St. John's finalizes non-conference schedule with four games against teams in last season's NCAA Tournament
St. John's coach Rick Pitino looks on in the second half of a Big East semifinal against UConn at Madison Square Garden on Friday, March 15, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
In its second season with Rick Pitino at the helm, St. John’s has upgraded its non-conference schedule significantly. The Red Storm will play four of those games against teams that competed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The school announced the finalized dates Wednesday.
St. John’s will play two of them on Nov. 21-22 in Nassau, Bahamas, in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship, where the three other teams are Tennessee, Virginia and Baylor — all who made the Big Dance last season. It also will host Wagner, which made the Big Dance last season, on Nov. 13 at Carnesecca Arena and New Mexico, coached by Pitino’s son Richard, on Nov. 17 at Madison Square Garden.
After the two-day tournament in the Bahamas, the Red Storm will remain there for a standalone game on Nov. 24 against a Georgia team that was an NIT semifinalist last season. That game will be played on nearby Paradise Island.
St. John’s did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in March. Playing an upgraded schedule has the potential to help it with the metrics used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee — if the team wins. The Storm’s resume was sabotaged last season with bad non-conference losses to Michigan and Boston College.
St. John’s opens the season on Nov. 4 at Carnesecca Arena against Fordham and will host Quinnipiac there five days later before the four straight games against the NCAA Tournament teams.
The other high-major team the Storm are playing is on Dec. 7 against Kansas State, which played in last season’s NIT, at a site to be determined.
The Storm’s three other non-conference games will all be at Carnesecca. They are Nov. 30 against Harvard, Dec. 11 against Bryant and Dec. 28 against Delaware.
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.