STORRS — UConn ran up against “grown men” at The Garden last week, and were manhandled in their first Big East loss. To the eye, that just looked like a bad matchup for the Huskies, and adjustments will have to be made when they see St. John’s again.
UConn, though, has a grown man at point guard, and Silas Demary Jr. owned his nine turnovers, his missed free throws, and will wear them for a bit the way grown men do.
“Accountability, I’ve got to be better with the ball,” Demary said, when he met the state’s media Monday. “Nine turnovers is unacceptable. That’s basically what it is. I’ve got to be better with the ball, especially being the primary PG on the floor, I’ve got to be better, smarter decisions, just be aware of defenders getting up underneath me.”
The nine turnovers were more than Demary had in the Huskies’ previous five games combined. He’s leading the Big East in assists, 6.1 per game, and had been leading in assist-to-turnover ratio before that 5-to-9 dropped him, but he is still a solid 2.7-to-1. UConn lured him out of the transfer portal from Georgia to solidify its court-generalship, so vital to the kind of offense Dan Hurley likes to run. The Huskies’ 22-2 record, far more than any one game, shows how well it has worked out. Even against St. John’s, things really fell apart when Demary wasn’t out there.
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But there is this red flag: Only once has Demary had more than nine turnovers in a game, and it, too, was against Rick Pitino’s brand of pressure, against St. John’s in November 2024. The only time he has anywhere near that many was eight against a Marquette, also a pressure team, last season.
So handling pressure defense is going to be a key for UConn going forward. Other teams will surely try more of it now, even if they are not as proficient as the Johnnies.
“There’s times of weakness, not being on ten toes all the time, just not being aware,” Demary said. “Just be better, be more mindful of it.”
UConn has a history of succeeding in conference “rematches,” also known as “revenge tours.” Right now, the tour has only one stop scheduled, St. John’s in Hartford Feb. 25. To make that meaningful, make it a winner-take-all for the Big East regular season title, Demary and the Huskies need a bounce back at Butler on Wednesday night, or as coach Dan Hurley puts it, a “championship-level response.”
It’s easy, too easy, to overreact to individual games, especially in 2025-26. This has been an exciting year for college basketball, on the court and, finally with the latest, order-preserving Charles Bediako ruling, in court. There have been excellent matchups, exciting finishes, and the men’s bracket figures to make March Madness even more compelling than usual.
The Big East may appear down, or top heavy using certain measures, but it has played out much as usual, with the teams in the middle and closer to the bottom nonetheless dangerous to the teams near the top. Note, as formidable as St. John’s looked against UConn, the Red Storm was taken to overtime Monday night at the Garden by Xavier in the Pitino-vs.-Pitino classic. UConn beat Xavier handily just last week.
So for UConn nothing between now and the rematch with St. John’s should be taken for granted, not Wednesday at storied Hinkle Fieldhouse, not Saturday against Georgetown, Feb. 18 vs. Creighton nor Feb. 21 at Villanova. The courts will be the same size, the rims the same height and diameter; UConn is capable of running the table, but can be tripped up at any time. The Huskies won 18 in a row before Friday, but can’t count trophies before they’re snatched.
“A lot of the things the coaches have been asking us to do came out Friday,” Demary said. “It’s a wake-up call, it’s something that we’ve got to fix, and fix fast, because postseason is near, and once we get to the postseason it’s one-and-done.”
Despite his nine turnovers, Demary carried UConn, down 11 points, back into the game down the stretch and finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, showing why Pitino wanted him in the portal.
“It just prepares you for the second matchup,” he said. “You kind of see what works and what doesn’t and the next time we play them, you’ve got to use the things that worked and the things that didn’t, you’ve got to throw them out the window and find more positive than negative.”
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The time between games was valuable, too, for Demary to work on free throws. He’s hitting 78.8 percent for the season, but missed 3 of 6 vs. St. John’s, including a big and-one opportunity down the stretch that affected the strategy. It’s come up a couple of times, such as the tighter-than-necessary win at Georgetown.
“For me, I shot a lot of free throws (since the game), it was unacceptable to miss those free throws down the stretch,” Demary said. “Just getting in the routine, getting the mental confidence back. … Coach Kimani (Young) has been telling me, every time I step to the line, ‘tell yourself it’s going in every time.’ Just having the confidence and not making the free throw more than what it is, it’s a routine shot, just get to the line, make it routine and knock it down.”
At UConn, Silas Demary Jr. has been a huge factor in the numerous close games that were salted away down the stretch, vs. BYU, at Providence and Seton Hall jump out. He has been the floor general the Huskies were lacking last year, and when he falls short he does not hide, does not have to be shielded. The is not a guy who shrugs off the unacceptable.
“For us to win and do the things we want to do, we’ve got to be accountable to ourselves,” Demary said. “We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror, and not let what happened Friday happen again. We’ve got to be tougher, we’ve got to be better in all aspects of the game. … (St. John’s) was the tougher team. Sometimes it’s hard to admit that, but sometimes you’ve got to be real and understand what you’ve got to do to fix that.”