St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino is expecting a defensive battle when his team takes on Kentucky this weekend.
Going into Saturday’s showdown in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena (12:30 p.m. ET | CBS), St. John’s and Kentucky rank neck-and-neck in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency stat — in fact, they boast the exact same number of 96.5. That’s good enough to rank the Red Storm at 15th nationally and the Wildcats at 16th nationally (one team has to be ahead of the other).
Pitino’s squad is coming off a win over DePaul on Tuesday night that saw them give up only 66 points in a 13-point victory.