St. John's to unveil Big East title banners at Monday's season opener at Carnesecca Arena
The St. John’s Big East regular season champions and tournament champions banners were unveiled at Carnesecca Arena on Nov. 3, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s is going to open its Big East championship defense in style before tipoff of the regular season on Monday night at Carnesecca Arena.
The Red Storm is having a pregame ceremony where it will unveil the banners for winning the 2026 Big East regular season title (which it captured outright) and its 2026 Big East Tournament title. St. John’s last March became the first team in conference history to win both in back-to-back seasons.
The season opener against Monmouth is scheduled to tipoff at 6:30 p.m. and the school has suggested fans get to their seats by 6:15 p.m. to catch the entire ceremony.
The pregame festivities also will include the five returning players receiving their championship rings. The returners are juniors Ian Jackson, Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos and sophomores Casper Pohto and Fotis Konstantinitis.
Jackson, who had joined the Red Storm via transfer from North Carolina, said it was “a chance to see what winning looks like at a high level,”
“You just want to be a part of it,” he added. “Being able to see Zuby (Ejiofor) and all the guys out there (from) the year before get their rings and enjoy it — that’s something I just wanted to be a part of.”
When St. John’s kicked off last season with banners and rings, coach Rick Pitino took a mic and addressed the crowd.
Asked on Friday what message he might deliver, Pitino replied, “I haven't thought about it yet . . . To me, winning the Big East is not easy. And winning the Big East regular season, winning the Big East championship in the fashion we did it? We did it with style.”
The school also announced that the first 3,000 fans in the door will receive pennants recognizing the “Back-2-Back” titles.
Jackson said he is looking forward to the ceremony.
“It's going to be great,” he said. “I think last year's team, we went through a lot to win the Big East. People made a lot of sacrifices — a lot went through a lot of different adversities on that team. We came together and did something great.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
