St. John’s to Open Exhibition Action against Drexel on Wednesday

Wednesday, October 14

Queens, N.Y. (Carnesecca Arena)

6 p.m.

St. John's University

Drexel (Exhibition)

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St. John’s to Open Exhibition Action against Drexel on Wednesday

10/13/2026 4:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Red Storm and Dragons to tip off at 6 p.m. on ESPN+

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's basketball team will kick off the exhibition portion of its schedule on Wednesday night when it plays host to Drexel at Carnesecca Arena.

The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. tip-off and will be streamed live on ESPN+. Ed Cohen and Tarik Turner will have the call from Queens.

A handful of single-game tickets are still available for purchase by clicking here.

Wednesday night will be the first of three exhibition matches undertaken by the Red Storm before beginning the season in earnest against Monmouth on Nov. 2 at Carnesecca Arena. The remaining two preseason matchups will take place at Madison Square Garden, as the Johnnies will welcome Rutgers on Sunday, Oct. 18, before facing off against Texas a week later on Oct. 25.

Season-ticket packages including games at Carnesecca Arena are sold-out, but Madison Square Garden Ticket Plans are available for purchase. The Red Storm will play 13 regular season games at The Mecca, the program's highest total since 1950-51. All 10 BIG EAST regular season contests will be held at The Garden for the first time in St. John's history.

Entering its fourth season under the direction of Hall of Fame Head Coach Rick Pitino, the Red Storm is coming off its second straight sweep of the outright BIG EAST Regular Season and BIG EAST Tournament titles in 2025-26. The Johnnies became the first program in the nearly five-decade history of the league to accomplish the feat in back-to-back seasons.

After finishing their dominant run through the league, the Johnnies advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 27 years, defeating Kansas in the second round to secure the program's first Sweet 16 berth since 1999.

The Red Storm returns five players from last season's Sweet 16 squad. Leading the way for the returners is junior guard Ian Jackson, who comes back for his second go-around in Queens after averaging 9.4 points in 18.3 minutes per game. The New York City native and former McDonald's All-American will serve as one of the team's two captains this season alongside Babacar Sane.

6-foot-11 forward Ruben Prey returns for his junior season after a strong finish 2025-26. The Lisbon, Portugal, product averaging 4.3 points in 10.7 minutes per game, shooting a blistering 62.5% from deep on 24 attempts. In last year's Sweet 16 against Duke, Prey sank all four of his 3-point tries.

Also returning for his third season under Pitino, Lefteris Liotopoulos is looking to make a leap forward for the Red Storm as a junior. The 6-foot-4 guard had three double-figure scoring outings a year ago, including a 17-point outburst at Creighton that saw him going 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Sophomore guards Casper Pohto and Fotis Konstantinidis round out the Red Storm's returners.

For the second straight offseason, the Red Storm recruited the nation's top transfer portal class according to 247Sports. 247Sports listed Tounde Yessoufou and Keyshawn Hall as the fourth and fifth-ranked transfers, respectively, in the country. Yessoufou is coming off a standout debut season at Baylor, where he set the school's freshman scoring record and averaged 17.8 points per outing. Hall poured in 19.3 points and grabbed 7.1 rebounds per contest last season at Auburn, earning Third Team All-SEC honors and anchoring the Tigers to an NIT title. The Red Storm also recruited the nation's no. 16 transfer in Donnie Freeman from Syracuse, but Freeman will miss the entire 2026-27 season after suffering an Achilles injury during the summer. St. John's is the only team in the nation to boast two top-10-- let alone top-5—transfers and is the only team in the country with three top-20 transfers.

In addition to Yessoufou and Hall, the Red Storm will also suit up three additional transfers in Reed Bailey (Indiana/Davidson), Avery Brown (Columbia) and Kyle Cuffe Jr. (Kansas/Syracuse/Mercer).

This offseason, the St. John's coaching staff waded heavily into the international ranks to fill its roster, bringing in a trio of experienced players in Quinn Ellis (Olimpia Milano), Babacar Sane (MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg) and Zsombor Maronka (Hamburg Towers).

Drexel went 17-16 a season ago, including a 10-8 record in CAA play. Josh Reed is the Dragons' top returning scorer from last year, averaging 7.9 points in 33 appearances, one of which was a start.

The CAA has yet to release its preseason coaches' poll.

Drexel and St. John's have met three times during the regular season in the history of the two programs: 1914, 1991 and 1997.