#st-johns-red-storm

#st-johns-red-storm

For the first time ever, the St. John's Red Storm are back-to-back Big East champions after defeating UConn in a wire-to-wire 72-52 win in the conference title game on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. When these teams last met, the Huskies handed the Johnnies a humbling 32-point loss, snapping the team's 13-game winning streak and leaving them eager for redemption.

Ejiofor propelled the 18th-ranked Red Storm (25-6, 18-2) to their second consecutive outright regular-season title, averaging 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and 1.8 blocks in league games. He is the lone player in high-major college basketball to lead his team and rank among the top 10 in his conference in all four of those statistical categories.

This game has been in the making since 2004. To have our first standalone game is a big deal. Not a lot of people have an idea how much goes into putting these games together. From 2004, we never thought we'd even have a game there. Just to see where it's growing, it's great. As a New Yorker, there's no better feeling.

St. John's (7-4) had a 41-33 lead after Zuby Ejiofor converted a three-point play with 16:07 remaining. But Kentucky (8-4) turned up the defensive pressure and took control, ripping off a 14-0 run and holding the Red Storm without a field goal for nearly nine minutes. When Oziyah Sellers finally put one in for St. John's with 7:10 to go, the Wildcats had pushed out to a double-digit lead.

Welcome to the thread for Saturday's St. John's men's basketball season opener versus William & Mary. Please be respectful in the comment section and do not share any illegal streams of today's game. If you haven't already, check out our game preview here. You can follow updates of Saturday's game on Rumble in the Garden's official X account (formerly Twitter) at @rumbleSBN or on Rumble in the Garden's new Bluesky account at rumbleinthegarden.bsky.socia l.

A start of a new season in Queens has brought new players and new uniforms to St. John's but the product on the court was very similar from a season ago. The Johnnies were sluggish and cold offensively to start its exhibition slate against Towson before turning up the defensive pressure and getting timely buckets after halftime, turning an 8-point deficit into a 10-point win, 73-63.

St. John's transfer RJ Luis said he's "still all-in" on staying in the NBA draft, despite also entering the transfer portal, indicating his strong commitment to his NBA aspirations.