To Defeat Rick Pitino, UConn's Dan Hurley Needs 'Ferocious' Tarris Reed Jr.

The junior center needs to be at his most dominant for UConn to win on Sunday

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As the UConn Huskies prepare to do battle against the St. John’s Red Storm on Sunday, Huskies head coach Dan Hurley has a message for his junior center.

Speaking to reporters during a pregame media availability session on Saturday, Hurley implored his big man transfer from Michigan to get mean versus Rick Pitino and the Johnnies.

"We're going to need the best, most ferocious version of Tarris [Reed Jr.],” Hurley said.

It’s not that Reed Jr. was bad against St. John’s during UConn’s first meeting with the Red Storm.

In a home loss on February 7 versus the Johnnies, Reed Jr. pulled down 15 rebounds to go along with 12 points and three blocks in 32 minutes of action.

Reed Jr. will need a similar performance on Sunday at Madison Square Garden against a St. John’s squad that is 23-4 and 14-2 in the Big East, good for first place in the conference.

It’s a chance for unranked, 18-8 UConn to stack a statement win, which would be its second such win of the year at MSG. Back in December, the Huskies defeated Gonzaga in a coming out party of sorts for freshman stud Liam McNeeley.

Both McNeeley and Reed Jr. will need to perform at their best for Hurley’s club to pull off a W on Sunday.

Reed Jr. is averaging 9.2 points and 6.9 rebounds on 65.3 percent shooting from the field this season.

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