By ADAM ZAGORIA
St. John’s is planning to play “8 or 9” games at Madison Square Garden during Rick Pitino’s first season as coach, athletic director Mike Cragg told ZAGSBLOG Friday.
The Red Storm expects to play about half a dozen Big East games along with a Gavitt Games matchup and at least one other non-conference game. The Red Storm will face Fordham on Dec. 16 at the Garden, sources confirmed.
“Planned to be 6 Big East games,” Cragg said via text. “Could grow to 7 depending on how Knicks and Rangers and Big East schedule unfolds in weeks ahead. But we feel confident in six.”
St. John’s played four games at the Garden last season under Mike Anderson — and has ranged from four to eight games there. The Garden said it expects to have more games going forward.
“We do expect that but we don’t know yet,” Garden executive vice president Joel Fisher said in a one-on-one interview ahead of the NCAA Tournament games. “Rick has clearly said that he wants to play more games here. Mike Cragg, who is a great friend and we’ll work more closely with, said they want to play more games here so we’re going to sit down in the next couple of weeks and look at our schedule because we’re the busiest building in the world but we will do everything in our power to find more dates for St. John’s and I’m sure there will be more games here under Rick.
“And it will be great because he’s going to draw fans, the team’s going to be better and it’s just going to be overall a great experience for everyone.”
Cragg said St. John’s is “nearing 1,000 new season ticket deposits” since Pitino was announced as the new coach last month, adding there has been a lot of “buzz and excitement” around the hire.
With Pitino coming to St. John’s, Ed Cooley shifting to Georgetown from Providence and Dan Hurley winning the national championship at UConn, the Big East is set to have a “Murderer’s Row” of coaches next season.
Asked how many games he expected to play at the Garden next season, Pitino said “six or seven” at his introductory presser.
“The following year I think almost every game will be played in a major arena,” he said
As for drawing fans to the Garden he said, “That won’t be a problem. When they see the brand of basketball that we’re going to put on that floor and the players we’re gonna bring in, that will not be a problem.”
Pitino has been busy rebuilding the roster with transfers and this weekend hosts five-star former Duke commit Mackenzie Mgbako of Roselle (N.J.) Catholic.
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