The Kings of Queens: Historic St. John’s Basketball season fuels local Queens campus community
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The St. John’s Basketball team is headed to the Big East Tournament as the number one seed, and their success is being felt in their Queens home. AP file photo by Noah K. Murray
By Ryan Schwach
An 18-2 conference record, 27-4 overall, undefeated at home, the team’s highest ranking in 30-years, and the first outright Big East regular season title in nearly 40.
It’s an impressive list of accomplishments earned by Queens’ St. John’s University men’s basketball team this year, and one they hope to add to as they head into the Big East Tournament Thursday night, where they are the top seed. Should they win, it will be their first title in 25 years. It would also make them a team to beat in the upcoming NCAA March Madness tournament.
The historic season for SJU has been facilitated by a star-studded team, led by a fiery veteran head coach. They’ve also been fueled, in part, by the death of a school legend, and their desire to win big for him.
The result – the Red Storm have lived up to their name, taking the borough, the city and the nation by storm.
While most of their regular season games are played under the bright lights at Madison Square Garden, the Jamaica-based squad is impacting the small local neighborhood surrounding campus, Queens and the students who have come from around the globe to study in the World’s Borough.
At St. John’s campus, which sits in its quiet corner of Queens between Utopia Parkway and Union Turnpike, students were abuzz with the boys’ success so far this season, and the potential for more to come.
“The best team in 40 years, it’s really great,” said Jake Osborne, who was sitting and eating lunch between classes at the SJU campus on Wednesday. “You could definitely feel the energy, people wearing St. John's merch. It's a great feeling.”
Osborne has season tickets to St. John’s games, and sees people wearing Red Storm stuff all over the city.
“When I go on the train at Jamaica Station, and I go around the cars like trying to find a seat, you see people wearing red and white,” he said.
“You can definitely feel the energy on campus,” added his friend Jack Ippolito. “It feels different.”
School spirit has definitely heightened, said Madison Amini, who is part of the school's spirit organization, Redzone.
Coach Rick Pitino has led St. John’s into a new era of success, which included an undefeated home record. AP file photo by Noah K. Murray
“I've noticed if you're wearing a St. John's sweatshirt around, at least one person is going to say, ‘Hey, go St. John’s,’” Amini said. “Once you say you're from St. John's, it's immediately the basketball team, the basketball team.”
The students have gotten into it. Student sections at games have been filling up faster and more and more students have been visiting the ticket office where senior Ashley Perez works.
“There's always someone coming to the window,” Perez said. “It's fun and it’s exciting.”
One of those new faces is student Cameron Beechler, a Long Island native.
“I have especially started paying attention this year,” she said. “Just because they've become more popular and they've been doing very well.”
Beechler said she started watching games when the team started performing particularly well during the winter break, when the team went on a 10-game win streak.
“I was like, alright, this is a big deal,” she said.
The basketball team’s success is also trickling down to motivate the school’s other teams, like Track and Field.
“We want to keep up with basketball, or like them, win the Big East,” said athlete Leilani Robinson, who hails from the Bronx.
St. John’s basketball has been motivated this year by the death of iconic former head coach, Lou Carnesecca. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
“Having a good team in the city means a lot, especially for me,” she said. “My mom's friends, who grew up in Brooklyn, who grew up in the Bronx, I hear them talk about when they grew up in the 80s, talking about how it's prime New York and St. John's. It's great.”
Her teammates, Blessing Assoumany and Rachel Hippolyte, feel the attention on their school, as well.
“I feel like it definitely brings more attention to St. John's athletics,” said Assoumany. “There's always cameras. They're always recording something, always an interview.”
Hippolyte, from New Jersey, said SJU is getting attention everywhere. She remembered recently a person at a Garden State Costco pointed out her school pants and started asking about the basketball team.
The excitement extends beyond the SJU campus.
Across the street from the campus, all the talk was about Queens basketball at Regina’s Pizza, a popular joint that has St. John’s paraphernalia adorning its walls.
One employee said that the place has been busier with fans dawning red and white, and the energy from across the street is as thick as an extra cheese slice.
Local Councilmember Jim Gennaro’s office is just a short walk from SJU’s campus. Gennaro credited Lou Carnesecca, the team’s longtime coach who died in November, for the team’s success.
"Legendary coach Lou Carnesecca has inspired the Johnnies from the beyond to use the full range of their powers along lines of excellence,” said the councilmember. “Go St. John's!!"
St. John’s adventure this season did not come easy, nor was it expected.
In 2023, the school penned a contract with Rick Pitino, a fiery head coach who has a legacy of turning programs around.
The New York-born coach is known for his trademark suits and iron-fisted coaching style, but his first season didn’t take off immediately. The Red Storm finished fifth in the Big East, and failed to punch a ticket to the NCAA tournament.
This year, Pitino came with a fresh squad of recruits, led by the three-headed Red Storm monster of RJ Luis, Kadary Richmond – who is from South Brooklyn – and Zuby Ejiofor.
Leilani Robinson, Blessing Assoumany and Rachel Hippolyte, three St. John’s Track and Field athletes, are excited about the basketball team’s success this season. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Luis was named Big East player of the year, and finished second in the conference in points and rebounds. Richmond, also a top scorer, was in the top three in the conference in rebounds and assists.
Ejiofor was named the conference’s Most Improved Player, and Pitino has called him the "heart and soul of our basketball team.”
The players – all born years after St. John’s last successes – are just as aware of the history they are making.
“I feel like every other game we’re doing something new, we’re breaking records and stuff like that,” Luis told reporters this year.
Ejiofor capped off SJU’s last regular season win with a heroic buzzer beater, and talked about what made the team so successful this year after making that winning shot.
“Our entire thing is to do whatever it takes to win,” Ejiofor said. “It doesn’t always look pretty every single night, and it doesn’t matter. We fight through adversity, we’re a gritty team.”
The team had added motivation this year as well.
In November, the team’s patriarch and iconic coach Carnesecca passed away just shy of his 100th birthday.
“For St. John’s fans, you’ll always tell stories about Lou because of what he represented,” Pitino said following Carnesecca’s death. “I along with all the other coaches who coached here are caretakers of Lou’s legacy. That’s all we are. We’re caretakers at St. John’s of what Lou built, and I’m very proud to be a caretaker of Lou’s legacy.”
During a game, Pitino – who was named Big East coach of the year on Wednesday – wore a sweater modeled after one Carnesecca wore as he coached St. John’s in the 1980s.
"We're very proud of the fact that in the year that he passed because he led a great life, we can honor him with this championship," Pitino said after the team won their Big East championship.
On Thursday night, St. John’s will play its first game of the tournament against Butler at Madison Square Garden.
They enter the Big East tournament as the favorites, and should they perform as expected, the Red Storm are predicted to be ranked as high as a three seed in the NCAA tournament.
St. John was the number one seed in 1985, the year of the school’s best tournament finish when they made the final four.
But, there is a chance for a run, one that everyone in Queens is anxiously hoping for – especially the coach.
“We better win,” Pitino told reporters on Wednesday, “Or I’m jumping in the East River.”
