St. John's survived a pesky Rutgers team in the second round of the Big East tournament, but not without some help from the men in stripes. The Red Storm appeared to get away with two fouls and certainly got away with traveling and stepping out of bounds. Justin Brownlee traveled and stepped out of bounds -- and threw the ball into the stands for good measure -- all with time on the clock, but not of those infractions were not called. Instead, St. John's won, 65-63, and will get Syracuse on Thursday in the quarterfinals. more ›

St. John's 10-man senior class finished its regular-season schedule on a good note with 72-56 win over South Florida at Carnesecca Arena in Queens. D.J. Kennedy had 16 points as the Red Storm bounced back from a disappointing loss at Seton Hall on Thursday. The 20 wins this season is the most for St. John's since the 2002-03 season. The Red Storm just missed the double-bye in this week's BIg East tournament, but they will be the No. 5 seed and get a single bye at Madison Square Garden. more ›

St. John's 81, Villanova 68: St. John's extended its win streak to six games as the number 23 Red Storm went on the road to beat the 15th ranked Wildcats. Villanova was the sixth ranked team that St. John's defeated, but the first time they've done it away from New York City. The Johnnies were led by Dwight Hardy, who had a career-high 34 points. more ›

St. John's 60 Pittsburgh 59: The Red Storm punched their tournament ticket with an emphatic win over another Top-10 team thanks to Dwight Hardy and Steve Lavin's sneakers. Hardy scored the winning basket with just over a second left, the final two of his team-leading 19 points. Lavin sneakers improved to 6-1 and have become the most important good luck charm for the Johnnies since Looie's sweaters. more ›

For the second time in less than two weeks, St. John's blew out a top-10 team at Madison Square Garden. On Jan. 30, the Red Storm dispatched of Duke. On Thursday, behind 33 from Dwight Hardy, St. John's downed UConn, 89-72. He made 10 of 17 shots overall and 5 of 8 from 3-point range. He had 32 points in a loss at UCLA. St. John's put up 54 points in the second half to blow the game open. more ›

Montreal 2 Rangers 0: New York lost a game with playoff implications thanks to an impressive performance from Carey Price. Price stonwalled the Rangers, stopping all 35 shots he faced, including 19 in a wild third period to keep Montreal ahead of New York in the playoff standings. Old buddy Scott Gomez scored for the Canadiens. more ›

Carolina 4 Islanders 2: Eric Staal scored his 24th and 25th goals of the year as the Hurricanes got out to an early lead and didn't look back. more ›

The former St. John's dean who is accused of embezzling over $1 million from the school is facing new charges that she used scholarships to force students to work for her off-campus for the most menial of duties. We imagine this wasn't as bad an indentured servitude as it was for Karla Giraldo, but maybe worse than what LeBron James got. more ›

Steve Lavin, who coached UCLA's basketball team from 1996 to 2003, has been selected for St. John's men's basketball team. According to the Daily News, St. John's offered him a "$9- to $9.5-million, six-year deal" and "a handsome budget to hire assistant coaches." The Red Storm hasn't done well lately, so Lavin would be tasked with restructuring the program. ESPN reported yesterday, "Lavin would fit the Red Storm's desire to hire a name coach with personality and charisma that can capture the New York market as it tries to become more relevant in the city." Lavin took the UCLA Bruins to the Elite Eight once and Sweet Sixteen five times. more ›

Later today we will learn the field for March Madness and 65 teams will get a chance to win a championship. It’s an exciting day on the sports schedule and it leads into one of the best three weeks of the year for sports fans. But, the NCAA doesn’t seem content to leave March Madness as is, there are reports that they are looking to expand the field of teams to 96. In the most-likely scenario, that would setup 32 teams with a first round bye. more ›

A St. John's student was arrested after threatening to "do some Virginia Tech shit" as his Facebook status. Radames Santiago, an 18-year-old from Washington Heights, posted the vague threat on Monday and then followed up the next day with a status that he “knows he will do it. You know I will, and to make sure that people watch CNN or something every day after” he kills everyone. Instead of tuning in, "friends" of Santiago dialed up St. John's officials, who informed police. Santiago justified "what he was doing" by giving the same reasons that many people leave a Facebook status that causes their friends to banish them to their hidden lists—he told cops that he was drunk and depressed "about everything" when he left them. Now that's a status that may have gotten some Likes. Instead Santiago could now face up to 7 years in prison. Queens DA Richard Brown said, “If a defendant posts a threat on a social networking site it will be treated seriously and investigated thoroughly." Two years ago, the campus was locked down when a student brought a rifle to campus; he was apparently schizophrenic. more ›

A letter laced with rat poison was sent to a St. John's University law student yesterday. A St. John's spokesperson told the AP a "suspicious-looking" letter was received at the Queens campus on Monday: "The university was closed for Easter break, but some workers were there and accepted the envelope." Apparently NYPD "determined the substance was rat poison and didn't pose any direct danger to the workers." The investigation is ongoing. more ›

A 19-year-old St. John's student who had been missing since January 20 was reunited with her family yesterday. Erica Desai was last seen by a cousin who dropped her off at a dorm, and her family worried that something might have happened to her. A surveillance tape seemed to show a woman of Indian descent using her ATM card, raising questions whether she was missing or AWOL. Now, NY1 reports that Desai "called police late last night after seeing herself on television...Police say she was embarrassed about being expelled from school" for using someone else's credit card "...They also say she's been riding the trains for days." Desai initially told police she was abducted, but then admitted to running away. more ›

Most New York sports fans were paying attention to the Giants fall short to the Eagles today. And rightly so—the matchup determined who went to the NFC Championship. But, a small minority may have noticed that St. John’s went into Pittsburgh today and took on the #1 Panthers. more ›

• Heat 101, Nets 96 (OT): For the second night in a row, the Nets played an overtime game. This time, however, the Nets were unable pull out the victory. Leading Nets scoring and assists leader Devin Harris sat out the game with a sore hamstring. Harris' replacement Keyon Dooling led the Nets with 23 points, including a shot to force overtime, and Vince Carter added 20 points in the losing effort. The Heat, who were playing without Shawn Marion, trailed by 16 points in the first quarter and were led by Dwyane Wade with 29 points. The win by the Heat was their biggest comeback win of the season.
• Capitals 2, Rangers 1: Things were tied with the 2nd period coming to an end before Caps winger Alex Ovechkin broke that tie. Ovechkin scored with 32 seconds left on a shorthanded goal, beating Steve Valiquette. The goal proved to be the difference.
• St. John's 71, Notre Dame 65: The Redmen Storm upset the #7 Irish in Coach Norm Roberts' biggest win of his career at St. John's.
• Sharks 5, Islanders 3: The Islanders were out shot by the Sharks 47-24 in the loss.

• Too bad Knicks games aren't this exciting or well-played. The busiest -- and best -- day of the Big East schedule got started with Georgetown's record-setting win over Villanova, which is now squarely back on the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Hoyas won without any points from Roy Hibbert. Those tournament-record 17 3-pointers -- on 28 attempts -- helped more than cancel it out in a 83-62 win.
• The Hoyas will get the Moutaineers of West Virginia, which rode Joe Alexander's 34 points -- two of which came on a sick dunk over Stanely Robinson -- in its win over Connecticut. That game was the first in which won by the team in the darker jersey -- the lower seed. If Bob Huggins' team wasn't in good shape for the NCAA Tournament, it is now. The Huskies, however, lost a chance to help their seeding.
• The first night game had perhaps the most local flavor. Louisville has its share of New York players, and coach Rick Pitino was born in the city and went to St. Dominic's High School in Oyster Bay. Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon loves to recruit around New York and loves to bring his Panthers to New York. Maybe St. John's should get relegated, because the Panthers, including Brooklyn product Levance Fields perform better at the Garden than does the Red Storm. With Thursday's overtime win, they're now 4-0 there this season, with wins over Duke, St. John's and Cincinnati on Wednesday coming earlier.

For the Giants, the opening of free agency saw them lose three players. Kawika Mitchell went to the Bills, Reggie Torbor to the Dolphins and Gibril Wilson to the Raiders. The loss of Wilson will hurt the most, but remember he was once a fifth-round pick. GM Jerry Reese proved last year that he is very good drafting players and won’t overpay in the free agent market, so don’t panic the Super Bowl champs will be just fine. more ›