The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team took on St. John’s Red Storm for the second time this season at PeoplesBank Arena on Feb. 25, 2026. Playing late in the conference schedule, the Huskies had previously lost to St. John’s at Madison Square Garden earlier this month by nine points. Coming back to play St. John’s with not only revenge, but also a win behind them from Villanova, the Huskies were more than ready to beat their rival team in the Big East at home.
The Huskies secured the win with the final score of 72-40. UConn then won in its second-to-last conference game against Seton Hall. The two wins put them back at the top of the Big East conference and helped them move up to No. 4 from No. 6 on the AP poll. UConn would play its final game against Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to finish its regular conference schedule. Unfortunately, the Huskies did not secure the win and ended the regular season with a loss.
UConn plays St. John’s at home
I would say that the rivalry between UConn and St. John’s is fairly new for the Big East conference and college basketball in general. UConn lost to St. John’s both times they played them in the Big East regular games for the 2024-25 season. St. John’s managed to be No. 11 in the final AP Top 25 rankings, while UConn didn’t make the final AP poll and remained unranked going into March Madness for the 2024-25 season.
I think there were a lot of emotions on both sides going into this game — St. John’s wanted to keep their winning streak, while the Huskies were looking for a win. I know I was certainly hoping for a win from UConn, especially considering that they were back-to-back champions for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. And both teams have “elite head coaches with experience winning national championships.” The stakes were high for everyone.
UCONN wins by a staggering 32 points
The energy inside the PeoplesBank Arena during this game was insane. Everyone wanted to see UConn beat St. John’s, but I don’t think anyone anticipated the win to be this large. The Huskies led for almost the entirety of the game. St. John’s led once, just about one minute into the game, when Bryce Hopkins made the first basket for the team, making the score 2-0. That was the only lead St. John’s had for the whole game. UConn led with as much as 21 points in the first half and as much as 36 points in the second half.
For St. John’s, this defeat was the largest for them under their current coach, Rick Pitino. It was also their fewest points scored in a game since their loss at Notre Dame in March 2013, when they lost by 26 points. The final score was 66-40.
I feel like there is so much to address regarding the way UConn came to play at Hartford for this game, and also how St. John’s played that night. The most shocking has to be that St. John’s missed 24 consecutive shots to finish the game, as they couldn’t seem to get a single field goal in the last 17:28 of the game.
Yup, you read that right. Not a single field goal. In 17 minutes.
For an AP poll ranking team, I just think that is absolutely insane. It’s not like St. John’s is a low-ranking team or even unranked. When they played UConn, they were ranked 15th in the AP poll. But this shows that UConn’s defense is gaining more strength, as they looked better than they did earlier in the month.
Pitino told the media briefly after the game, “That’s probably only happened to me two times in my career.”
Besides St. John’s disastrous run in the second half, it was a great night for many UConn players, especially for senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and six blocks. Alex Karaban added 14 points and five rebounds, and Solo Ball had 11 points and four assists for the Huskies.
UConn finished the game with a total of 72 points and scored 42 points in the paint, which is more than St. John’s was able to score the entire game. Dan Hurley told the media, “It was just our night, you know?”
“I just think it was one of those nights where everything went great for us, and everything went wrong for them,” said Hurley.
so, what happened at marquette?
These past few days, I’ve been pretending like this game didn’t happen, but unfortunately, it did. Arguably, I think this was the worst loss for the Huskies this season. UConn could have easily pulled the win against Marquette, as Marquette ranks fairly low in the Big East. UConn has won against higher-ranked teams and even beat Marquette earlier in the season with a final score of 73-57.
Not to mention that Hurley was ejected at the end of the game and fined $25,000 by the Big East for unsportsmanlike conduct. While it has happened before, I just didn’t think it was a good look for the Huskies. It’s definitely not the way to end the season before the Big East tournament and the start of March Madness.
UConn struggled with offense all throughout the game, shooting only 36% from the field and making only three shots out of 24 attempts from the three-point line. The Huskies were able to get 16 offensive rebounds, but couldn’t convert their possessions into points. Silas Demary Jr. put up 17 points for UConn and also had eight assists. Reed Jr. contributed as well, as he scored 16 points and had eight rebounds.
On the bright side, the Huskies did go 17 for 18 from the free-throw line, which is something they have constantly struggled with all season. So, there was definitely improvement with the free throws.
I think we do have to give Marquette some credit, though, as their overall record this season was 11-19. Beating a top team is not easy. It was a great game for the freshman guard Nigel James Jr., who scored 19 points and had seven assists. Royce Parham, the sophomore forward, also went on a personal 8-0 run in the second half to give Marquette a 49-45 lead. Marquette extended the run to 11-0, and by the media timeout at 7:33, Marquette had added an additional six points, while the Huskies only added two points as the score changed to 55-47.
what this means for the big east (and march madness)
The loss to Marquette wasn’t necessarily all that bad — as UConn’s record sat at 27-4 — which is a great record and pretty comparable to other teams that are ranked in the AP poll. However, the timing of the loss is just awful. Because of the loss late in the season, they gave up the Big East regular-season title to St. John’s. UConn also went into the Big East tournament as the No. 2 seed. Prior to the loss, it was looking as though UConn would earn the title and also be the No. 1 seed going into the tournament.
As far as March Madness goes, the loss doesn’t really affect the Huskies. The team that wins the Big East tournament would get an automatic bid into the tournament, and I think UConn has a pretty good shot of winning, especially after coming off the loss to Marquette. Even if they don’t win the Big East tournament, UConn is currently sitting at No. 6 in the AP poll and would most definitely get into March Madness. They have a strong record, and the legacy of the program helps them, too. It will be interesting to see UConn play in both the Big East tournament and in March Madness.