No. 13 St. John's and No. 6 UConn eye another clash in Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden

"It's still not over. It's just beginning. We have won back-to-back championships with two different teams, and that's not easy to do. There's been one common denominator, and that's the young man to my left (Ejiofor). Indeed, the 6-foot-9, 245-pound senior forward is the biggest reason in sneakers that St. John's has scaled such heights the past two seasons."

"The team has won 39 of its past 43 games against Big East opponents, including a 3-1 record versus UConn. The rivals didn't meet in last year's tournament dominated by the Red Storm, who sailed through all three rounds by at least 16 points. This from a program that had gone 32 years without a Big East regular-season championship."

"In his third season at the school, the 73-year-old coach brings St. John's (25-6, 18-2) into this Big East Tournament with the top seed for the second year in a row. It's awesome because this didn't start in November. This started back in June, with summer workouts with these guys."

St. John's and UConn have transformed the Big East into a two-team race, with the 13th-ranked Red Storm emerging as the conference's dominant force. Led by senior forward Zuby Ejiofor and Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, St. John's has won 39 of its last 43 Big East games, including a 3-1 record against UConn. The program has secured back-to-back outright conference championships and won last year's Big East Tournament by at least 16 points in all three rounds. This success marks a dramatic turnaround for a program that hadn't won a Big East regular-season title in 32 years and hadn't reached tournament semifinals from 2001-23. Pitino's arrival has transformed St. John's into a championship contender, with the team entering this year's tournament as the top seed.

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