No. 5/6 St. John’s is set to host No. 15/16 Alabama at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, marking a notable early-season college basketball matchup. The game will begin at noon and will be broadcast on FS1 with Dave Sims and Donny Marshall providing commentary. For the first time since the 2020-21 season, fans in New York can listen to the game on terrestrial radio via ESPN New York 1050 AM, with John Minko and Brandon Tierney calling the action. Audio coverage will also be available through several streaming platforms, including the ESPN New York app, Varsity Network app, TuneIn, SiriusXM channels 161 or 201, and the St. John’s Red Storm app.
Tickets for the event remain available for purchase online. Additionally, fans have the option to buy a Madison Square Garden ticket plan that grants access to all 12 regular season games held at the venue at a discounted rate.
St. John’s enters this contest with its highest preseason ranking in program history and faces a top-25 opponent within its first two games for the first time since opening against No. 20 Wisconsin during the 2013-14 season in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This will also be their earliest matchup against a top-15 team since starting the 2000-01 campaign facing No. 12 Kentucky and No. 7 Kansas.
Last year, St. John’s maintained an undefeated record of 12-0 at Madison Square Garden and was unbeaten in all games played in New York City (21-0). Their current streak of twelve consecutive wins at Madison Square Garden is second only to a fourteen-game run from December 1985 to February 1987.
Saturday’s game marks St. John’s first regular season appearance at Madison Square Garden since winning the BIG EAST Tournament earlier this year. The team matched a league record with eighteen conference victories during that campaign and tied its own record with thirty-one total wins while also securing its first NCAA Tournament win since 2000.
Individual honors last season included RJ Luis Jr.’s consensus Second Team All-America selection; Zuby Ejiofor’s Academic All-America Second Team recognition; and Rick Pitino receiving three out of four major national coach of the year awards. Within conference accolades: “Luis was named BIG EAST Player of the Year, Pitino was tabbed BIG EAST Coach of the Year and Ejiofor was named the league’s most improved player.”
St. John’s began this season by defeating Quinnipiac with a score of 108-74 on Monday—its highest point total since scoring 119 points against Mississippi Valley State in November 2021—with Dillon Mitchell leading scoring efforts at eighteen points along with seven rebounds and four steals.
Alabama arrives after beating North Dakota by twenty-nine points earlier this week in Tuscaloosa; Labaron Philon Jr., who made last year’s SEC All-Freshman Team, led Alabama with twenty-two points and eight assists while Houston Mallette contributed fifteen points and eight rebounds despite four key players being absent from Alabama’s lineup due to undisclosed reasons.
The upcoming contest is only the fifth meeting between these programs—and their first encounter since Alabama ended St. John’s seasons consecutively in postseason tournaments over forty years ago (the NIT in 1981 and NCAA Tournament in 1982). St John’s won both prior matchups before those losses—in Hartford (1973) and at Madison Square Garden (1955).
Following Saturday’s game against Alabama, St John’s next plays William & Mary on November fifteenth at Carnesecca Arena.
