In a highly anticipated New York college matchup, the Hofstra University men’s basketball team is set to clash with the St. John’s University Red Storm on Saturday, Dec. 30, at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Saturday will mark the 28th meeting between the in-state rivals – and the first since 2009. St. John’s leads with a 22-5 record historically, with the Pride searching for their first victory over the Red Storm since a 63-51 upset on Dec. 29, 2006, at Madison Square Garden.
The game will serve as the non-conference finale for both sides, with the Pride managing a 7-5 record while the Red Storm boasts a 7-3 mark against non-league opponents.
St. John’s is off to an 8-4 start in their first season under head coach Rick Pitino, as one of the more controversial and high-profile coaching hires of the offseason has paid dividends thus far. Following a series of scandals and sanctions during his time at the University of Louisville, the embattled head coach rebuilt his reputation at Iona University, where he went 64-22 and reached a pair of NCAA tournaments across three seasons in New Rochelle, New York.
The Red Storm are led by 6-foot-11-inch center Joel Soriano, who leads all Big East forwards with 17.7 points per game. The Yonkers, New York, native ranks in the top 50 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding rate, while leading the conference in rebounds per game with 10.8. Largely due to Soriano’s efforts on the inside, St. John’s ranks third nationally in offensive rebounding rate and leads the nation with 17.6 second chance points per game. The glass will be an area of intense scrutiny on Saturday, as Hofstra enters the contest ranked 247th nationally in defensive rebounding.
Outside of Soriano, Pitino relies heavily on a plethora of transfers, including reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Jordan Dingle. The University of Pennsylvania transfer notched an average of 23.4 points per game for the Quakers a season ago and is up to 11.0 points per contest this season. St. John’s has also continued to lean on point guard Daniss Jenkins, who followed Pitino to Queens after leading his offense at Iona last season. Jenkins has quickly turned into the X factor on the offensive end for St. John’s, leading the team in assist rate as well as field goals attempted.
As for Hofstra, after a five-game winning streak that spanned over two weeks, the Pride now find themselves amidst a 1-3 stretch, dropping contests to a pair of NET top 100 foes in Duke University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. St. John’s will be Hofstra’s fourth top 100 opponent of the season. All eyes will be on Tyler Thomas, who is coming off his worst shooting performance of the season after a 4-20 night in Las Vegas.
Saturday’s matchup will serve as the third in a budding rivalry between Claxton and Pitino, with the two revered head coaches splitting their prior two meetings. Pitino has been coaching for as long as Claxton has been alive and will be looking to avenge an 83-78 defeat sustained as the head coach of Iona last season at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
Tip-off from UBS Arena is set for 12 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30. The game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports 1, while WRHU will carry the radio broadcast.
Photo courtesy of Lucas Peltier
