There were many times when I didn’t want to write the above headline because I feared it was an uneducated or biased opinion. Tonight, Thursday night at about 10 p.m., I can easily say St. John’s senior guard Dwight Hardy is my No. 1 point guard in the Big East Conference.
On the sporting world’s biggest stage, Hardy netted a collegiate-best 33 points to help the Red Storm upset the Connecticut Huskies, 89-72, in a Big East contest at Madison Square Garden. Hardy, who at one point netted 12-straight points in the second half, single handily put the Johnnies on his back and led them to a much needed league victory. St. John’s (14-9, 6-5 Big East) now has won three of its last four games and is tied with four other teams for seventh place in the league standings — that doesn’t sound impressive, but trust me it is.
Senior forward D.J. Kennedy added a season-best 20 points and a game-best 11 rebounds for St. John’s, which owned UConn (No. 10 in the AP poll and No. 9 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll) from the opening tip. The Huskies (18-5, 6-5) began the game 2-of-12 from the floor and didn’t improve — UConn finished 24-of-64 (37.5 percent). The Red Storm just out hustled and out played the Huskies, who have lost three of their last four games.
The game’s conclusion may have been a result of UConn just having a young-roster hiccup; or St. John’s getting better and better as then season progresses. Considering that Hardy netted 32 points against the UCLA Bruins last Saturday, I’d take the latter.