Big East Unveils Schedule, Red Storm Open With Exhibition Against C.W. Post

After 21 wins, six of which came against teams ranked in the Top 25, and being ranked as high as 14th in the Associated Press poll, the question going into the 2011-12 season would be how St. John’s would follow such a sudden act of resurgence. The long-awaited answer became a little clearer with the release and announcement of the Big East schedule, coupled with the unveiling of the Red Storm’s non-conference ledger for the youngest team in program history.

The 104th season of Red Storm basketball officially begins on November 7th when the Johnnies welcome William and Mary into Carnesecca Arena, but is preceded by two exhibition games: One against C.W. Post and former Norm Roberts assistant Chris Casey, and the other against Division III institution St. Mary’s of Maryland.

Following the William and Mary contest, the Red Storm play host to Lehigh on November 9th before welcoming America East opponent UMBC to the corner of Union and Utopia on November 13th, their last tuneup before making their 2011-12 Madison Square Garden debut against Arizona in the 2K Sports Classic. St. John’s will then face either Texas A&M or Mississippi State in the second night of the Garden tournament.

Upon returning from the Garden, the Johnnies will entertain Brooklyn’s St. Francis College on November 22nd for the first time since 2008, in what could be an intriguing matchup.

While St. John’s has had the edge in the intra-city rivalry since losing to the Terriers in 2004, each of the last two meetings in the series were decided by just eight points. The Red Storm will next take on Northeastern on the 26th of November, two days after Thanksgiving.

After a month of home games, the new-look Storm will take to Rupp Arena for their first road game, a December 1st tilt against John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats. Fresh off a Final Four run, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb return for the Wildcats, along with an impressive four-man recruiting class that was ranked first in the nation.

From the Bluegrass State, head coach Steve Lavin and company will travel to Detroit to play the Titans in a game where ESPN analyst and former Detroit coach Dick Vitale will be honored by having the court named after him.

St. John’s will then take a break for finals before returning to the court on December 17th in the restructured Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden against Fordham, a matchup where the Red Storm will look to avenge a bitter defeat that proved to be the launching pad for their Cinderella run to the NCAA Tournament.

The Johnnies’ final nonconference game takes place on December 21st against Texas Pan-American.

The Red Storm open Big East play two days after Christmas at Carnesecca Arena against Providence and new coach Ed Cooley before closing out 2011 on New Year’s Eve in Hartford against reigning national champion Connecticut. The Huskies will be without the services of head coach Jim Calhoun, as he serves an NCAA-imposed suspension for the Huskies’ first three Big East games.

Following the UConn matchup, St. John’s squares off against another former national champion coach when Rick Pitino and Louisville invade the Garden in the Johnnies’ 2012 opener on January 3rd.

A road trip featuring Cincinnati and Marquette awaits from there before the Red Storm return home on January 15th to face Georgetown, looking to take down the Hoyas for the fourth consecutive time at Madison Square Garden. St. John’s will also welcome Villanova and West Virginia into the Garden for two of the eleven games they will play in midtown Manhattan, but not before traveling to Tampa for a meeting with USF on January 18th.

The Johnnies take to the road once again after the West Virginia game, first to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a matchup with Mike Krzyzewski and Duke on January 28th. In addition to defeating the Blue Devils at Madison Square Garden this past January, St. John’s is also the last non-ACC program to defeat Duke in Durham, doing so back in 2000.

A trip to Chicago to face DePaul is next on the agenda and once St. John’s is back home, they continue February with two games at the Garden, welcoming Syracuse and Cincinnati into the Big Apple before a pair of road showdowns down Interstate 95 against Georgetown and Seton Hall.

On February 18th, the Red Storm play the first of three consecutive home contests, welcoming UCLA and Notre Dame to the Garden while DePaul is sandwiched between the two on Monday, February 20th at Carnesecca Arena. The Johnnies will close the regular season on the road, traveling to Pittsburgh to commemorate leap year, (February 29th) and will culminate the 2011-12 campaign against Mike Rice and Rutgers on March 3rd in Piscataway. That game will be the first meeting between the two schools since Justin Brownlee’s infamous travel out of bounds allowed the Red Storm to advance in the Big East tournament.

“Clearly, our team will face the most challenging schedule of my coaching career,” said head coach Steve Lavin in a press release. “Our young squad will clearly benefit from being tested in facing one of the toughest schedules in St. John’s history.”

With one returning scholarship letterwinner in junior Malik Stith, the Red Storm will feature at least nine newcomers, a group comprised of seven freshmen, one sophomore and one junior. STJ will look to its highly-rated 2011-12 recruiting class, featuring six recruits ranked in the Top 100 in the nation, to assist in replacing 96.3 percent of its scoring and 97.8 percent of its rebounding in the coming season.