St. John's University Athletics
Wednesday, March 13
New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)
9:30 p.m.
St. John's University
vs
DePaul
St. John’s to Begin BIG EAST Tournament on Wednesday against DePaul
3/11/2019 8:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball
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Seventh-seeded Johnnies to kick off postseason action at “The World’s Most Famous Arena”
QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's basketball team will begin postseason action on Wednesday night at "The World's Most Famous Arena," taking on DePaul in the opening sessions of The BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep.
The contest will air live nationally on FS1 with Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington on the call. Fans can listen on the radio in the New York Metropolitan Area on 570 AM WMCA, as John Minko and Brandon Tierney will narrate the action live from Midtown. The audio broadcast will also be available on TuneIn Radio and RedStormSports.com.
St. John's (20-11, 8-10 BIG EAST) will look to snap a three-game skid when it returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time since downing local rival Seton Hall in its last victory on Feb. 23. Just six days prior to that wire-to-wire win over the Pirates, St. John's picked up one of its signature triumphs of the season, erasing a 19-point first half deficit and storming back to defeat defending national champion Villanova in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,812. The Red Storm is 3-2 at its Manhattan home this year and drew an average attendance of 16,498, including 18,103 in the team's four BIG EAST regular season home games.
Two members of the Red Storm received recognition from the BIG EAST over the past two days, as Shamorie Ponds was named to the All-BIG EAST First Team on Sunday before Justin Simon took home BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year accolades on Monday morning. Ponds became just the fifth player in program history to earn a spot on the All-BIG EAST First Team in consecutive seasons, joining a legendary cohort that features the likes of Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Malik Sealy and Marcus Hatten. Ponds enters the postseason in sixth place on the program's all-time scoring list and is just 12 points away from tying Bob Zawoluk (1,826) for fifth. The Brooklyn native also ranks near the top of the Red Storm's all-time lists in steals (216) and assists (400), ranking third and sixth, respectively, on those ledgers.
Simon, who led the league in steals a season ago and ranked seventh in the conference in thefts this year, earned his honor from the league's coaches after solidifying a reputation as one of the nation's best lockdown defenders. Drawing the opposition's toughest assignment nearly every night, Simon often held those top offensive talents well below their season average. His best work of the campaign came against the conference's leading scorer, as he held Markus Howard to just 12.5 points per game, exactly half of his season-long average.
St. John's enters the conference tournament as the no. 7 seed, the highest postseason position of the Mullin era. The Red Storm's eight BIG EAST wins also signaled a new high-water mark under the guidance of the program's all-time leading scorer. St. John's will make its 36th BIG EAST Tournament appearance, but its first ever as the no. 7 seed.
St. John's has played in the tournament's first session in each of the last three seasons and has won each of its last two opening matchups. Both of those victories came at the expense of Georgetown, as the Johnnies edged the Hoyas by one, 74-73, in 2017 before erasing a six-point halftime deficit and topping the Hoyas by 11, 88-77, in 2018. The Red Storm will look to make its first appearance in the BIG EAST semifinals since 2000, the same year as the program's last conference title. Overall, St. John's has won the BIG EAST Tournament three times in 1983, 1986 and 2000.
The Red Storm will look to get the best of DePaul for the first time in 2018-19, as the Blue Demons swept the Johnnies for the first time in the regular season. Playing without the services of Ponds, the Red Storm dropped the first contest between the two on Jan. 12 at Carnesecca Arena before Max Strus willed the Blue Demons to victory on March 3 by scoring 36 of his career-high 43 points in the second half.
The contest will air live nationally on FS1 with Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington on the call. Fans can listen on the radio in the New York Metropolitan Area on 570 AM WMCA, as John Minko and Brandon Tierney will narrate the action live from Midtown. The audio broadcast will also be available on TuneIn Radio and RedStormSports.com.
St. John's (20-11, 8-10 BIG EAST) will look to snap a three-game skid when it returns to Madison Square Garden for the first time since downing local rival Seton Hall in its last victory on Feb. 23. Just six days prior to that wire-to-wire win over the Pirates, St. John's picked up one of its signature triumphs of the season, erasing a 19-point first half deficit and storming back to defeat defending national champion Villanova in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,812. The Red Storm is 3-2 at its Manhattan home this year and drew an average attendance of 16,498, including 18,103 in the team's four BIG EAST regular season home games.
Two members of the Red Storm received recognition from the BIG EAST over the past two days, as Shamorie Ponds was named to the All-BIG EAST First Team on Sunday before Justin Simon took home BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year accolades on Monday morning. Ponds became just the fifth player in program history to earn a spot on the All-BIG EAST First Team in consecutive seasons, joining a legendary cohort that features the likes of Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Malik Sealy and Marcus Hatten. Ponds enters the postseason in sixth place on the program's all-time scoring list and is just 12 points away from tying Bob Zawoluk (1,826) for fifth. The Brooklyn native also ranks near the top of the Red Storm's all-time lists in steals (216) and assists (400), ranking third and sixth, respectively, on those ledgers.
Simon, who led the league in steals a season ago and ranked seventh in the conference in thefts this year, earned his honor from the league's coaches after solidifying a reputation as one of the nation's best lockdown defenders. Drawing the opposition's toughest assignment nearly every night, Simon often held those top offensive talents well below their season average. His best work of the campaign came against the conference's leading scorer, as he held Markus Howard to just 12.5 points per game, exactly half of his season-long average.
St. John's enters the conference tournament as the no. 7 seed, the highest postseason position of the Mullin era. The Red Storm's eight BIG EAST wins also signaled a new high-water mark under the guidance of the program's all-time leading scorer. St. John's will make its 36th BIG EAST Tournament appearance, but its first ever as the no. 7 seed.
St. John's has played in the tournament's first session in each of the last three seasons and has won each of its last two opening matchups. Both of those victories came at the expense of Georgetown, as the Johnnies edged the Hoyas by one, 74-73, in 2017 before erasing a six-point halftime deficit and topping the Hoyas by 11, 88-77, in 2018. The Red Storm will look to make its first appearance in the BIG EAST semifinals since 2000, the same year as the program's last conference title. Overall, St. John's has won the BIG EAST Tournament three times in 1983, 1986 and 2000.
The Red Storm will look to get the best of DePaul for the first time in 2018-19, as the Blue Demons swept the Johnnies for the first time in the regular season. Playing without the services of Ponds, the Red Storm dropped the first contest between the two on Jan. 12 at Carnesecca Arena before Max Strus willed the Blue Demons to victory on March 3 by scoring 36 of his career-high 43 points in the second half.
Players Mentioned
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