St. John’s University’s main campus is in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The school also maintains a campus in Manhattan, planted in the city that has always defined it.
Founded in 1870 by the Congregation of the Mission, commonly known as the Vincentians, St. John’s started as a men’s college in Brooklyn before becoming a university in 1906. The move to Queens began in 1955. Today it is a private, Catholic, coeducational university, and its basketball team carries the name Red Storm.
A Basketball Program Built on New York Identity
St. John’s basketball is one of the oldest and most decorated programs in the country. The Red Storm rank ninth all-time in NCAA Division I wins with 1,973 and have appeared in 32 NCAA Tournaments. The program has reached nine Sweet 16s, six Elite Eights, and two Final Fours, in 1952 and 1985.
The 1985 Final Four team is the standard against which every Red Storm squad has since been measured. Chris Mullin, a Brooklyn native who starred at St. John’s before a long NBA career with the Golden State Warriors, was its centerpiece. Mullin is now in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and remains the most celebrated player in program history.
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The Red Storm play their home games at Carnesecca Arena in Queens and hold marquee games at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan. Few programs have a home venue with that kind of weight behind it.
Rick Pitino took the head coaching job in 2023 and rebuilt the program faster than anyone expected. In his third season, St. John’s finished 30-6 with an 18-2 Big East record. The Red Storm were the first school in Big East history to win back-to-back outright regular season crowns and conference tournament championships. Pitino, a Hall of Famer himself, has now taken the Red Storm to their first Sweet 16 in 27 years.
St. John’s 2026 Tournament Run
St. John’s entered the 2026 NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed in the East Region, the program’s third time at that seed position. The Johnnies knocked off No. 12 Northern Iowa in the opening round and then beat No. 4 Kansas on a buzzer-beater by Dylan Darling to advance to the Sweet 16.
MORE: St. John’s Sweet 16 History: Revisiting The 1999 Run with Ron Artest
They now face No. 1 Duke in the East Region semifinals. It’s the highest-profile game the program has played since that 1999 Elite Eight loss. St. John’s built this program in New York, with New York players, for moments exactly like this one.
