The St. John’s men’s basketball team, ranked No. 17/16, will face Creighton at Madison Square Garden on Saturday at noon. The matchup coincides with the university’s fourth annual “Johnnies Day,” an event celebrating St. John’s contributions to New York City and beyond since its founding in 1870. Fans attending are encouraged to participate in a “Red Out,” and those seated in the lower bowl will receive complimentary “We Are St. John’s” posters, which are also available outside Section 210 inside the arena. The first 2,500 attendees will get a free hat sponsored by Maspeth Federal Savings.
St. John’s has won all three of its previous Johnnies Day games, each against nationally ranked opponents, including two consecutive wins over Creighton when they were ranked No. 24 last year and No. 15 in 2024.
Tickets for the game remain available through various outlets including RedStormTix.com, phone, or email.
Saturday’s contest is a rematch of the 2025 BIG EAST Tournament Championship game and will be broadcast nationally on FOX with Alex Faust and Donny Marshall providing commentary from Madison Square Garden.
Fans can also listen to the LEARFIELD St. John’s Radio Network broadcast with John Minko and Vin Parise on 1050 AM ESPN New York, as well as through multiple streaming platforms such as the ESPN New York App, Varsity Network, TuneIn, Sirius XM Channel 83, SiriusXM App, and the St. John’s Red Storm App. National coverage is available via ESPN Radio with Mike Couzens and Bob Valvano.
St. John’s enters the game with a 12-game winning streak against BIG EAST opponents that began on January 6th—the program’s longest run since starting the 2018-19 season with twelve straight victories. The last time St. John’s won thirteen or more consecutive games was between December 22, 1984 and February 23, 1985 under Lou Carnesecca.
Currently holding their second-longest unbeaten stretch in BIG EAST play (trailing only the record-setting start by the 1984-85 team), St. John’s recently moved into sole possession of first place in conference standings after defeating Marquette while UConn lost to Creighton at Gampel Pavilion.
In their most recent outing at Marquette’s Fiserv Forum, St. John’s secured its eleventh straight road win by overcoming a halftime deficit for a final score of 76-70. Bryce Hopkins led with 23 points and matched his season-high of ten rebounds for his first double-double at St. John’s.
Hopkins has increased his output during this winning streak; over twelve games he averages fifteen points per game along with nearly seven rebounds and maintains a positive assist-to-turnover ratio.
Senior Zuby Ejiofor continued his strong performance by scoring double figures for the fifteenth time in sixteen games and was named to the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Late-Season Team—one of thirty players nationwide considered for this honor given annually to college basketball’s top player. This season Ejiofor leads high-major teams in points (16 per game), rebounds (7.3), assists (3.5), and blocks (1.9).
The Red Storm have won five straight games at Madison Square Garden dating back to January last year and have recorded nineteen wins out of twenty-one BIG EAST contests played there since February 2024.
Creighton holds a historical edge in head-to-head matchups (19-14) but St. John’s has claimed victory in four of their last five meetings—including a dominant win earlier this season where Lefteris Liotopoulos scored seventeen points off five three-pointers.
Both teams are led by coaches ranking among the top six all-time in BIG EAST wins: Rick Pitino stands fifth with one hundred fifty-five wins across thirteen seasons; Greg McDermott follows closely behind with one hundred forty-six victories.
Creighton comes into Saturday’s game following an upset over No. 5 UConn at Gampel Pavilion—a result that continues their streak of defeating at least one top-ten opponent each season under Coach McDermott for eleven years running.
Offensively Josh Dix, Austin Swartz, Jasen Green, and Nik Graves contribute significantly for Creighton averaging double digits in points per game.
After Saturday’s matchup against Creighton—which highlights two programs active within Queens (source)—St John’s will travel to Hartford for another high-profile contest versus UConn next Wednesday evening on NBCSN and Peacock streaming services.
St John’s participates in the Big East Conference (source), has played home games in Queens (source), adopted “Red Storm” as its athletics nickname (source), and claimed six Big East Tournament championships along with two NIT titles (source).
