After guiding St. John’s to its best season in four decades, coach Rick Pitino sought a stricter non-conference schedule to better prepare his players for the rigors of conference play and the playoffs.
One of those games comes Saturday afternoon when the fifth-ranked Red Storm send their revamped roster to a visit from No. 15 Alabama in the first of their 12 regular-season games at Madison Square Garden.
The Red Storm won all 12 of their games at MSG last season, including their first Big East Tournament championship since 2000. In 2024-25, the Red Storm’s only non-conference game at MSG was against New Mexico, and the only non-league opponent they faced was Baylor, who was No. 13 when it beat St. John’s in the Bahamas.
This season, St. John’s will face three SEC teams: home games against Alabama and Ole Miss and a neutral-site game in Atlanta against No. 9 Kentucky. The Red Storm will also face No. 16 Iowa State in an event in Las Vegas.
St. John’s posted a strong season opener at its on-campus arena with a 108-74 loss to Quinnipiac on Monday. The Red Storm recorded their highest point total since scoring 119 against Mississippi Valley State on November 9, 2021.
Dillon Mitchell led five St. John’s players in double figures by scoring 18 on 7-of-9 shooting. Zuby Ejiofor, the Big East preseason player of the year, added 17 and helped the Red Storm put up 60 points in the paint.
“The one thing that stood out from a super positive standpoint was our mentality going into the game,” Pitino said. “From the moment we threw the ball until the end, we had an intense and aggressive mindset. We made our mistakes, as you always do in a first game, but overall I couldn’t be happier.
“Now we’re going to face a completely different type of team, a team that only takes about eight or nine seconds to shoot on every possession, so we’ll have to be ready for that.”
Alabama (1-0) plays its first game at MSG since facing Duke and Drexel in the 2013-14 NIT season press conference. Saturday’s game sets up a non-conference challenge for the Crimson Tide, who will next face No. 1 Purdue, No. 17 Illinois and No. 21 Gonzaga. Alabama will also meet No. 13 Arizona next month.
The Crimson Tide is hoping Labaron Philon Jr. can fill the void left by Mark Sears, who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. Philon averaged 10.6 points as a freshman last season, when Alabama reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. He scored a career-high 22 points and added eight assists Monday in Alabama’s 91-62 loss to North Dakota.
“He’s going to have a lot of games where he gets eight or more assists,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said of Philon. “He’s going to have a lot of double-doubles. I think if he gives us a little more effort on defense and rebounding, he could push the triple-double here.”
Houston Mallette added 15 points and eight rebounds in the season opener as Alabama was plus-20 on rebounds.
Philon and Mallette could play again without some of his supporting cast as starting guards Aden Holloway (wrist) and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (finger) sat out Monday due to injuries. Both players are on a daily basis.
–Field level media
