Nebrasketball to play St. John’s in 2022 Gavitt Games

The Nebraska Cornhuskers have another piece of the non-conference schedule in place, per a report by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. The Huskers will face off against the St. John’s Red Storm in Queens as part of the 2022 Gavitt Tipoff Games.

The exact date and time of the matchup have yet to be confirmed and a release date by the Big Ten and Big East conferences of those details is unknown at time of publishing. It will mark the second time the two programs have faced off against one another in the event.

Nebraska played at St. John’s on Thur., Nov. 16, 2017. The Huskers fell 79-56 in the matchup at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, New York. At least since 1950, that is the only time the two programs have met before. Former Nebraska assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih was an assistant coach with St. John’s in that matchup.

The Red Storm went 17-15 last season and 8-11 in the Big East in the third season under head coach Mike Anderson. St. John’s tied for seventh in the league with Xavier. At the No. 7 seed in the Big East Tournament, the Red Storm defeated DePaul in the first round and fell to No. 2 seed Villanova in the quarterfinals in a close 66-65 loss, ending the season.

UNL, meanwhile, had an awful season nobody wants to rehash in this article.

Overall, Nebraska will be participating in the event for the fifth time this season. The Huskers are 1-3 with losses at Villanova (87-63, 2015) and at home to Creighton (77-69, 2021) with a lone win in Lincoln over Seton Hall (80-57, 2018).

St. John’s is 3-2 in the Gavitt Tipoff Games with two wins over Rutgers (61-59, 2015, home; 84-65, 2018, away) to go along with the 2017 win over Nebraska. The Red Storm also host losses at Minnesota (92-86, 2016) and at Indiana (76-74, 2021).

The Big Ten holds a narrow 2-1-3 edge in the event held annually since 2015 (except 2020’s event was cancelled due to the pandemic). The event began with an eight-year contract through 2022 and no extension has yet been announced. The full list of reported matchups is listed below, though Connecticut who returned to the Big East in 2019 and has not participated in the event, is not listed in this year’s matchups, either.

• Villanova at Michigan State
• Indiana at Xavier
• Iowa at Seton Hall
• Marquette at Purdue
• Butler at Penn State
• Northwestern at Georgetown
• Nebraska at St. John’s
• DePaul at Minnesota

Update July 1

The matchup against St. John’s is official as the Nebraska Athletic Department made the official pairings announcement earlier today.