BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
For schools with followings as large as the blue bloods of college basketball, at times, neutral site games can feel more like road games for the opponents. That is exactly what St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino expects to feel when his team takes on Kentucky in Atlanta on Saturday.
“It will be a hell of a game,” Pitino said. “It will be a tough game. We know that… When you go to Atlanta, they call it in Kentucky, in Lexington, they call it ‘Catlanta’. They’ll have about 6/7,000 of their fans, so it’ll be somewhat of a road game.”
St. John’s is 0-3 against ranked opponents so far this season but for Kentucky it has been a particularly difficult start for a team with major expectations and a major NIL budget.
The Wildcats are unranked at 7-4 on the season and 0-4 against ranked opponents. Head coach Mark Pope has, on several occasions, seemed discouraged by the team’s lack of effort and togetherness over the course of this difficult stretch.
St. John’s, on the other hand, has been making strides to get to the calibur of team they were expected to be before the start of the season but has yet to come across a true statement victory this season.
Saturday’s matchup between the two teams could be an indicator as to the direction both programs are heading in.
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