St. John’s, the reigning Big East regular-season and tournament champion and the preseason No. 1 team in some national polls, unveiled its complete 11-game non-conference schedule for the 2025-26 campaign on Tuesday.
The Johnnies out-of-conference slate features four games against teams that finished the 2024-25 season ranked in the final Associated Press Poll Top-25 in Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa State and Ole Miss. The non-conference schedule features seven regular season home games, including three at Madison Square Garden and will participate in a pair of high-profile events in the Players Era Championship and the CBS Sports Classic.
St. John’s released it’s non-con schedule pic.twitter.com/EFNUxj7XJ0
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The Red Storm is coming off its best season decades after recording a 31-5 overall record and posting an 18-2 mark in conference competition in the second season under National Coach of the Year Rick Pitino. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer returns four players from last year’s championship team and welcomes 10 newcomers to Queens. St. John’s boasts the highest ranked transfer portal class In the country according to ESPN and 247Sports.
Season tickets for the 2025-26 campaign are still available to purchase. Visit RedStormTix.com, call the box office at 1-888-GO-STORM or e-mail redstormsports@stjohns.edu. Game times, television designations and single-game ticket information will be announced at a later date.
The Johnnies will kick-off the 2025-26 campaign on Monday, Nov. 3 against Quinnipiac at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm have won 12 straight season openers dating back to the 2013-14 season and downed the Bobcats, 96-73, behind a 61-point second half explosion last year in Queens.
Just five days later, St. John’s will make its Madison Square Garden debut when it battles Alabama in a marquee showdown on Saturday, Nov. 8. Both programs earned No. 2-seeds in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and will face off at “The World’s Most Famous Arena’ where the Red Storm posted a perfect 12-0 record last season.
The Johnnies will return Carnesecca Arena for a pair of contests against William & Mary on Saturday, Nov. 15 and Bucknell on Thursday, Nov. 20. In the first two seasons under Pitino, the Red Storm has gone 14-0 at its on-campus home, winning every contest by double-digits with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points per game.
St. John’s will hit the road for the first time when it heads to the Players Era Men’s Championship in Las Vegas to play three games from Nov. 24-27. The Red Storm will kick-off the event against Iowa State at 4:30 p.m. ET at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Monday, Nov. 24 on TruTV. The following day, the Johnnies will meet Baylor at the same venue for a 5 p.m. ET tip-off. The third opponent will be determined based on results and will be played on Nov. 26 or Nov. 27.
On Dec. 6, the Red Storm will head back to Madison Square Garden to face another SEC opponent in Ole Miss. The Johnnies and Rebels will meet on the hardwood for the first time since 1989, when the St. John’s outlasted Ole Miss, 70-67, en route to a National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Championship.
The following week, the Johnnies will return to The World’s Most Famous Arena to play Pitino’s former team Iona on Saturday, Dec. 13. Separated by just 18 miles, St. John’s and Iona will meet for the first time since 2017. Pitino spent three seasons leading the Gaels from 2020-23 and compiled a 64-22 (.720) record. He led Iona to two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championships and made a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament.
On Saturday, Dec. 20, Pitino will face another one of his former teams in a highly-anticipated showdown as St. John’s squares off with Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta. Pitino spent eight seasons as head coach of the Wildcats from 1989-97, where he won five SEC Tournament titles, advanced to three Final Four’s and won the National Championship in 1996. On the opposite sideline leading Kentucky is Mark Pope, who was the team captain on Pitino’s 1996 National Championship team.
The Red Storm will close its out-of-league play on Tuesday, Dec. 23 against Harvard at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm defeated the Crimson, 77-64, in last year’s contest in Queens as RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond combined for 42 points in the wining effort.
St. John’s 20-game BIG EAST men’s basketball schedule will be announced at a later date.
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