St. John's Zuby Ejiofor unanimous pick for All-Big East first team
St. John's Zuby Ejiofor reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Seton Hall on Friday in Newark, N.J. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
St. John’s Zuby Ejiofor heads the 2025-26 All-Big East first team as its only unanimous choice in a vote by conference coaches, the league announced on Sunday morning.
The 18th-ranked Red Storm, the outright Big East regular-season champion, had two other players named to the all-conference teams. Bryce Hopkins was named to the second team and Dillon Mitchell made the third team.
Ejiofor, a 6-9 senior center, would appear to have locked up the Big East Player of the Year award. The Big East will announce other individual awards this week; on Wednesday, there will be a news conference with the Player of the Year, the Coach of the Year and the Freshman of the Year.
Ejiofor joins an elite group of Red Storm players who have been selected to the all-conference first team more than once: Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Malik Sealy, Marcus Hatten, D’Angelo Harrison, Shamorie Ponds and Julian Champagnie.
Ejiofor is averaging 16.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. All are team highs; he is the only high-major player in the country to lead his team in all four categories.
The Red Storm also had three all-conference selections last season, with RJ Luis Jr. earning Player of the Year, Ejiofor joining him on the first team and Kadary Richmond voted to the second team. Before that, the last time St. John’s had three players named to all-conference teams was 1999-2000.
Ejiofor and Mitchell were selected to the five-person All-Defensive team, with Ejiofor again being the lone unanimous selection.
Joining Ejiofor on the first team (traditionally six players in the Big East) are three players from No. 4 Connecticut — Alex Karaban, Silas Demary Jr. and Tarris Reed Jr. —as well as Tre Carroll of Xavier and Michael Ajayi of Butler.
Hopkins is joined on the second team by Solo Ball of UConn, Jaylin Sellers of Providence, Budd Clark of Seton Hall and Acaden Lewis of Villanova. Hopkins completed the regular season averaging 13.3 points and 6.0 rebounds.
Mitchell is on the third team with Butler’s Finley Bizjack, Georgetown’s KJ Lewis, Marquette’s Nigel James Jr. and Villanova’s Duke Brennan and Tyler Perkins. Mitchell, who transferred from Cincinnati, averaged 8.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game and shot 54.1%.
On the All-Defensive team. Ejiofor and Mitchell were joined by Seton Hall’s Clark, UConn’s Demary and Marquette’s Chase Ross.
There were four unanimous selections on the Big East’s All-Freshman team: James, Lewis, Braylon Mullins of UConn and Stefan Vaaks of Providence. Jamier Jones of Providence also was named to the All-Freshman team.
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.
