NEW YORK, NY — A lot went on from last Saturday night to now.
A whole ton as March Madness has arrived in full swing.
Less than 24 hours removed from when St. John’s cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden last Saturday night, celebrating its historic Big East Conference Tournament championship win over the UConn Huskies, the Red Storm had their name called on Selection Sunday.
As the Red Storm was placed in the East Region and seeded fifth, St. John’s and their fans on campus came together at Carnesecca Arena this past Sunday to watch the Selection Sunday Show – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Placed in the East Region and seeded fifth—with No. 1 Duke, No. 2 UConn, No. 3 Michigan State, and No. 4 Kansas each ahead of them—No. 5 St. John’s (28-6) will be playing its opening game of the 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament against No. 12 Northern Iowa (23-12) this Friday night in San Diego at Viejas Arena.
“We’re super excited to be here,” said St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino leading up to the Northern Iowa matchup in the Round of 64 as the team landed on the West Coast earlier in the week.
“I don’t know if you could get better weather than what’s out here. My team’s really excited to be playing in March Madness and being part of it. And we’re playing against, as we know, a great basketball team.”
Heading into Friday, St. John’s, appearing in back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time in program history since 1999-2000, has won 19 of its last 20 games while recording 21 wins and just two losses in the calendar year of 2026—January 3rd vs. Providence (77-71) and February 25th @ UConn (72-40).
(L-R) Dillon Mitchell and Zuby Ejiofor of the St. John’s Red Storm speaking to the media in San Diego on Thursday – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
“We’ve treated every game this year like a tournament game,” said St. John’s senior forward Dillon Mitchell. “But that’s just the type of mindset that we’ve had throughout the season: treating every game like a tournament game and going out there to get that win. Now it’s taking one game at a time and playing for 40 minutes, four-minute quarters for us and just going out there and doing anything we can to pull out a win.”
CBS, one of four television networks airing this year’s NCAA March Madness tournament games for Men’s Basketball, along with TBS, TNT, and TRUTV, is set to have the St. John’s-Northern Iowa Round of 64 tip-off ready to go at 7:10PM ET/4:10PM PT on Friday.
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