NEW YORK – The top-seeded St. John’s (29-4) men’s basketball team will take on second-seeded Creighton (24-9) in the BIG EAST Tournament Championship game on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
Tip-off is slated for 6:30 p.m. from The World’s Most Famous Arena. FOX will carry the national telecast with Gus Johnson and Jim Jackson on the call and Kristina Pink reporting from the sideline. Westwood One Sports will carry the national radio broadcast with Scott Graham and PJ Carlesimo announcing the action from Midtown.
An audio broadcast of the game on the LEARFIELD Red Storm Sports Network with John Minko and Brandon Tierney will also be available on a variety of platforms including the Varsity Network App, TuneIn Radio, RedStormSports.com and the St. John’s Red Storm mobile app. The radio broadcast can also be heard on SiriusXM radio channel 84 and via the SiriusXM App.
The Red Storm will compete in the title game for the first time since 2000 and makes its sixth all-time appearance in the championship bout. The Johnnies have previously won three BIG EAST titles in 1983, 1986 and 2000.
St. John’s Head Coach Rick Pitino, the 2025 BIG EAST Coach of the Year, aims for his third BIG EAST Tournament title in his last four seasons coaching in the league. Pitino previously took home back-to-back championships in Louisville’s final two seasons as a conference member in 2012 and 2013. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer would become the first coach in league history to win the title at two different schools and just the fourth coach to earn three championships in four seasons coaching in the league, joining Jay Wright, Jim Calhoun and John Thompson Jr.
On Friday in the semifinals, Zuby Ejiofor set a program record for a BIG EAST Tournament game scoring 33 points to help St. John’s rally back from a 15-point first half deficit to down fifth-seeded Marquette, 79-63. After trailing 24-9 early in the first half, St. John’s outscored the Golden Eagles, 70-39, over the final 32-plus minutes.
Ejiofor’s record-breaking 33-point explosion marked a career-high and the highest in a BIG EAST Tournament Semifinal since Connecticut’s Kemba Walker went for 33 on March 11, 2011. The junior shot 11-for-15 (73.3%) from the floor and 11-for-12 (91.7%) from free throw line. The big man added nine boards becoming the first Red Storm player to log 30 or more points and nine or more rebounds since Walter Berry went for 31 points and 11 boards in the 1986 NCAA Tournament Round of 64.
St. John’s and Creighton split their regular season contests with each team holding serve on its home court. The Bluejays claimed a 57-56 win in Omaha on New Year’s Eve as Ejiofor led St. John’s with 16 points and eight rebounds. In their last meeting, the Johnnies beat then No. 24/21 Creighton, 79-73, on Feb. 16 at Madison Square Garden. The Johnnies erased a 10-point deficit behind RJ Luis Jr.’s 23 points, five assists and career-high 14 rebounds.
Saturday’s meeting between the Red Storm and Bluejays will mark the 11th time the first and second place teams in the conference square off in the title game in the tournament’s 46-year history. The only time the Red Storm and Bluejays have ever squared off in the BIG EAST Tournament was on March 12, 2020. However, the tournament was canceled at halftime due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the Johnnies leading at the break, 38-35. The contest did not result in a win or a loss.
Creighton is led by four-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Kalkbrenner who is a powerful presence in the middle, averaging 19.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. The 7-foot-1 center ranks fourth in the nation in both blocks and field goal percentage (.654). The winner of the BIG EAST Championship game will earn an automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The complete field will be unveiled on Sunday at 6 p.m. on CBS.
