Nebrasketball: St John’s Red Storm Preview

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are on the road for the first time this season to take part in the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big Ten and Big East conferences. The Huskers are set to take on the St. John’s Red Storm in Queens, New York tomorrow night. UNL is 1-3 in the event.

As for this season’s Nebraska team, the Huskers are 2-0 entering tomorrow night’s matchup. UNL last time out notched a 75-61 win over Omaha last Thursday. Through two games on the season, the Huskers are averaging 77.0 points per game and have three players averaging double figures through the first two games.

Griesel, a grad transfer from North Dakota State, paces the Huskers in scoring (20.0 ppg), rebounding (8.0 rpg), and assists (3.0 apg), as he ranks in the top-10 in the Big Ten in both scoring and rebounding entering the week. The Huskers have had four players (Bandoumel, Wilcher, Griesel, and Keisei Tominaga) score at least 18 points at least once in the first two games.

• When: Thursday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 ET
• Where: Carnesecca Arena - Queens, NY (5,602)
• TV: FS1, streaming via FOX Sports App
• Announcers: Tim Brando (play-by-play), Donny Marshall (analyst)
• Radio: Huskers Radio Network; Kent Pavelka (play-by-play), Jake Muhleisen (analyst)
• Broadcast Stations: KLIN (1400 AM) in Lincoln, KKCD (105.9 FM) in Omaha, KHYY (106.9 FM) in Scottsbluff, and KAMI (1580 AM) in Lexington
  Also available on Huskers.com and the Huskers app.
  The pregame broadcast with Pavelka and Muhleisen begins one hour before tipoff.
• Betting Odds: Not available via DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing.

St. John’s enters the Gavitt Games matchup against Nebraska with a 3-0 record following a 91-74 win over Central Connecticut last night. The Red Storm returned three starters and eight letterwiners from a team that went 17-15 last season and enter the 2022-2023 season picked sixth in the Big East preseason poll.

All-Big East guard Posh Alexander averaged 13.8 points, 5.5 assists, and 2.3 steals per game, ranking in the top-20 nationally in both assists and steals and was on the Wooden Award watch list. He comes into Thursday’s game averaging 10.7 points, 5.7 assists, and 2.7 steals per game this season.

St. John’s added two big transfers in David Jones (DePaul) and Andre Curbelo (Illinois). Jones leads the Red Storm in scoring (18.7 ppg) and is second in rebounding (8.0 rpg), while Curbelo is averaging 9.7 points and 6.0 assists per game. Curbelo did not play against Nebraska while at Illinois last season, but as a freshman he averaged 5.0 points in two games over 22.5 minutes per game.

Junior forward Joel Soriano leads the Red Storm in rebounding with 8.7 per game and is averaging 11.3 points on 70 percent shooting, while Montez Mathis, who played at Rutgers before joining the St. John’s program last season, is averaging 11.3 points per game.

St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson is in his fourth season at St. John’s. Previously, he coached at UAB (2002-06), Missouri (2006-11), and Arkansas (2011-19) before taking over the St. John’s program following the 2018-19 season. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg is 1-2 all-time against Anderson, with all three meetings coming during his time at Iowa State. After going 0-2 against Anderson during the 2010-11 season (87-54 in Columbia; 76-70 in Ames), the Cyclones beat Anderson’s Arkansas team 95-77 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Nov. 4, 2014.

Nebraska and St. John’s have met only one other time, a 79-56 setback in the 2017 Gavitt Tipoff games in Queens.

St. John’s
2021-22 Record: 17-15 (5-13 Big East)
Head Coach: Kevin Anderson
Record at St. John’s: 53-41 (4th year)
Career Record: 423-242 (21st year)

Nebraska
2021-22 Record: 10-22 (4-16 Big Ten)
Head Coach: Fred Hoiberg
Record at Nebraska: 27-67 (4th year)
Career Record: 142-123 (9th year)