The St. John’s-Connecticut rivalry, dormant for many years, is starting to develop some sizzle.
And, naturally, it revolves around the two headstrong coaches, Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley.
Over the last few days, both have taken passive-aggressive shots at one another over where a game will be played next season.
The fourth-ranked Huskies narrowly got by the Johnnies in Hartford just more than a week ago.
In discussing the different venues St. John’s has played at this year, Pitino created headlines by saying he planned to play UConn at Carnesecca Arena next year.
“So the Garden is the best place to play, and right now the only game that’s going to be played next year at Carnesecca is Connecticut. Every other game we’re going to negotiate,” he said Saturday after a tight win over Hofstra at UBS Arena.
Asked if he was serious about that, Pitino responded, “One hundred percent. We’re playing them at Carnesecca. It’s definitely not a joke. I have my reasons.”
One of those reasons, it is believed, was to tweak Hurley.
St. John’s and Pitino felt Hurley’s sideline behavior in the UConn win was inappropriate, according to sources.
Another is that Huskies fans have flooded the Garden when they play St. John’s.
Asked about Pitino’s comments Monday, Hurley had a response.
“Listen, when you’ve been ranked in the top-five or whatever we’ve been the whole year, and you’re the defending national champs and you’ve had all the success we’ve had at UConn, everyone’s gunning for us,” Hurley said. “Everyone’s trying to get what we have. We’ve won four national championships since 2000 here at UConn. They haven’t had much success since then, especially when they went from Fran [Fraschilla] to Mike Jarvis and they had those real good teams with Ron Artest.
“They’re trying to do what they need to do to build their program up,” he went on. “But, anyone not named Duke, Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky — I’m probably going to miss a couple of [teams] here — they’re all going for where we’re at. We’ve had unbelievable success here in basketball. There are programs who haven’t been to a Final Four, or haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 20 years, so there’s obviously a lot of punching up.”
St. John’s associate head coach Steve Masiello, who played for Pitino at Kentucky and coached under him at Louisville, tweeted in response: “I think Coach Pitino stopped punching up after his 5th Final 4, or was it his 6th ? no wait. I think it was after his 7th!”
Ironically, where St. John’s home game against Connecticut will be played next season may not be solely its decision in the end. There is a Big East policy that states that if a school plays more than two home games at a public venue, the commissioner has the power to mandate that the two highest-profile games be played at that location.
“The host school may not move a contest for competitive reasons,” the policy states.
Another factor is that St. John’s is in a partnership with the Garden, and MSG no doubt would want the Connecticut game to be played there.
The last time St. John’s played UConn at Carnesecca Arena was 1990.
For now, that’s a next year question, if Pitino is in fact serious about playing the game in Queens and whether the league and/or the Garden will step in.
What is certain, though, is that there is spice to this rivalry.
Feb. 3, when Connecticut visits the Garden to play the Johnnies, should be an electric afternoon.
