After another full day of college basketball at Madison Square Garden, Saint John’s showed why it has been such a hard problem for conference opponents to solve.
The second day of the Big East Tournament opened with St. John’s facing Butler, which had lost by just combined 14 points in the previous two matchups. The Bulldogs’ performance on Day 1 gave additional reason for optimism. They moved the ball, ran action to get paint touches and found opportunities for open 3s. Instead, Butler struggled on Thursday, going from 40 paint points on Wednesday to 18 points against the Johnnies in a 78-57 loss.
Butler coach Thad Matta praised SJU’s defense for keeping the Bulldogs from getting to their spots.
“Those guys, they were guarding us, and the tone was set early,” he said. “When you get into the paint, their length and their athleticism [make] it so difficult.”
Five different Johnnies recorded steals in the game, including forward Aaron Scott, who finished with five. Butler’s 15 turnovers resulted in 24 points, including 15 fast-break points, for Rick Pitino’s team.
As mentioned in yesterday’s notebook, Butler’s Pierre Brooks seemed to be on a mission after getting snubbed for season awards, scoring 25 points against Providence. He felt the effects of the St. John’s defense more than anyone, scoring just five points on 1-for-10 shooting.
Meanwhile, SJU’s Kadary Richmond used Thursday’s game to make his own statement to Big East voters. He finished with 15 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, a block and a steal, propelling the Red Storm to their 10th-consecutive win in MSG. The senior is playing his best basketball over the last six weeks, averaging 15.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.9 assists since Feb. 1.
“A lot of our team was upset that Kadary wasn’t First Team All-League,” said Pitino. “I said, ‘Kadary, your teammates and coaching staff think you’re [one of the] top three guards in the nation. Maybe the best guard in the nation.'”
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Marquette-Xavier felt like March Madness
The second game showed what makes the Big East tournament so special. Marquette and Xavier put on an offensive slugfest, resulting in eight lead changes and the teams’ third two-point game this year. All three meetings also resulted in a big comeback win.
Down 14 in the second half, Shaka Smart’s Golden Eagles clawed back to beat the Musketeers 89-87. Smart delighted in his team’s aggressiveness, specifically calling out the performances of Kam Jones, David Joplin and Chase Ross.
“Particularly the second half, the way we attacked their switching actions … was big for us,” Smart said. “And that was able to get them on their heels.”
Meanwhile, Jones noted the teams’ familiarity with one another as they faced off for the third time: “It’s just about doing what you do offensively and making the right reads, trusting my teammates to be in the right spots, which they are 99.99 percent of the time.”
Jones showed off his All-American pedigree with 28 points and five assists. However, Xavier guard Ryan Conwell was the high scorer with 38.
“If you can get 38 on Marquette in Madison Square Garden with the stakes this high,” head coach Sean Miller said, “it says a lot about who he is as a player.”
Now, Xavier anxiously waits to hear its name on Selection Sunday.
“We desperately want to be a part of the tournament,” Miller said, noting Xavier’s seven-game win streak coming into Thursday. “If anybody watches today’s game, I think you had two teams that are NCAA Tournament-caliber playing out there earlier.”
If Xavier does get a bid, Miller thinks the past few days could help his team. “Playing in the Big East Tournament is the NCAA Tournament. It feels the same. I mean, the crowd, the pageantry. If you lose, it’s over,” the coach said.
“Our guys in our locker room are devastated,” Miller added. “We wanted to play on that coveted Friday night in the Garden against St. John’s when [there are] only four teams left.”
Heat Check CBB’s Lukas Harkins had Xavier among the last four teams in coming into Thursday. Now, though, it may be another disappointing Selection Sunday for Miller & Co.
The old UConn showed up to end Villanova’s frustrating season
This year’s UConn team is often evaluated and measured against the two previous seasons. Admittedly, some of that is head coach Dan Hurley’s own doing, given the expectations he set at the start of the year. However, a bumpy conference run led to the Huskies earning the 3-seed in the Big East Tournament. Against Villanova on Thursday, they led for just 12:39 but a late 15-0 run stretched a four-point lead into a 73-56 win.
“You definitely had flashbacks of last year when we go on the big runs,” UConn senior Alex Karaban said. “It was more so just trying to go possession-by-possession, break them down slowly. I thought we did a good job of that heading into the under-eight media timeouts. It was a good job collectively as a unit. We were able to break them down slowly and just play our basketball.”
Villanova thrived primarily on Wooga Poplar isolations for the first 25 minutes, leading by nine midway through the first half. But as Hurley’s team picked up its intensity and coverage, the Wildcats couldn’t adjust to match UConn’s late surge. Villanova shot just 1-for-10 from the field to end the game.
“They made it hard for us to catch, made it hard for us to get to our sets,” Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune said. “They just came after us.”
The extra prep day for the defending national champions allowed them to gameplan for how to shut down Eric Dixon’s consistently excellent offensive game. Thursday was the first time in 47 appearances that Dixon failed to reach double digits, finishing with eight points on 2-for-15 shooting.
“He’s had a lot of great games throughout this season, his career,” Neptune said. “Going into this game, you’ve got probably a Hall of Fame coach game-planning to stop him. It makes it tough on him.”
UConn returns on Friday to play Creighton, which survived two overtimes against DePaul in the previous game. Jamiya Neal and Ryan Kalkbrenner played 50 and 47 minutes for the Bluejays, respectively. Meanwhile, Villanova’s season comes to a close, and there will be plenty of contemplation by the program on how they move forward after losing not just Dixon but their top four leading scorers.