St. John’s basketball has first postponed game rescheduled

St. John’s basketball has seen its first postponed game rescheduled this season. 

The Big East Conference is working hard through the holiday season as the first St. John’s basketball game that was postponed due to health and safety protocols has been rescheduled.

St. John’s will visit Seton Hall on January 24, a game that was originally scheduled to take place on December 20 but was called off due to positive COVID cases within the Pirates program.

Ironically enough, the Red Storm were going through the early stages of an outbreak of its own as Julian Champagnie tested positive and missed an embarrassing loss to Pittsburgh on December 18.

St. John’s had its games against Butler, Marquette, and Georgetown postponed due to health and safety protocols and the team is not scheduled to return to the floor until January 5 against DePaul.

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The Johnnies’ originally scheduled game with Seton Hall was deemed a forfeit victory for the Red Storm, in accordance with the conference’s COVID-19 policies, but the Big East amended its protocols after the virus, and the omicron variant, have wreaked havoc on the league and college basketball scheduling.

St. John’s will play the Pirates in South Orange in its on-campus facility, Walsh Gymnasium, for the first Big East game in the building since 1985.

Seton Hall has not played since December 12 (one game canceled and two postponed) but will return to the court tonight, December 29, against Providence.

St. John’s basketball to get very familiar with its Hudson River rival

St. John’s and Seton Hall will play two times in the span of three days as the Red Storm will host the Pirates at Madison Square Garden on January 22.

The two programs played in the same week last season, one being the regular season finale and the other being the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.

St. John’s won the matchup in the finale while Seton Hall advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament.

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Mike Anderson’s team will play nine games between January 19 and February 16, six against teams currently ranked inside the Top-25 of the Associated Press Poll while the other three come on the road against Creighton, Butler, and UConn.

The Johnnies have its work cut out for them with a busy conference slate of games in which the team likely needs to exceed expectations in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

There has yet to be an announcement regarding the three other postponed St. John’s games this season.