John Minko and Noah Eagle along for the St. John's ride in the Big East Tournament
John Minko is thrilled by St. John’s return to national prominence: “I’ll enjoy it more (looking back) after the season. But I have to admit, this has been pretty good.” Credit: Newsday/Roger Rubin
John Minko has been a professional broadcaster for a half-century, but he cannot recall having a feeling quite like this one before.
He goes to sleep thinking of St. John’s basketball and wakes up thinking about St. John’s basketball. Don’t bet against him dreaming about it, too.
“It’s on my mind all the time,” the Red Storm’s radio announcer told Newsday on Monday after spending three hours studying potential Big East Tournament quarterfinal opponents and getting a head start on possible semifinal foes.
“I’ve never had that in 50 years doing play-by-play of some type. I’ll enjoy it more (looking back) after the season. But I have to admit, this has been pretty good.”
It has been that kind of season for St. John’s, which is 27-4 and ranked sixth in the nation. The Red Storm will face either Butler (Minko’s alma mater) or Providence in a quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden at noon on Thursday.
The good vibrations have energized the program’s long-suffering fans, of course, in addition to coach Rick Pitino and his staff and players.
But announcers have feelings, too, and this week resonates for both Minko, 72, and his video counterpart, Noah Eagle, 28, who will call Thursday’s game on Peacock.
Minko has been doing play-by-play for St. John’s games since 2008, a job that five years after he retired as a WFAN update man has kept him busy and invigorated.
It also has kept him on his old station.
On Monday morning, there were multiple replays of his call of Saturday’s buzzer-beating overtime winner at Marquette.
“How about that?!” he said with a laugh.
Minko remains in touch with some old WFAN colleagues, including Ed Coleman, who recently congratulated him for this dream season.
“I said, ‘I had nothing to do with it!’ ” Minko recalled. “I’m just hitched up to the ride.”
Eagle, 44 years Minko’s junior, has called only one St. John’s game this season, but he has Thursday’s, part of Peacock’s deal to carry all three first-round games on Wednesday and the first two quarterfinals.
For someone who grew up in New Jersey and recalls going to Big East games as a child with his sportscaster father, Ian, this matchup is special.
“It would be hard for me to say I wasn't slightly rooting for them to be in that time slot,” Eagle told Newsday. “It's really what anybody would want who's in this position.”
That is because of the energy and buzz he knows every Red Storm game this week will bring to the Garden.
Eagle lives in Manhattan and has soaked in the phenomenon firsthand.
“Just walking around, you hear it, you feel it, you see it,” he said. “That's different. We haven't had that with St John's for a very long time.
“I had them at Carnesecca (Arena) early in the season, when you could start to see that they could be a really good team, and now where you've seen the actual finished product heading into postseason play is really cool.”
Eagle went to Syracuse, but he knows many St. John’s fans. One of them will be sitting next to him on Thursday: his statistics man, St. John’s alumnus Tyler Fried.
The Big East Tournament is just the latest resume addition for Eagle, a rising star at NBC, where he will be part of its new NBA package next season.
“It’s been a great time to be at the network as a huge basketball hoop head, a hoop junkie,” he said. “I couldn't ask for any better timing.”
It is a sign of the times that both Eagle and Minko will be on streaming services rather than traditional television and radio on Thursday. Peacock is NBC Universal’s streaming service and has been expanding its live sports offerings, including an NFL playoff game in 2024. Minko’s broadcasts are heard on a variety of streaming platforms, including St. John’s own website as well as The Varsity Network, TuneIn Radio and SiriusXM.
The semifinals and finals will be televised by Fox, but for the quarterfinals, fans who do not subscribe to Peacock will have to rely more than ever on Minko.
That’s fine with him. It’s just one more reason to enjoy the ride.
Minko said the only feeling he can compare this with was covering the famed Indiana state high school basketball tournament when he was very early in his career.
But he was a young man then. Now he is a septuagenarian — and as engaged as he ever has been.
Minko said when he checks out the Vice TV series, “Pitino: Red Storm Rising,” he marvels at his front-row seat.
“I'm watching these episodes and enjoying them,” he said, “but I also sit back and say, ‘You know what? I'm living this. What I'm watching on television here, I'm living.’ It makes it even more special what's happened in Queens.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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