Rutgers Basketball To Host Charity Exhibition Against St. John’s

This afternoon, Rutgers announced that they will host a charity exhibition game with St. John’s that will take place at the RAC on Sunday, November 5th at 1 p.m. All net proceeds from this event will be donated to American Red Cross Disaster Relief. The two schools received a waiver from the NCAA in order to have this exhibition.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to support a very important cause through the game of basketball," said Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell. "We are proud to come together as a basketball community and assist the American Red Cross with its disaster relief efforts."

Additional info from the press release:

Tickets for the game are $10, with general admission seating to be employed. Admission is free for Rutgers students. Floor seating is reserved for current men's basketball floor seat holders, who will be emailed further information.

A $10 parking fee will be collected for vehicles accessing the green and yellow lots. The scarlet lot on the south side of the RAC is closed due to construction of the RWJ Barnabas Health Athletic Performance Center at Rutgers University.

Tickets are available online now and by calling at 1-866-445-GORU (4678). Tickets will also be available on gameday at the Rutgers Athletics Ticket Office, located at the RAC.

Net proceeds will be derived from admission and parking fees, concessions and merchandise sales. For additional information on American Red Cross Disaster Relief, visit redcross.org.

Exhibitions for disaster relief resulting from multiple hurricanes this fall around the country have been scheduled throughout college basketball this fall. Kansas and Missouri just raised 1.75 million dollars last weekend. UConn and Providence are hosting one tonight at the Mohegan Sun. LSU and Tulane, Marquette and UW-Milwaukee, as well as Virginia Tech and South Carolina are other notable exhibitions taking place.

Rutgers is 14-27 all-time against St. John’s. The two programs had some classic battles in the late seventies, including the 1978 Holiday Festival, and were conference foes in the Big East from 1995 to 2013. They last met as part of the Gavitt Games played between the Big East and Big Ten in December 2015, when Rutgers blew a 12 point lead and lost 61-59 in Jamaica, Queens.

The most infamous moment in this series was the Big East Tournament game in 2011, when one of the most egregious errors ever made by an officiating crew in a college basketball game took place. Rutgers was robbed of an additional possession down by 2 points in the closing seconds of the second round game. Justin Brownlee of St. John’s started celebrating before the final buzzer, traveling in the process and stepping out of bounds with 1.7 seconds remaining. He threw the ball in the crowd and officials Tim Higgins, Jim Burr, and Earl Walton walked off the court. They ended up withdrawing from officiating the rest of the Big East Tournament after they endured heavy scrutiny. Of course, that was too little, too late for Rutgers.

The heartbreaking loss for Rutgers did lead to one positive, as it led to one of the best all-time rants from WFAN’s Mike Francesa, who has had plenty of classic flip outs over the years.

As for the November 5th exhibition, it’s great to see both program’s getting together for an important cause like this. It will also serve as great preparation for the beginning of the season for Rutgers, who open the season at home on November 10th against CCNY. St. John’s was picked to finish sixth in the Big East this year in head coach Chris Mullin’s third season and will provide a strong test for Rutgers.

For a full review of this season’s schedule, click here.

UPDATE: