Carnesecca Enviornment goes to get a high-profile league recreation subsequent yr.
After St. John’s knocked off Hofstra, 84-79, at UBS Enviornment on Saturday, Rick Pitino made the shock announcement that he plans to play Connecticut within the small on-campus fitness center subsequent yr fairly than Madison Sq. Backyard.
Requested if he was critical about that, Pitino responded: “100%. We’re taking part in them at Carnesecca. It’s undoubtedly not a joke. I’ve my causes.”
Pitino was being requested concerning the completely different venues St. John’s performs at, and if he was disillusioned concerning the restricted crowd of seven,486 at UBS Enviornment on Saturday.
“We didn’t sell-out towards Xavier. We didn’t have anyone come to Barclays [Center]. We don’t have an abundance of followers,” he mentioned. “We’re not UConn or Villanova with followers, and there’s a purpose. We misplaced the model. Louie [Carnesecca] has been gone a very long time. So we received to construct the model again and the individuals will come again.
“This can be a fabulous place. Locker rooms are nice — all the things about it’s nice. We solely had like 7,400 individuals immediately. At Barclays [Center] we had 54 of my household and pals, and 11 individuals from St. John’s. So the Backyard is one of the best place to play, and proper now the one recreation that’s going to be performed subsequent yr at Carnesecca is Connecticut. Each different recreation we’re going to barter.”
Connecticut followers have taken over the Backyard because the Huskies returned to the Massive East in 2020.
This is able to be one method to neutralize them.
The 2 groups meet this yr at MSG on Feb. 3.
St. John’s final performed UConn at Carnesecca Enviornment in 1990.