being the talk of college basketball but Jay left right when it was about to be the best rivalry in the sport.

With Karaban back I think UConn and St. John's should be #1 and #2 preseason nationally. Not sure on the order. We have way more continuity and significantly stronger point guard play which are major advantages in college hoops but St. John's has the most talent in the country top to bottom and a significant athleticism advantage over us. It looks like they're also getting Bundalo. That's an embarrassment of riches.

Two best coaches in the sport, they're both brash in different ways, they both want to be the story in the Big East/the country and they both will have expectations of winning the national championship. This is going to be incredibly exciting.

Would like to hear others thoughts on this rivalry and how the players match up.
 
If UConn and St John’s are preseason top 5 the rising tide will raise the entire big east profile. If they are preseason 1 and 2 and both live up to that ranking… it will be a special season to say the least. It will be utter insanity at MSG in March. I can already see the headline “Bedlam in the Big East”.
 
Going to take some time and research to even speculate how player match-ups will look(I won't be the one doing it), but it is going to be fun. Big East basketball next year will really exciting with alot of different storylines besides the Johnnies v Huskies one.

I guess Tarris and Reibe vs Iwuchukwu and?? at Center is a good place to start. Thoughts?
 
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superjohn said:
A St. John's fan was here the other day and he asked how we think the two teams match up? I can't find the post but i'm absolutley giddy about the juice the two teams are going to bring to the Big East and college basketball next season with this rivalry so let's discuss...

This is what I wanted back in the day with the UConn Ray Allen teams vs. the Camby UMass teams under Calhoun and Calipari. It's also what I envisioned with the Hurley Jay Wright rivalry being the talk of college basketball but Jay left right when it was about to be the best rivalry in the sport.

With Karaban back I think UConn and St. John's should be #1 and #2 preseason nationally. Not sure on the order. We have way more continuity and significantly stronger point guard play which are major advantages in college hoops but St. John's has the most talent in the country top to bottom and a significant athleticism advantage over us. It looks like they're also getting Bundalo. That's an embarrassment of riches.

Two best coaches in the sport, they're both brash in different ways, they both want to be the story in the Big East/the country and they both will have expectations of winning the national championship. This is going to be incredibly exciting.

Would like to hear others thoughts on this rivalry and how the players match up.
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Did I miss something? Has Bundalo decommitted?
 
Pitino is treating this like the cold war. He thinks his way to win is via an arms race .
 
We have no more of a rivalry with St John's than we have with PC, Seton Hall or any other conference member. That at the moment we appear to be the two best suited to make some noise next season is all there is to the matchups.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
We have no more of a rivalry with St John's than we have with PC, Seton Hall or any other conference member. That at the moment we appear to be the two best suited to make some noise next season is all there is to the matchups.
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We never had a true rivalry. We had a lot of great games between UConn and Syracuse when both teams were really good and the fanbases didn't like each other. Same with Pitt. Same with Duke on a national level. Now it's St. John's.
 
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nomar said:
Did I miss something? Has Bundalo decommitted?
Expand ...
St. John's board thinks he decommitted from Washington (just hasn't announced it yet) and will be coming to St. John's.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
We have no more of a rivalry with St John's than we have with PC, Seton Hall or any other conference member. That at the moment we appear to be the two best suited to make some noise next season is all there is to the matchups.
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St. Johns is primed to be our best in conference rival since Syracuse IMO. For as long as pitino is at the helm we could have a special rivalry brewing here.
 
superjohn said:
St. John's board thinks he decommitted from Washington (just hasn't announced it yet) and will be coming to St. John's.
Expand ...

Somebody in the forum poured cold water on it

red.fans

Big Man On Campus Targets

Am I the only one continually asking myself "what the absolute duckk is happening here?" on a weekly basis? Like, is this real? We're stacked to the bejeezus and we're adding a freakin McDonalds AA?? Whaaat? We are currently acting the part of a blue blood. 😊
red.fans red.fans
 
Pitino is no dummy. He knows how to latch onto our juice and right now it's working for him. It's great for the league and I'm looking forward to the matchups next season, for sure. However.....St John's is just the next man up in terms of these programs that wants to make themselves look better by trying to steal our spotlight.

Cuse tried that. They're done. UMass tried that. They're done. PC tried that. They're done.

I love the fans, the MSG crowds, the trash talk between coaches....but it'll fade away once he's gone and then there'll be another program that comes along tugging at Superman's cape.
 
superjohn said:
We never had a true rivalry. We had a lot of great games between UConn and Syracuse when both teams were really good and the fanbases didn't like each other. Same with Pitt. Same with Duke on a national level. Now it's St. John's.
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You are correct with our never having had a true rivalry (OSU-Michigan; Yale-Harvard) but what we had with Cuse was miles above everything we've had with all current BE schools combined and what we had with Pitt was still ahead of anything we've had with any current BE member.

I know you want to close your eyes and pretend that this is something but when you post that this is a rivalry it becomes time for @CL82 to throw in a "stop trying to make fetch happen" meme.
 
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FfldCntyFan said:
You are correct with our never having had a true rivalry (OSU-Michigan; Yale-Harvard) but what we had with Cuse was miles above everything we've had with all current BE schools combined and what we had with Pitt was still ahead of anything we've had with any current BE member.

I know you want to close your eyes and pretend that this is something but when you post that this is a rivalry it becomes time for @CL82 to throw in a "stop trying to make fetch happen" meme.
Expand ...
We haven't had a "rival" to match Cuse and Pitt yet because Jay Wright left and Nova fell apart. Creighton has owned us and they're all the way out in Omaha. There hasn't been another worthy competitor until Pitino got to St. John's. Johnnies gave us our toughest test late in the season before we ran roughshod over everyone in the NCAA's in '24. Johnnies got their revenge sweeping us last season and now both teams look to be on a collision course next season. This is shaping up like those old school "rivals" because these are the best two teams on the block but this is likely to have even more juice because it's the two premier coaches in the sport, proximity, the stage, the fans seem to really dislike each other and they are both going to be top 3 or 4 teams. I think they're likely the two best teams.
 
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superjohn said:
We haven't had a "rival" to match Cuse and Pitt yet because Jay Wright left and Nova fell apart. Creighton has owned us and they're all the way out in Omaha. There hasn't been another worthy competitor until Pitino got to St. John's. Johnnies gave us our toughest test late in the season before we ran roughshod over everyone in the NCAA's in '24. Johnnied got their revenge sweeping us last season and now both teams look to be on a collision course next season. This is shaping up like those old school "rivals" because these are the best two teams on the block but this is likely to have even more juice because it's the two premier coaches in the sport, proximity, the stage, the fans seem to really dislike each other and they are both going to be top 3 or 4 teams. I think they're likely the two best teams.
Expand ...
are you on commission?
 
FfldCntyFan said:
You are correct with our never having had a true rivalry (OSU-Michigan; Yale-Harvard) but what we had with Cuse was miles above everything we've had with all current BE schools combined and what we had with Pitt was still ahead of anything we've had with any current BE member.

I know you want to close your eyes and pretend that this is something but when you post that this is a rivalry it becomes time for @CL82 to throw in a "stop trying to make fetch happen" meme.
Expand ...
Meh, I don't see it as a rivalry, but it could ultimately become one if St. John's can get some postseason success and sustain it. I'm looking forward to the game this year. As long as Rick Pitino (and Repole) is there it will be interesting.
 
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CL82 said:
Meh, I don't see it as a rivalry, but it could ultimately become one if St. John's can get some postseason success and sustain it. I'm looking forward to the game this year. As long as Rick Pitino (and Repole) is there it will be interesting.
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There's history there.

We've both been good at the same time very rarely. But when we're both good, it gets pretty heated! In fact, I bet everybody here will have a pavlovian response to this photo:

portrait_70_376.jpg
 
PositionUConnSt John'sAdvantage
PGSilas Demary JrIan JacksonUConn
SGSolo BallOziyah SellersUConn
SFJaylin StewartJoson SanonSt John's
PFAlex KarabanBryce HopkinsUConn
CTarris Reed JrZuby EjioforSt John's
Bench
GMalachi SmithDylan DarlingUConn
GBraylon MullinsLefteris LiotopoulosUConn
FJayden RossSadiku Ibine AyoEven
FJacob FurphyDillon MitchellSt John's
CEric ReibeRuben PreyUConn

These are definitely 2 of the top 5 teams in the country, but I think UConn has the advantage and matches up pretty well. Maybe a slight advantage to St John's for the starting 5 even though I have it as 3-2 UConn because the gap between Sanon and Stewart is larger than any of the gaps at the other 4 spots. I think our bench is where the advantage comes from, I'm not sold on most of the guys St John's has coming off the bench
 
superjohn said:
We never had a true rivalry. We had a lot of great games between UConn and Syracuse when both teams were really good and the fanbases didn't like each other. Same with Pitt. Same with Duke on a national level. Now it's St. John's.
Expand ...

If UConn Syracuse basketball wasn't a rivalry in your book, I think you need to revisit the definition.
 
nomar said:
There's history there.

We've both been good at the same time very rarely. But when we're both good, it gets pretty heated! In fact, I bet everybody here will have a pavlovian response to this photo:

portrait_70_376.jpg
Expand ...
They weren't good under Satan. He was just annoying. At least that's how I remember it.
 
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