Rick Pitino and St. John's men's basketball team to appear on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'
St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino speaks to the fans after defeating the Seton Hall Pirates 71-61 to win the Big East regular-season championship at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Brad Penner
St. John’s isn’t just the sixth-ranked team in the nation, the Red Storm have also become television celebrities.
The St. John’s players and coach Rick Pitino will be guests on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Thursday night.
They are very much in demand, especially since winning their first Big East regular-season championship in 40 years. Pitino and RJ Luis Jr. were on CBS’ “Inside College Basketball" on Sunday afternoon and then Pitino was a guest on WNBC’s “Sports Final” late Sunday night.
And their spectacular season has been chronicled weekly in the VICE docuseries “Pitino: Red Storm Rising” each Tuesday night since the second week of February. The docuseries was initially slated for six episodes, but the network is considering adding episodes.
The appearance on the "Tonight Show" will air Thursday night at 11:35 and will be available to be streamed the following day on Peacock.
St. John’s (26-4, 17-2) will play its last regular-season game on Saturday at No. 20 Marquette (22-7, 13-5) and will be the top seed in the Big East Tournament at the Garden March 12-15.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.