Sports
Pitinos face off again as No.22 St. John's takes on Xavier
Jan 28, 2026; New York, New York, USA; St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images The last time Rick Pitino opposed his son Richard, the elder Pitino earned his 900th on-court win as St. John’s beat Xavier on Jan. 24.
Sixteen days later, Rick Pitino will be seeking another milestone at his son’s expense — as well as another opportunity to prove St. John’s is back not only as a title contender in the Big East but as a candidate to play deep into March.
St. John’s will look to continue surging Monday night, when the No. 22 Red Storm hosts Xavier at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s earned its ninth straight win Friday night, when the host Red Storm snapped No. 3 UConn’s 18-game winning streak with an 81-72 victory.
Xavier hasn’t played since last Tuesday, when the visiting Musketeers fell to UConn, 92-60.
St John’s win Friday was the 903rd on-court win for Pitino, which ties him for third all-time in Division I with former Kansas and North Carolina coach Roy Williams. The NCAA recognizes him with 780 wins after Pitino was stripped of 123 victories due to violations at Louisville.
Mike Krzyzewski (1,202 wins) and Jim Boeheim (1,116 wins) are the only coaches with more on-court victories than Pitino and Williams.
Few of Pitino’s regular-season wins have been as energetic as Friday’s victory, when St. John’s (18-5 overall, 11-1 Big East) led by as many as 11 in the second half before holding off a UConn rally. The Huskies got within one or two points on four occasions, but the Red Storm scored on the subsequent possession every time.
Dylan Darling’s 3-pointer with 3:13 left extended the Red Storm’s lead to 72-67 and sparked a game-ending 12-5 run in front of a frenzied sellout crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden.
“I use the expression ‘no fear of failure.’ I said it every single time out,” Rick Pitino said. “I said, whether we go up 12, they cut it to two — we have no fear.
“Every single player was honed in. They did a fabulous job of doing things down the stretch to help you win.”
The victory was the first for St. John’s over an opponent ranked in the top five since a 70-59 win over no. 3 Villanova on Feb. 3, 2021. The Red Storm pulled within a half-game of UConn (22-2, 12-1) with a rematch looming in Hartford on Feb. 25.
St. John’s dethroned UConn as the Big East regular season and tournament champion last year, when the Red Storm’s bid to appear in the Sweet 16 for the first time this century ended with a second-round loss to Arkansas.
“It was a meaningful game,” said St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor, who led the Red Storm with 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks on Friday night. “We knew exactly what we were playing for.”
Richard Pitino is looking further ahead than his dad as he rebuilds during his first year at Xavier (12-11 overall, 4-8), which is in a three-way tie for seventh place with Butler and DePaul.
Last year, the Musketeers made the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years under Sean Miller but lost all but two players off the roster after Miller departed for Texas.
The loss to UConn marked the fourth time Xavier has lost a Big East game by at least 20 points. The Musketeers are also 2-4 in games decided by six points or fewer — including the 88-83 loss to St. John’s in which the Red Storm overcame a 16-point second-half deficit.
Three of Xavier’s four leading scorers — Tre Carroll, Roddie Anderson III, and Malik Messina-Moore — are seniors, though starters Jovan Milicevic and All Wright are both sophomores.
“In year one, when you’re starting from scratch, you want to win every game, but you don’t get consumed with that part of it — especially when you’re playing a UConn,” Richard Pitino said last Tuesday. “This is years and years in the making for UConn to build this type of program. I’m very, very confident we can get there.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Felix Auger-Aliassime defends title, sets Canadian record
Jan 19, 2026; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in action against Nuno Borges of Portugal in the first round of the men’s singles at the Australian Open at John Cain Arena in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime successfully defended his Open Occitanie championship on Sunday with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Adrian Mannarino in Montpellier, France.
Auger-Aliassime, 25, recorded 13 aces and won 87% of his first-serve points to dispatch the Frenchman in 1 hour, 35 minutes. The ninth career ATP title for Auger-Aliassime is one more than Milos Raonic for the most tour-level titles by a Canadian in the Open Era.
A strong service game was nothing new for Auger-Aliassime, who delivered 20 aces while posting a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory over French qualifier Titouan Droguet on Saturday.
Auger-Aliassime will elevate one spot to No. 6 in the ATP rankings on Monday.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Alijah Arenas converts winning basket as USC beats Penn State
Feb 8, 2026; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions guard Dominick Stewart (7) dribbles the ball around the outside of Southern California Trojans guard Alijah Arenas (0) during the first half at Bryce Jordan Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images Alijah Arenas scored 24 points, including a spinning layup in traffic with 0.7 seconds remaining, as Southern California overcame a 12-point second-half deficit and rallied for a 77-75 victory over Penn State in Big Ten Conference play at University Park, Pa.
Kam Woods scored 13 points with nine assists and Ezra Ausar also had 13 points as USC (18-6, 7-6 Big Ten) extended its winning streak to three games. It is the first time the Trojans have won three consecutive games in Big Ten play since joining the conference last season.
It was USC’s third conference victory this season when rallying from a deficit of at least 10 points. The Trojans, who were playing without leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara (knee), also overcame double-digit deficits to defeat Oregon and Wisconsin.
Freddie Dilione V scored 23 points and Josh Reed added 17 for Penn State (10-14, 1-12), who have dropped consecutive games after their first Big Ten victory Feb. 1 against Minnesota. Ivan Juric scored 13 points after missing the previous two games.
Penn State took its first double-digit lead at 48-38 with 18:09 remaining on a jumper from Dilione. A dunk from Dilione less than a minute later put the Nittany Lions up 50-38.
Penn State still led 53-42 with 15:56 left when USC began to close the gap with a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to 53-51 with 12:55 remaining. USC jumped on top 56-55 on a three-point play from Woods with 10:56 left.
Arenas, who scored the Trojans’ last eight points, was playing his sixth college game after starting the season for USC with a knee injury. He combined to score 30 points over his first four games before a breakout 29-point game against Indiana in a home victory Tuesday.
Penn State took a 40-36 lead at halftime by shooting 53.1% from the floor and getting 13 points from Dilione. Arenas and Ausar each had nine points in the first half for USC, which made half of its 32 shot attempts.
–Field Level Media
Sports
HEROIC, Team Liquid advance at BLAST Slam VI
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
HEROIC and Team Liquid each recorded a sweep on Sunday to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals of the BLAST Slam VI event.
HEROIC posted a 2-0 win over Tundra Esports in their play-in match, courtesy of 56- and 40-minute victories on red. HEROIC will compete again in Friday’s quarterfinals against Team Yandex.
Team Liquid notched a 2-0 win over GamerLegion in their play-in match on Sunday, courtesy of a 27-minute victory on red and 37-minute triumph on green. Liquid will be back in action on Friday against Team Falcons in the other quarterfinal.
BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play — a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.
The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round — four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers are eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.
The teams that win Friday’s quarterfinals advance to Saturday’s semifinals. Natus Vincere gets the winner of Team Yandex-HEROIC while OG faces the Team Falcons-Team Liquid victor. The grand final will be held on Feb. 15.
BLAST Slam VI prize pool
1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)
2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)
3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000)
5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000)
7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion
11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) — REKONIX, MOUZ
–Field Level Media
Felix Auger-Aliassime defends title, sets Canadian record
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