NEWARK, NJ — What went down in Newark, New Jersey Friday night at the Prudential Center was historic for the No. 18 ranked St. John’s Red Storm, clinching a share of the Big East regular season title, with their 72-65 win over the Seton Hall Pirates—the program’s second consecutive regular season conference championship (2024-2025 & 2025-2026).
The massive feat of winning back-to-back Big East Conference regular season titles for St. John’s Men’s Basketball last occurred during the 1984-85 & 1985-86 campaigns, a memorable stretch when the late great Lou Carnesecca was at the helm in Queens.
Now as head coach Rick Pitino has done so throughout his first three years of steering the Red Storm, the 73-year-old Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and St. John’s will officially be the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big East Conference Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s still not over, it’s just beginning,” Pitino said Friday night following the victory. “We have won back-to-back championships with two different teams, and that’s not easy to do. There’s been one common denominator, and that’s the young man to my left (Zuby Ejiofor).”
The senior forward Ejiofor, dropping 21 points in the win vs. the Pirates, with three blocks and two rebounds, described the back-to-back feat as “not easy,” adding “it takes everybody being committed to one main goal in winning, and I think we did a really special thing tonight.”
Zuby Ejiofor and No. 18 ranked St. John’s celebrating their Big East regular season championship clinching win on Friday night at the Prudential Center – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Despite St. John’s improving to 25-6 overall and 18-2 in Big East play with the victory, if No. 4 UConn were to beat Marquette this Saturday, the Huskies (27-3 overall, 17-2 in BE play) would force a split of the Big East regular season title due to each team holding the same overall record in conference play on the year.
The reason why the Red Storm are the No. 1 seed in the BE Tournament over UConn, already set no matter the result of Saturday’s contest between Marquette and UConn, is a tie-breaker based on St. John’s and UConn’s results against Creighton who the Red Storm beat twice while the Huskies went 1-1.
Each team ahead of Creighton in the 2025-2026 Big East regular season standings, such as Villanova and Seton Hall, were swept by the Huskies and Red Storm, creating the current scenario.
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