Do the UConn men have a basketball rivalry with St. John's?

There is an awesome commercial from about 10 years ago with Alec Baldwin (Yankees fan) and John Krasinski (Red Sox fan) where Krasinski calls Baldwin at a party and starts going on about if he's ready for the "rivalry" and Baldwin is like "John, John, John...does fire have a rivalry with kindling? Does a lawn mower have a rivalry with grass? Does the US have a rivalry with Costa Rica?"

That's pretty much where I am on our "rivalry" with UConn under present circumstances.
 
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Mullins Revenge said:
No, there is no rivalry. You need to be competitive to be part of a rivalry. We have not been.

If we can get back to being a perennial top 15 team year in and year out and Uconn stays at the top of their game, yes this will become a big rivalry.

But a team that is as bad as St Johns has been isnt a rival to anyone.
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Correct, we are currently Huak Tuah. We shouldn't worry about any rivalry until we can be consistently good.
 
A quarter century without a Dance win is not the formula to spawn rivalries lol. Like Rick said, start winning big in conference play and impact the Dance and go from there.
 
paultzman said:
A quarter century without a Dance win is not the formula to spawn rivalries lol. Like Rick said, start winning big in conference play and impact the Dance and go from there.
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yes, so how many NCAA wins has Uconn had since we had our last one, asking for a friend.

A LOT.
 
austour said:
True, but Smith and Wooden did not have a natty by 50, Hurley and K had 2.
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Yeah, what you pointed out, austour, makes sense. Hurley is more like K than he is like Wooden and Smith. I am thinking demeanor, and the way they carried themselves more than anything else.
 
Jack Williams said:
I guess everyone's definition of rivalry may be different, but I'd argue our postseason success compared to UConn's is completely irrelevant to whether or not we could be rivals.
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It’s only the team on the bottom who agrees there
 
Amaseinyourface said:
It’s only the team on the bottom who agrees there
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I can think of plenty of rivalries out there where the superior team would consider it a rivalry despite the inferior team having little to no recent postseason success. Jets vs Patriots anyone? Bears/Packers?

Sometimes teams have frequent matchups and it leads to bad blood for each other that goes both ways. I'd argue UConn/SJU semifinal this year had more juice than any other BET game. Hurley/Pitino butt heads, our fans don't like UConn fans invading the garden, UConn fans claim the garden as their home and relish in defeating a New York team. To me these are ingredients that point to something being a rivalry or on the doorstep of being one

When Pitino beats Hurley this year it is only going to intensify
 
Jack Williams said:
I can think of plenty of rivalries out there where the superior team would consider it a rivalry despite the inferior team having little to no recent postseason success. Jets vs Patriots anyone? Bears/Packers?

Sometimes teams have frequent matchups and it leads to bad blood for each other that goes both ways. I'd argue UConn/SJU semifinal this year had more juice than any other BET game. Hurley/Pitino butt heads, our fans don't like UConn fans invading the garden, UConn fans claim the garden as their home and relish in defeating a New York team. To me these are ingredients that point to something being a rivalry or on the doorstep of being one

When Pitino beats Hurley this year it is only going to intensify
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I'm a big Braves fan, and I still acknowledge the rivalry with the Mets , even though they are typically a joke every season 😁
 
Jack Williams said:
I can think of plenty of rivalries out there where the superior team would consider it a rivalry despite the inferior team having little to no recent postseason success. Jets vs Patriots anyone? Bears/Packers?

Sometimes teams have frequent matchups and it leads to bad blood for each other that goes both ways. I'd argue UConn/SJU semifinal this year had more juice than any other BET game. Hurley/Pitino butt heads, our fans don't like UConn fans invading the garden, UConn fans claim the garden as their home and relish in defeating a New York team. To me these are ingredients that point to something being a rivalry or on the doorstep of being one

When Pitino beats Hurley this year it is only going to intensify
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I think it’s a bit different at professional level when most teams have some success or history of success. Those rivalries are built over time. We’ve never really been humming while uconn has been and vice versa. Aside from a couple years in late 90s.

And while I’m sure Jets love to point towards the pats, do the pats really feel the same way? I don’t think they do, but I’m not a pats fan. That’s my only point.
 
Obviously if you compare NC’s and FF’s, there is no rivalry. But…..

The overall head to head record backs the claim of a historical rivalry. The programs have met 71 times with St. John’s leading 37-34.

The breakdown:
NCAA Tournament (1-0) 1951
NIT Tournament (0-1) 1974
Big East Conference (33-31)
Big East Tournament (3-2)

at Madison Sq Garden (13-15)
at Alumni Hall/CA (11-0)
at HCC/XL Center. (9-8)
at Gampel Pavilion (4-11)

Frank McGuire (1-0)
Lou Carnesecca (23-5)
Brian Mahoney (1-8)
Fran Fraschilla (2-1)
Mike Jarvis (5-6)
Kevin Clark (0-1)
Norm Roberts (1-6)
Steve Lavin (2-1)
Chris Mullin (0-0)
Mike Anderson (2-3)
Rick Pitino (0-3)

vs Hugh Greer (1-0)
vs Donald Rowe (0-1)
vs Dom Perno (13-1)
vs Jim Calhoun (20-26)
vs Kevin Ollie (1-0)
vs Dan Hurley (2-6)
 
Amaseinyourface said:
I think it’s a bit different at professional level when most teams have some success or history of success. Those rivalries are built over time. We’ve never really been humming while uconn has been and vice versa. Aside from a couple years in late 90s.

And while I’m sure Jets love to point towards the pats, do the pats really feel the same way? I don’t think they do, but I’m not a pats fan. That’s my only point.
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I just think there are factors outside of “success” that can lead to two teams being rivals, which is my argument for SJU/Conn potentially being one.

Take Jets/Pats. Current day, I don’t know if they’d consider each other rivals. It depends on the fan you ask, or the player/coach you ask.

But what I do know is there was absolutely bad blood between the teams during the belicheck era. There were reasons for this. Bill B infamously spurned the jets by resigning on a napkin. Then went to another team in the division. That coupled with there already being bad blood between NY/Boston fans, led to a rivarly. This was the case despite the jets being pretty mediocre for most of the past 25 years. There’s a reason Tom Brady still to this day has random jabs at the jets when he’s interviewed.

In the case of St. John’s/UConn, there are similar such factors at play. Rick has publicly critiqued Danny when guest appearing on podcasts, calling out his treatment of refs. Danny Hurley is a competitive S.O.B, you know he’s using that as fuel and using it to pump up his players when we meet. Which I think leads to SJU/UConnn games having an added edge to them.

From the fan side, you probably couldn’t get UConn fans to admit they view SJU as a rival. They feel superior to everyone else right now, rightfully so, they might not consider anyone a rival. But they do take pride in their record at MSG, and enjoy bragging at St. John’s fans about their success in our house. “Storrs South”

I was at the St. John’s UConn game at MSG this past season. The environment felt a lot like a rivalry to me. There was constant jawing, I partook quite a bit myself. Johnnie fans want to beat UConn and they hate Danny and his antics (well some of us do), UConn fans take pride in dominating in MSG and want to continue to hold that over their heads, and they also don’t like Rick. You could feel that conflict, that energy in the building when we played. Sure we had to walk out with our heads down, but to me the seeds have been planted for a brewing rivalry that will build the more Pitino and Hurley duel

Us not winning NCAA tournament games over the past 25 To me plays very little role in the above
 
Jack Williams said:
I just think there are factors outside of “success” that can lead to two teams being rivals, which is my argument for SJU/Conn potentially being one.

Take Jets/Pats. Current day, I don’t know if they’d consider each other rivals. It depends on the fan you ask, or the player/coach you ask.

But what I do know is there was absolutely bad blood between the teams during the belicheck era. There were reasons for this. Bill B infamously spurned the jets by resigning on a napkin. Then went to another team in the division. That coupled with there already being bad blood between NY/Boston fans, led to a rivarly. This was the case despite the jets being pretty mediocre for most of the past 25 years. There’s a reason Tom Brady still to this day has random jabs at the jets when he’s interviewed.

In the case of St. John’s/UConn, there are similar such factors at play. Rick has publicly critiqued Danny when guest appearing on podcasts, calling out his treatment of refs. Danny Hurley is a competitive S.O.B, you know he’s using that as fuel and using it to pump up his players when we meet. Which I think leads to SJU/UConnn games having an added edge to them.

From the fan side, you probably couldn’t get UConn fans to admit they view SJU as a rival. They feel superior to everyone else right now, rightfully so, they might not consider anyone a rival. But they do take pride in their record at MSG, and enjoy bragging at St. John’s fans about their success in our house. “Storrs South”

I was at the St. John’s UConn game at MSG this past season. The environment felt a lot like a rivalry to me. There was constant jawing, I partook quite a bit myself. Johnnie fans want to beat UConn and they hate Danny and his antics (well some of us do), UConn fans take pride in dominating in MSG and want to continue to hold that over their heads, and they also don’t like Rick. You could feel that conflict, that energy in the building when we played. Sure we had to walk out with our heads down, but to me the seeds have been planted for a brewing rivalry that will build the more Pitino and Hurley duel

Us not winning NCAA tournament games over the past 25 To me plays very little role in the above
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I agree Jack. They draw crazy well. Still pisses me off how much they spend. Lots of red in the lower bowl.
They've ALREADY sold out their season ticket for the coming season. How many colleges can pull that off.

Men’s basketball season tickets are SOLD OUT for the 2024-25 season. This milestone marks the best season tickets sales in the last 20 years. More information on men’s basketball mini-plans and/or single games tickets will be announced in the coming months.
 
espken said:
Obviously if you compare NC’s and FF’s, there is no rivalry. But…..

The overall head to head record backs the claim of a historical rivalry. The programs have met 71 times with St. John’s leading 37-34.

The breakdown:
NCAA Tournament (1-0) 1951
NIT Tournament (0-1) 1974
Big East Conference (33-31)
Big East Tournament (3-2)

at Madison Sq Garden (13-15)
at Alumni Hall/CA (11-0)
at HCC/XL Center. (9-8)
at Gampel Pavilion (4-11)

Frank McGuire (1-0)
Lou Carnesecca (23-5)
Brian Mahoney (1-8)
Fran Fraschilla (2-1)
Mike Jarvis (5-6)
Kevin Clark (0-1)
Norm Roberts (1-6)
Steve Lavin (2-1)
Chris Mullin (0-0)
Mike Anderson (2-3)
Rick Pitino (0-3)

vs Hugh Greer (1-0)
vs Donald Rowe (0-1)
vs Dom Perno (13-1)
vs Jim Calhoun (20-26)
vs Kevin Ollie (1-0)
vs Dan Hurley (2-6)
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I looked at the stats and the answer is clear. We should only play them at CA and LC should be our coach.
 
It could be a rivalry especially if we got good owned the ny papers, where no one in Metropolitan/Tri-State area would care about them then yes. AAC years were bad for them. At end of day who wants to celebrate a championship in a shit hole like Hartford.
 
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