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The University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team will travel to the Big Apple Wednesday to take on the St. John’s Red Storm at historic Madison Square Garden in downtown New York City.

The game will be the second leg of a home-and-away series between the two squads this season — the first of which left the Bearcats with a bitter taste in their mouths.

St. Johns (10-13, Big East 4-7) won the game on a Moe Harkless buzzer-beating tip in; the loss was UC’s first in Big East play, and also snapped an impressive seven-game winning streak for the Bearcats (16-7, Big East 6-4).

In that contest, the Cats shot just 26 percent from the field, including an abysmal 21 percent (7-of-34) from behind the 3-point line.

UC head coach Mick Cronin points to poor shot selection as the biggest factor in UC’s losses this season.

“Whenever we struggle, it’s because were putting up tough shots instead of putting in more effort on the offensive end to break down the defense,” Cronin said. “We are still taking too many rough shots — far too many tough shots — and part of the guards playing well is getting the ball inside.”

As he alluded to in that statement, Cronin knows that his guards are capable of performing better, and he expects them to do so as the Cats hit the backstretch of their Big East conference schedule.

“Our guards are more than capable of playing better for 40 minutes,” he said. “We have enough guard play and enough talent at that position to where those guys have got to play well for us. Justin [Jackson] and Yancy [Gates] are relying on them to break down the defense and take good shots, so that they can get better rebounding opportunities and work in the paint.”

Just as when these two teams met a month ago, St. John’s is coming off of a loss and will be looking to bounce back with a solid win against a superior opponent.

According to high-flying UC sophomore Justin Jackson — who is coming off of an impressive career-high 14-point performance on perfect 5-of-5 shooting — The Bearcats will not underestimate the young St. John’s squad again.

“We have a totally different mindset — we know we lost to this team — and we feel that we didn’t play up to our potential,” Jackson said. “We’re going into New York with a much different mindset about getting a W.”

The Cats must control probable Big East Freshman of the Year Deangelo Harrison (16.4 ppg) and show more patience on the offensive end to defeat the Red Storm and improve their March Madness resume.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.