The St. John’s basketball team has learned its destination in the NCAA Tournament and it’s a familiar spot for the Red Storm.
The Johnnies are the No. 2 seed in the West Region and will be matched up with No. 15 seed Omaha in the Round of 64, the champions of the Summit League.
It’s the first time the Red Storm have made the tournament since 2019 and its highest seed since it was a No. 2 seed in 2000, which was also the last time St. John’s won an NCAA Tournament game.
While it’s the first time the Johnnies have made the tournament in a while, Omaha will be playing in its first ever NCAA Tournament game.
Rick Pitino’s team is coming off of a Big East regular season and tournament championship for the first time since 1986.
“I don’t know anything about Omaha,” Pitino said shortly after the bracket was revealed.
However, it wasn’t long before the Hall of Famer was reading about St. John’s opponent after RJ Luis explained that associate head coach Steve Masiello handed Pitino a stack of papers about the Mavericks right after the matchup was unveiled.
Florida, the champions of the SEC Tournament, were pegged as the No. 1 seed in the region with Texas Tech as the No. 3 seed. The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 will be played in San Francisco.
The drama in the subregional comes from the No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed as Kansas, the former school of Red Storm standout Zuby Ejiofor and current school of ex-St. John’s freshman AJ Storr, will play an Arkansas team led by head coach John Calipari in his first season with the Razorbacks – a rival of Pitino when the two were at Louisville and Kentucky.
A tipoff time is unknown yet but the Johnnies will be on the court Thursday in Providence.