The St. John’s full schedule has been finalized after the Big East published its complete slate of conference games on Thursday afternoon.
Rick Pitino has already comprised a daunting non-conference batch of games for the Red Storm and there will be very little breaks during the winter as the Johnnies look to win back-to-back Big East titles.
Big East play begins for St. John’s like it did a season ago, hosting DePaul at Carnesecca Arena on December 13. The game falls in the midst of the non-conference schedule, coming after its meeting against Iona at Madison Square Garden on December 13 and before its trip to Atlanta to play Kentucky in the CBS Sports Classic on December 20.
It’ll be nearly two weeks before the Storm play another league game, finishing its non-conference games on December 23 against Harvard, but will return with its first true road game of the season on New Year’s Eve against Georgetown in Capital One Arena.
The first Big East game to be played at Madison Square Garden will be against Providence, the former team of Red Storm forward Bryce Hopkins, on January 3 which leads into a two-game road trip against Butler on January 6 and Creighton on January 10.
St. John’s returns to The Garden for its first meeting with Marquette on January 13 before Pitino will bring his team to Pennsylvania to face Kevin Willard’s Villanova Wildcats on January 17.
The Johnnies host Seton Hall on January 20 before the league gets to see the first installment of Rick Pitino against Richard Pitino on January 24 with St. John’s traveling to Cincinnati to play Xavier. It’ll be the second straight year that father and son faced each other with St. John’s defeating New Mexico a season ago.
A home game against Butler on January 28 will lead St. John’s into its bye week before it prepares for a grueling stretch of three games in seven days that starts on the road in Chicago against DePaul on February 3.
It will be followed by the first meeting of the season between St. John’s and UConn at Madison Square Garden on February 6 and the regular season series between the Storm and Musketeers wraps up on February 9.
Bryce Hopkins makes his return to Providence on February 14, beginning another tough two weeks for St. John’s that also sees them go to Marquette on February 18, host Creighton on February 21, and travel to the Huskies on February 25.
On paper, St. John’s has a soft end to the regular season schedule with home games against Villanova on February 28 and Georgetown on March 3 before its finale on Friday, March 6 on the road against Seton Hall.
Tipoff times and networks will be released at a later date. Venues will also be confirmed later in the month.