St. John’s basketball fever is reaching an all-time high.
After the then No. 10 – now No. 7 – Johnnies defeated UConn at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon, completing its first regular season sweep of the Huskies since 1999-2000, everyone wants a piece of the Red Storm.
One of the first national television sports shows that documented St. John’s rise to success this season, ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, had the Storm in its second show topic on Monday evening and posted the question of which team’s win at The Garden this weekend was more impressive; Duke’s 43-point blowout of Illinois or St. John’s 15-point win over UConn?
The answer was clear and resounding, it was the Johnnies.
“When St. John’s is really good, people care about St. John’s just the same as they care about the Knicks when the Knicks are really good,” Tony Kornheiser said, a former reporter at Newsday and The New York Times.
College Hoops! Bigger deal at Madison Square Garden this weekend: St. John’s beating UConn again or Duke beating Illinois? pic.twitter.com/EBiO1NNyU6
— PTI (@PTI) February 24, 2025
The Garden was sold-out for the second consecutive St. John’s home game and its regular season finale against Seton Hall had to be moved from Carnesecca Arena to Madison Square Garden due to an increase in ticket demand.
“St. John’s is the college basketball team in New York City for 3,000 years,” he continued.
“UConn is in a neighboring state. Seton Hall, Rutgers are in a neighboring state. They don’t hold a candle to St. John’s, and the Brooklyn Nets may as well not even exist.”
St. John’s (24-4, 15-2 Big East) No. 7 ranking in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll is its highest ranking since 1991 when Lou Carnesecca was the head coach and it’s 15 conference victories already match the most league wins for the program since 1984-85 with three games remaining.
“I can’t wait to see St. John’s now,” Michael Wilbon said. “Let’s go straight to March. I want to see what [Rick] Pitino has for March.”
The Red Storm can clinch at least a share of the Big East regular season championship on Wednesday night (9:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network) with a win over Butler (13-14, 6-10 Big East). It’s magic number to win the outright league title is two with Creighton (19-8, 12-4 Big East) trailing by two games.