St. John's and UConn trending in opposite directions

St. John's has been one of the more pleasant surprises of this season.

After Thursday night's 89-72 drubbing of No. 9 UConn, the Johnnies are now sitting at 14-9 and 6-5 in the Big East. Those records aren't overly impressive, I know, but the Red Storm does have an impressive list of victims. The win over UConn came just 11 days after they smoked Duke, which came on the heels of wins over Georgetown and Notre Dame. All three of those teams are currently ranked in the top 11.

The problem?

All four of those wins came at Madison Square Garden. (I think we may have found the Big East Tournament favorite.)


Now, the Johnnies still have some work to do. They haven't won away from the Garden since January 1st at Providence. With losses already coming to St. Bonaventure and Fordham, and a less than stellar non-conference resume, St. John's can't afford any more bad losses. That said, if they beat the teams they are supposed to beat, pick up a win at Cincinnati or at Marquette later this month, or even if they just beat Pitt at home, Steve Lavin looks like he will be dancing.

The bigger question coming out of this game, however, is what to think about UConn.

The Huskies have now lost three of their last four games, with the lone victory requiring a 13 points comeback against Seton Hall in the final five minutes. Kemba Walker is struggling mightily to find consistency with his shot (he was 4-16 tonight), Alex Oriakhi is hit or miss, and Jeremy Lamb seems to finally be coming back down to earth. Shabazz Napier and Roscoe Smith also appear to have hit their freshman walls.

I don't like taking too much out of a single loss -- hey, Duke got run out of the gym here as well -- but UConn has just not looked like the same team the past two weeks.

Because they looked like a Final Four team two weeks ago. They had just won at Marquette, which came only days after beating Villanova and Tennessee.

The Huskies get Providence at home on Sunday. Hopefully, they will right the ship against the Friars, but the rest of UConn's schedule is brutal