St. John's Releases Entire 2018-19 Schedule

Carnesecca Arena, the home of St. John's. Photo by Jason Schott.

The complete Big East men’s basketball schedule was released on Thursday afternoon by the conference office, and now the entire 2018-19 St. John’s men’s basketball slate has now been revealed.

Four of the team’s nine home games in Big East Conference play will be contested at Madison Square Garden, the home of St. John’s Basketball since 1931. The remaining five Big East home games will take place at Carnesecca Arena, the on-campus home of the Johnnies.


Three of the Red Storm’s Big East matchups will be broadcast on network television. CBS will carry the Johnnies’ game at Georgetown on January 5 before FOX broadcasts consecutive contests at Butler on Jan. 19 and at home against the Hoyas on Jan. 27. Ten of the Red Storm’s 18 conference tilts will be televised nationally on FS1, while CBS Sports Network will carry three games and FSN is set to feature one. 

The St. John's season begins with an exhibition game on November 1 against Maryville at 6:30 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena, and it will air on ESPN3.

The regular season opens with  Legends Classic campus site games against Loyola Maryland and Bowling Green on Nov. 6 and Nov. 9, with both games 6:30 p.m. tip-offs and televised on FS1.

The Red Storm will participate in the Gavitt Tipoff Games for the fourth-straight season, as they head down to Piscataway, N.J., for a Nov. 16 showdown with former Big East foe Rutgers, now a member of the Big Ten. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and it will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

The Johnnies will then head to the home of point guard Shamorie Ponds and Head Coach Chris Mullin, playing two games in Brooklyn at Barclays Center in The Legends Classic. The Red Storm will square off with California in the tournament opener on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. before facing either Temple or VCU the following day at 5 or 7:40 p.m. Both of those games will be carried on the ESPN family of networks.

St. John’s will then host Maryland Eastern Shore on Nov. 27 at 6:30 pm on FS1.

The Red Storm then hits the road for the Miami Hoophall Invitational on Dec. 1. The Red Storm will face off against Georgia Tech in the event organized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, marking the third time in the past four seasons that St. John’s will play in an event organized by the Hall.

The Red Storm will then play five-consecutive home games, welcoming Mount St. Mary’s to Carnesecca Arena on Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m. (FS2) before meeting Princeton in the Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival on Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. (FS1). The Johnnies will then hold three home games in the span of six days at Carnesecca Arena leading into the team’s Christmas break, taking on Wagner on Dec. 16 at 4:30 p.m., St. Francis Brooklyn on Dec. 19 at 6:30 pm, and Sacred Heart on Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. All three of those tilts will be broadcast of FS1.

In all, the Red Storm play 12 non-conference games, 10 of which are in The Five Boroughs, in the months of November and December.

The Big East portion of the schedule begins on the road with a showdown with local rival Seton Hall on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 8:30 p.m. They will be looking for their first win at the Prudential Center since 2013-14 after they dropped a closely contested decision to the Pirates in last year’s conference opener in Newark despite suiting up just seven scholarship players.

St. John's will ring in 2019 on New Year’s Day in Queens, welcoming the Golden Eagles of Marquette to campus for a Tuesday showdown, with a 7 p.m. tip-off. Junior Shamorie Ponds may find it hard to match his performance from last year’s meeting with Marquette at Carnesecca Arena. Fresh off back-to-back Red Storm victories against No. 4 Duke and No. 1 Villanova, Ponds went off for 44 points, topping the late great Malik Sealy’s Carnesecca Area/Alumni Record of 43 set in 1990 against Central Connecticut State.

The Red Storm will hit the road for a pair of contests against longtime Big East foes. On Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m., the latest edition of the legendary Chris Mullin-Patrick Ewing rivalry will take place at Capital One Arena when the Johnnies visit Georgetown. The Hoyas took both regular season meetings between the two squads last year, including a double overtime victory in the nation’s capital. The Johnnies, however, enacted their revenge in the postseason, topping the Hoyas in the opening round of the Big East Tournament.

St. John's then heads to Philadelphia for a meeting eith defending national champion Villanova at the newly renovated Finneran Pavilion on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. This meeting will mark the first time that St. John’s has played on campus at Villanova since Jan. 2, 2013, when D’Angelo Harrison dropped a career-high 36 points in an overtime loss to the Wildcats.

The Red Storm will then return to Queens for a pair of contests at Carnesecca Arena, welcoming DePaul on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m., followed by Creighton on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. St. John’s will look to improve to 3-3 at home against the Bluejays as Big East foes and will seek to knock off DePaul for the sixth time in the last eight meetings between the two teams.

St. John's then hits the road, heading to Indianapolis for a Jan. 19 date with Butler at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, one of the toughest home courts in the Big East. Tip-off is at 4:30 p.m.

St. John’s will make its Big East Madison Square Garden debut on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 12  p.m. when they host Georgetown for the second meeting between the two teams in the span of just over three weeks.

St. John's then goes back on the road for what could be a season-defining road trip. The trip begins in Omaha when St. John's takes on Creighton on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 8:30 p.m. in the newly branded CHI Health Center Omaha.

Next is the crown jewel of their non-conference schedule, a contest with Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, February 2 at 12 p.m. St. John’s is currently the last non-ACC foe to knock off the Blue Devils at home, as Bootsy Thornton scored 22 points to lead the Johnnies past Duke, 83-82, on Feb. 26, 2000. They head back to the Midwest to conclude their road trip, playing their first game inside the brand new Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee against Marquette on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m.

After its week on the road, the Red Storm will kick off a three-game homestand against Providence on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 12 p.m. at the Garden. The Friars are coming off their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance last season, a campaign that saw Ed Cooley’s squad reach the championship game of the Big East Tournament before falling to eventual national champion Villanova.

The Red Storm then will host their first game on campus in nearly a month on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 8:30 pm, when they welcome Butler to Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm will then wrap its three-game home stint with a contest against Villanova at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m.

St. John’s will travel to Providence for its second meeting with the Friars in the span of 11 days on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 8:30 p.m., before heading back home for a showdown with Seton Hall at The Garden on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.

The final home game of the 2018-19 regular season will be on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 6:30 p.m. against Xavier at Carnesecca Arena.

St. John’s concludes the season with two on the road, at DePaul on Sunday, March 3 at 12 p.m., before meeting Butler again on Saturday, March 9, time and TV to be determined,

The Big East Tournament will be held at Madison Square Garden for the 37th straight season in 2019, running from Wednesday, March 13, to Saturday, March 16. St. John’s season ticket holders will receive priority access to Big East Tournament tickets.

Season tickets for are available starting at $465. For more information visit RedStormTix.com or contact the St. John’s Ticket Office via email at RedStormSports@stjohns.edu or by phone at 718-990-6211.

Season ticket packages include the Red Storm’s exhibition game on Nov. 1 versus Maryville University. Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival tickets are also included in St. John’s season ticket package.