St. John's to play Kentucky next season in marquee matchup
St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino during the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament Final against the Creighton Bluejays at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s will participate in one of the college basketball’s signature non-conference events next season when it plays Kentucky at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena in the annual CBS Sports Classic on Dec. 20.
The game not only has Red Storm coach Rick Pitino squaring off against the program that he took to the 1996 national championship but also its second-year coach Mark Pope, who was the team captain of the Pitino-coached national champion. That team had nine future NBA players and is considered one of the greatest college teams ever assembled.
“Obviously, Kentucky was Camelot for me, I’ve said it many times,” Pitino said in an announcement of the game. “So now to play against The Captain, who made so many special moments for me and the team, in a battle that CBS is putting on is quite special. I will remember it for a long, long time.”
This is the 11th year of the two-game event; Ohio State will meet North Carolina in the other game. The Classic traditional had UCLA along with Kentucky, Ohio State and UNC, but the Bruins and Buckeyes are now both members of the Big Ten.
The neutral-site event has been played in New York three times: at Barclays Center in 2015 and at Madison Square Garden in 2022 and 2024. It’s unclear whether St. John’s will become an annual participant and what it could mean for the 2026 games that are scheduled to be played at the Garden.
Pitino has said that he wanted St. John’s and Kentucky to play a home-and-home series. He also said playing an exhibition game against the Wildcats was a consideration.
St. John’s appears to have a formidable non-conference schedule next season. It has a Dec. 6 game against Ole Miss scheduled for the Garden and will be playing three games in a loaded field at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas in late November.
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.
