No. 5/6 St. John’s to Open 2025-26 Season with Quinnipiac on Monday

QUEENS, N.Y. – The No. 5/6 St. John's men's basketball team will officially kick off its 2025-26 campaign on Monday when it welcomes Quinnipiac to Carnesecca Arena.

Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. on FS1 with Jason Benetti and Bill Raftery on the call. Fans can also catch the action on a number of audio streaming platforms including the ESPN New York app, available for download in the App Store and on Google Play. John Minko and Brandon Tierney's call of the game on the LEARFIELD Red Storm Sports Network can also be found on the Varsity Network app, TuneIn, SiriusXM and the St. John's Red Storm app.

Tickets for the general public are sold out for Monday's season opener. Fans purchasing tickets on the secondary market are encouraged to do so through Ticketmaster Verified Resale. A limited number of student tickets are still available for the contest and are available to claim by clicking here.

Prior to the game, the Red Storm will unveil their 2024-25 BIG EAST Championship banners, as well as Rick Pitino's National Coach of the Year banner. The first 3,000 fans in attendance will receive a miniature replica BIG EAST Championship banner.

The first 500 students in attendance will receive a free pair of JLab headphones in memory of St. John's double alumnus and superfan DJ "DSPN" Southerland who tragically passed away in April at the age of 29.

The reigning BIG EAST Regular Season and Tournament Champions, St. John's enters the 2025-26 campaign with its highest preseason ranking in program history after checking in at no. 5 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 and no. 6 in the USA TODAY Preseason Coaches Poll. Prior to this season, the Red Storm's highest-ever preseason AP ranking was no. 7 before the 1984-85 campaign that ended with a trip to the Final Four.

For the first time since 1991-92, the BIG EAST's coaches picked the Red Storm to finish atop the league in their preseason coaches' poll. The Johnnies, who won 31 games and earned a no. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament a season ago, received seven out of a possible 10 first-place votes.

Zuby Ejiofor earned BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year honors, just the third St. John's player in the last 35 years to receive the accolade alongside Shamorie Ponds (2018-19) and Malik Sealy (1991-92). A First Team All-BIG EAST selection and the league's Most Improved Player, Ejiofor averaged 14.7 points and 8.1 rebounds a season ago, the latter of which ranked second in the league. He pulled down an NCAA-best 4.4 boards per game on the offensive glass and led the BIG EAST with 10 double-doubles. In the Red Storm's semifinal win over Marquette, Ejiofor scored a St. John's BIG EAST Tournament-record 33 points. He scored 20 points against Creighton the following night to secure a spot on the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team.

In addition to his BIG EAST Preseason honor, Ejiofor has also been named to preseason watch lists for the NABC Player of the Year Award and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award.

Ejiofor led a record-setting group of five preseason All-BIG EAST honorees for the Red Storm. Bryce Hopkins, who averaged 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in 50 games with Providence, earned a spot on the Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team. North Carolina transfer and New York native Ian Jackson found a place on the Preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team while Arizona State transfer Joson Sanon and Cincinnati transfer Dillon Mitchell were tabbed to the Preseason All-BIG EAST Third Team. Jackson and Mitchell are the first pair of former McDonald's All-Americans to team up at St. John's since 1998-99 (Ron Artest and Erick Barkley).

St. John's has won each of its last 11 season openers dating back to 2014-15 and has not lost a home opener since falling to Fairfield in 2003. Since the building opened as Alumni Hall in 1961, St. John's is 61-3 all-time in Carnesecca Arena openers.

Entering his 37^th full season as a collegiate head coach, Pitino boasts a record 31-5 in season openers and 33-3 in home openers, including a 29-1 mark in his last 30. The reigning BIG EAST and National Coach of the Year (AP, Naismith, USBWA), Pitino begins the campaign with 885 career wins, good enough for the fifth highest total in the history of Division I.

Pitino will look to remain undefeated in Queens, as the Johnnies are 14-0 at Carnesecca Arena under the Naismith Hall of Famer and boast a 22.4-point average margin of victory in those contests. That 14-game streak is tied for the ninth longest in the building's 64-year history.

Quinnipiac comes to Queens having won each of the last two MAAC Regular Season Championships, posting back-to-back 20-win seasons and going 30-10 in league plays over the last two seasons.

The Bobcats are led by reigning MAAC Player of the Year Amarri Monroe. The Newburgh, N.Y., native averaged 18.1 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game a season ago. After initially entering the transfer portal and drawing significant high-major interest, Monroe opted to return to Hamden and is one of just three mid-major conference players of the year to return to their original school.

Quinnipiac Head Coach Tom Pecora has won two MAAC Coach of the Year Awards in just two seasons at the helm of the program. Monday's game will feature the last four winners of the MAAC Coach of the Year Award, as Pitino claimed the honor at Iona in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Pecora is no stranger to New York City basketball, as the Queens native also coached 16 years at Hofstra (2001-10) and Fordham (2010-15).

Monday's contest against the Bobcats will cap a season-opening doubleheader at Carnesecca Arena, as Joe Tartamella's St. John's women's basketball team will host Le Moyne beginning at 2 p.m.

No. 5/6 St. John’s to Open 2025-26 Season with Quinnipiac on Monday

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Players Mentioned

Zuby Ejiofor

Bryce Hopkins

Ian Jackson

Dillon Mitchell

Joson Sanon

St. John's University Athletics