Huskers to Travel to St. John’s in Gavitt Games

Lincoln – Nebraska will travel to the Big Apple for the 2022 edition of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, as the Huskers will face St. John’s. The matchup between the Huskers and Red Storm will take place on Thursday, Nov. 17, at Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y. 
Tipoff and television information will be announced later as all games will appear on either FS1 or BTN and the games will be available on the Fox Sports app. 

It will mark the second time the schools have met, as St. John’s posted a 79-56 victory in Queens in the 2017 Gavitt Games. Both of NU’s conference challenge games are rematches from the 2017-18 season, as NU hosts Boston College in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 30. 

The Gavitt Tipoff Games, which began in 2015, is an early-season series between the two conferences and named in honor of Hall of Famer Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East and basketball visionary. Nebraska is 1-3 in four Gavitt Tipoff Games appearance since participating in the inaugural event in 2015. The Big Ten is 2-1-3 in the event following the Big East’s win in the 2021 Gavitt Games.

The Red Storm returns four starters for Mike Anderson, who begins his fourth season in Queens. St. John’s, who went 17-15 last season, is led by All-Big East guard Posh Alexander, who averaged 13.8 points, 5.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game, ranking in the top-20 nationally in both assists and steals last season. Other returning starters include guards Montez Mathis (8.2 ppg, 3.4 apg) and Dylan Addae-Wusu (8.5 ppg, 3.9 apg) and forward Joel Soriano (6.4 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.7 bpg).

The Huskers return two of its top four scorers from a year ago for fourth-year coach Fred Hoiberg in super senior Derrick Walker (9.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and sophomore guard C.J. Wilcher (8.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 53 3-pointers.  NU has retooled its roster with a trio of Division I transfers in Emmanuel Bandoumel (SMU), Juwan Gary (Alabama) and Sam Griesel (North Dakota State) and a recruiting class that is ranked in the top 30 nationally by both Rivals and 247Sports. That group includes a pair of top-150 recruits in Ramel Lloyd Jr. and Jamarques Lawrence as well as junior college transfer Blaise Keita, who is the No. 4 overall player by JUCORecruiting.com.

Friday’s announcement is the sixth game announced in the Huskers’ 2022-23 non-conference schedule. NU will play three games in the ESPN Events Invitational over Thanksgiving week, host Boston College in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and travel to Kansas City for a neutral-site matchup with Kansas State on Dec. 17. The remainder of the non-conference schedule will be announced later this summer.