There are major expectations entering the 2025-26 season for the St. John’s basketball program and they are not running from the challenge, in fact they are running towards it.
The Johnnies have added another major non-conference game to its schedule in perennial SEC powerhouse Alabama.
It’s the third SEC team that St. John’s will play this upcoming season after already landing games against Ole Miss (December 8) at Madison Square Garden and Kentucky (December 20) in the CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta.
St. John’s matchup with the Crimson Tide will be its first major test of the season at the end of opening week. Tipoff is set for Saturday, November 8 at The Garden but a time has yet to be finalized.
It’ll be just the fifth all-time meeting between the two programs and the first since the 1981-82 season in which Alabama defeated the Johnnies at Nassau Coliseum. The only matchup that came at Madison Square Garden was in 1955-56.
St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino has been trying for over a year to schedule a game with Alabama and finally gets his wish in the form of a home-and-home series that will be returned in the 2026-27 season.
The Crimson Tide appeared in the Final Four two years ago before losing to the eventual National Champion UConn Huskies and fell in the Elite 8 this season to the Duke Blue Devils.
The Red Storm will have at least six major non-conference games this season with three games coming in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. The schedule for the currently constructed 19-team event in November has not been finalized.
Pitino’s previously discussed home-and-home series against Louisville will not happen this season but there is an expectation that St. John’s will play the head coach’s former school, Iona, in The Garden this year.
An exhibition game against Michigan, which has been rumored to be taking place inside The Mecca, remains an option.