Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
The chant is like nails on a chalkboard to St. John\u2019s and its fans, especially when it happens inside Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cU-C-O-N-N, UConn, UConn, UConn\u201d is nightmare fuel for the Johnnies, bringing back painful memories of Connecticut fans overrunning the Garden during a pair of wins over the Johnnies in the arena last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunday afternoon, St. John\u2019s and its win-starved fan base can quiet those agitating tormentors at a sold-out MSG.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the most part of the season, it\u2019s always been like a sea of red, Johnnies fans packing MSG, and that\u2019s something that we need and that\u2019s something that we thrive off of,\u201d junior forward Zuby Ejiofor said. \u201cThe energy and the support that they show us on a given night is just something we expect coming up against UConn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time since the Huskies rejoined the Big East five years ago, the 10th-ranked Johnnies can sweep the back-to-back reigning national champions and officially end their pursuit of a second straight regular-season conference crown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In doing so, the Red Storm would be a step closer to the school\u2019s first outright regular-season league title since the 1984-85 campaign. <\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s enters Sunday\u2019s showdown two games up in the loss column on Creighton and three ahead of Connecticut and No. 16 Marquette with four games to go. <\/p>\n
A victory over the Huskies, and the odds of anyone catching the Red Storm lessen significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a big stage, such a big arena, such a big game coming up,\u201d sophomore guard Simeon Wilcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to put into words how excited I am, especially just for the environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will be UConn fans in the building, no doubt about that, but the Red Storm are expected to have the significant edge. <\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s fans have shown up during this breakout season, selling out last Sunday\u2019s win over Creighton, for instance. <\/p>\n
In seven Garden dates this season, the Johnnies\u2019 average attendance has been 16,188, an impressive number in a pro town. <\/p>\n
New York City has wrapped its arms around this gritty team, which hasn\u2019t lost at full strength since New Year\u2019s Eve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re gonna show out, believe me,\u201d coach Rick Pitino said of the St. John\u2019s fans. \u201cI mean, we already have 16,000 seats sold for Seton Hall, so they\u2019re going to show up. But Connecticut\u2019s the Kentucky of the East. They travel great, and they show up everywhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was some uncertainty if St. John\u2019s would be whole against Connecticut. Leading scorer RJ Luis is dealing with a pulled groin and missed Wednesday\u2019s win over DePaul. <\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/p>\n
But Luis practiced Saturday and is trending toward being available. That is good news for St. John\u2019s (23-4, 14-2), which went a month without a healthy Deivon Smith \u2014 the lead guard who looked like his pre-injury self against DePaul \u2014 and only lost once, at Villanova, in that span.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With or without Luis, St. John\u2019s will have plenty of confidence it can beat Connecticut. <\/p>\n
It already topped the Huskies on Feb. 7 in Storrs, Conn., and did so despite what Pitino felt was a mistake-filled performance. <\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s spotted UConn a 14-point lead, then rallied behind a dominant defensive effort in which the Huskies were held to 32 points over the final 31:38.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That victory came at the outset of a difficult six-game stretch that was a litmus test for St. John\u2019s. <\/p>\n
It included meetings with upper-echelon Big East foes Villanova, Marquette, Creighton and two matchups against Connecticut. <\/p>\n
So far, the Johnnies are 4-1. <\/p>\n
The supposed gauntlet comes to a close Sunday, offering the Red Storm an opportunity to put an exclamation point at the end of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know exactly what\u2019s at [stake],\u201d Ejiofor said. \u201cWe just got to get it done, whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The chant is like nails on a chalkboard to St. John\u2019s and its fans, especially when it happens inside Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 \u201cU-C-O-N-N, UConn, UConn, UConn\u201d is nightmare fuel for the Johnnies, bringing back painful memories of Connecticut fans overrunning the Garden during a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-217267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217269,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217267\/revisions\/217269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}