"You play, what, 36 games, and you try to put yourself in this situation as often as you can. I think every team that's here knows that this weekend is probably the biggest weekend of the year."
For the first time ever, the St. John's Red Storm are back-to-back Big East champions after defeating UConn in a wire-to-wire 72-52 win in the conference title game on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. When these teams last met, the Huskies handed the Johnnies a humbling 32-point loss, snapping the team's 13-game winning streak and leaving them eager for redemption.
Rhode Island outscores opponents by 4.0 points per game (scoring 72.4 per game to rank 267th in college basketball while allowing 68.4 per contest to rank 53rd in college basketball) and has a +96 scoring differential overall. The Rhode Island Rams are averaging 72.4 points, 7.3 more than the Fordham Rams give up. Rhode Island makes 7.3 three-pointers per game (239th in college basketball), while its opponents have made 7.8 on average.
