Welcome to the thread for Thursday’s St. John’s men’s basketball matchup against Bucknell. Please be respectful in the comment section and do not share any illegal streams of today’s game.
You can follow
updates of Thursday’s game on Rumble in the Garden’s official X account (formerly Twitter) at @rumbleSBN or on Rumble in the Garden’s new Bluesky account at rumbleinthegarden.bsky.social. Make sure to check out our game recap and analysis after the game.
If you want to participate in the comment section but are not familiar with the new SB Nation log-in system, you can check out the link here.
Game information
Who: No. 14 St. John’s Red Storm (2-1) vs. Bucknell Bison (2-3)
When: Thursday, November 20, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Carnesecca Arena, Jamaica, New York
TV: TNT/truTV
Radio: ESPN New York 880 / 1050
Series History: St. John’s leads all-time series, 2-0. The Red Storm won their last meeting with the Bison on November 19, 2013, squeaking out a 67-63 victory. Phil Greene IV led the Johnnies with 16 points on that night.
KenPom Predicted Score: St. John’s to win 92-65 (99 percent chance of win)
What to watch for
He’s A Really Big Dill’ – Rick Pitino announced Dillon Mitchell would become the team’s third co-captain on Wednesday, praising his “extraordinary leadership and selflessness”. Mitchell leads the Big East and ranks fifth nationally in defensive box-plus-minus (8.1). Mitchell doesn’t have a lot of offensive responsibilities, so he can continue focusing on disrupting opposing defenses and tearing it up in transition.
Giving Away the Gimmies – St. John’s has quietly had a rough start at the charity stripe, ranking 257th in the nation with a 67.7% rate at the line. It’s a small sample size, but it’s worse than the 69.1% figure last season’s team posted, and their shooting struggles were chronicled at length. Some guilty offenders include Bryce Hopkins (61.9%), Ian Jackson (60%), and Dillon Mitchell (53.8%), who all need to start making their free throws at a respectable rate.
Action Jackson – Ian Jackson hasn’t made the first impression fans were hoping for from the former McDonald’s All-American. He had a rough outing off the bench against William & Mary and still doesn’t have a clear role, but he can find his niche by playing more physical defense on the perimeter, limiting turnovers, and avoiding taking inefficient shots.
Prediction
By far the weakest opponent on the Red Storm’s schedule, Bucknell shouldn’t pose a threat or make this game interesting for a moment like William & Mary did. It will be on St. John’s to assert themselves from the opening tip-off and not let up against a team that lacks physicality and scoring talent, and they should achieve exactly that. St. John’s wins, 95-58. Get ready to see Fotis Konstantinidis minutes again.
Pregame links
- Dillon Mitchell named St. John’s third captain in surprise move — Zach Braziller, New York Post
- Rick Pitino believes new rotation could give St. John’s basketball sustained success — Kevin Connelly, Storm The Paint
- Zuby Ejiofor spoke with long-time college basketball writer Ken Davis in his feature on the Red Storm’s man in the middle at HoopsHQ
- Besides wins over mid-majors by Villanova and Creighton, Wednesday was another bitter night for the Big East in non-conference play. UConn ran out of gas against No. 4 Arizona (honestly, no shame in losing to a team that already had two top-15 wins entering the game), but it pales in comparison to what happened in Milwaukee.
- Marquette couldn’t even attempt a game-winning shot despite having 17 seconds remaining and a timeout, and they only mustered three points in overtime to lose to Dayton and fall to 3-3.
