St. John’s basketball lands major road game in iconic venue

The St. John’s basketball program has landed a massive road non-conference game. 

Another major non-conference game has been added to the St. John’s basketball schedule with the announcement of the 2021 Gavitt Games.

On Thursday afternoon it was made known that the Johnnies would be hitting the road for a trip to Assembly Hall for the first time since 1992 to face the Indiana Hoosiers on November 17.

The Red Storm did not participate in the Gavitt Games two years ago in the first year under head coach Mike Anderson and the games were not held last season due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19.

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St. John’s last played in the premier early season event in the 2018-19 season when the Johnnies traveled to Rutgers and emerged with a 84-65 victory.

The last time the Johnnies and Hoosiers took the floor was in the Maui Invitational in 2015 in which Indiana came away with a 83-73 victory and prior to that the two programs battled in the 1999 NCAA Tournament where St. John’s advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 86-61 thrashing.

Indiana is 5-2 in the all time series against St. John’s including a 105-80 victory in the last game in Assembly Hall.

St. John’s basketball building impressive non-conference schedule

Indiana is now the third power conference team on the non-conference schedule for St. John’s this season, joining the Kansas Jayhawks and Pittsburgh Panthers.

St. John’s will battle the Jayhawks on Thursday, December 2 at the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park and host the Panthers on December 18 at Madison Square Garden.

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The Johnnies are also slated to play St. Peter’s, Fairleigh Dickinson, and NJIT in its non-conference slate of games with all three games at Carnesecca Arena.

St. John’s is still awaiting the decision of star forward Julian Champagnie on whether he will return to school for his junior year or stay in the NBA Draft after the Red Storm had its best Big East season since 2000 last year, finishing fourth in the regular season standings.