St. John’s basketball: Big East Conference sets date for start of season

The St. John’s basketball schedule continues to become more clear as the Red Storm know when Big East play will begin.

Basketball continues to inch closer and the members of the Big East Conference now know when the gauntlet will begin.

CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported that the league will begin its slate of games on December 11.

The Big East is looking to play three or four games per team in non-conference play before January 1 and solely conference play is taking place around the country.

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St. John’s is still finalizing its non-conference schedule and the Big East has not yet released its 20-game slate for its programs.

The Red Storm will be looking to improve off a promising end to the 2019-20 season which was cut short in the Big East Tournament but the Johnnies will be without its top two scores from a year ago in senior Mustapha Heron and junior transfer LJ Figueroa.

Head coach Mike Anderson will turn to senior Rasheem Dunn, juniors Greg Williams Jr., Marcellus Earlington, and Josh Roberts, and sophomore Julian Champagnie to lead the way for a highly anticipated freshman class in Queens.

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St. John’s will open its season at Carnesecca Arena on November 25 in its own multi-team event with La Salle and Manhattan participating as Bryant was also scheduled to play in the event but has since dropped out because of scheduling conflicts and the Red Storm are still looking to fill that vacated slot.

The Johnnies will also face Stony Brook and Fordham in Queens as well as making the trip to Lubbock, Texas to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Big East vs. Big 12 Challenge, leaving two non-conference games still available to the team as programs are only allowed to play seven non-league games this season.