Marquette Golden Eagles (6-11, 1-5 Big East) at St. John’s Red Storm (11-5, 4-1 Big East)
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Time: 5:30pm Central
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
Marquette Stats Leaders
Points: Chase Ross, 15.5 ppg
Rebounds: Ben Gold, 6.4 rpg
Assists: Nigel James, 4.0 apg
Marquette Injury Note: Sean Jones has missed the last three games with a foot issue. Since he was still in a walking boot on Saturday, I don’t expect him to be available again until we see him without the boot on. Adrien Stevens was listed as questionable for the Villanova game but ended up playing 31 minutes.
St. John’s Stats Leaders
Points: Zuby Ejiofor, 15.8 ppg
Rebounds: Zuby Ejiofor, 7.5 rpg
Assists: Zuby Ejiofor, 3.1 apg
KenPom.com Rankings
Marquette: #114
St. John’s: #18
Game Projection: St. John’s has a 94% chance of victory with a predicted score of 86-69.
This Season So Far: The question for St. John’s is whether this is going worse than expected or about what was expected.
On one hand, the Red Storm started out the year at #5 in the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll, and after losses to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn, Kentucky, and Providence, they found themselves not even earning votes in last week’s poll. They had been tumbling all season long, but the loss to the Friars is what booted them from everyone’s ballots.
On the other hand, as of Monday morning, the Johnnies are at #18 in the KenPom.com rankings after starting the season at #16. If we filter out the preseason data over at BartTorvik.com, St. John’s is the #20 team in the country.
The computers think the team is better than the voters do, but the voters were way out in front of the computers in the first place. When you consider the fact that Big East Preseason Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor was the only returning rotation player for the Red Storm, this is all going pretty well even if it’s not going as well as 1) last year or 2) what a decent chunk of people might have thought was going to happen.
Tempo Free Fun: As you can see from the stat leader section above, Zuby Ejiofor is really great. On top of that, Ejiofor hung a 33/9/3/1 on Marquette the last time he played them. The time before that? 17/12/1/1. The time before that? 13/13/1.
That was against last year’s Marquette team, which had the #26 defense in the country according to KenPom.com’s efficiency metrics. That Golden Eagles squad also finished second in the Big East in defensive efficiency in regular season league games, and Ejiofor was still able to rumble around and do damage against MU.
This year’s Marquette team is #91 in defensive efficiency per KenPom, and they are currently 8th in the league on defense through six games. Last year’s defense was good and could not stop Ejiofor. This year, we can argue that Ejiofor is a better player — he’s currently top of the charts in the KenPom POY arithmetic — and MU’s defense is muuuuuuuch worse. I think it’s a safe bet that he is going to run absolutely wild against Marquette at The Garden on Tuesday night.
And so, I pose a theory: What if Shaka Smart’s guys just let him do that?
I’m not saying it’s a great plan, there are clearly flaws since the Johnnies are 4-1 in Big East games and Ejiofor is averaging 19/8/4/2/2 in those five contests.
HOWEVER, Zuby Ejiofor had a season high 33 points along with 15 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and three blocks as St. John’s lost 77-71 to Providence back on January 3rd. No one else scored in double digits for the Red Storm, although Bryce Hopkins — yes, the former Providence forward — nearly had a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. Sure, a lot of things went terrifically one-sided for Providence in that game in order for that to work, and I don’t know if hoping that Players Not Named Zuby shoot 8-for-30 (27%) on twos and 4-for-25 (16%) on threes again is a real way to game plan for the Red Storm.
Marquette Last 10 Games: 2-8 with losses in seven of their last eight games.
St. John’s Last 10 Games: 7-3 with wins in four of their last five games.
All Time Series: Marquette leads, 29-19
Current Streak: The Red Storm swept the season series and won in the Big East tournament last year to give them three straight wins against the Golden Eagles.
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