“We wanted to be as the last moment in that episode the team sitting down with the coach, finding out where they were going to be seeded,” Vice TV president Peter Gaffney told Newsday. Sometimes plans change, though, especially when the planner-in-chief is Rick Pitino.

In a 12 o'clock matinee at Madison Square Garden, St. John's dominated UConn and was able to secure the first regular season sweep of the Huskies since the 1999-2000 season. Rick Pitino has led the Red Storm to the school's best winning percentage in Big East play in 40 years with three more games to go.

St. John’s basketball jumped to No. 7 in the Associated Press top-25 poll, marking the highest the Red Storm have been in the poll in 33 years and even longer since they’ve been ranked this high this late in the season.