2026-27 SJU Basketball Schedule

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – The Saint John's University basketball team announced its 2026-27 schedule on Thursday, Aug. 27.

This season's nine non-conference opponents combined for a 152-93 (.620) record in 2025-26 and four played in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Eight of the nine non-conference games consist of four out-of-state trips, while the lone home game is Dec. 9 against Buena Vista (Iowa).

The Johnnies and the rest of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) are in the third season of a four-year trial in which conference play features 16 games (instead of 20). SJU faces Augsburg, Concordia, Gustavus Adolphus and Macalester once (and the other six MIAC members twice).

SJU hosts Division II St. Cloud State in an exhibition game Oct. 29 in Sexton Arena. The exhibition game is the first meeting between the two basketball programs since 2017, when the Johnnies posted a 73-67 win over SCSU in Halenbeck Hall. SJU won three of the final four meetings. 

The 2026-27 season officially starts with the first trip outside of Minnesota Nov. 6-7 for a pair of games at Wisconsin-Superior. SJU faces Wisconsin-La Crosse, which won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's (WIAC) playoff title and reached the NCAA's Sweet 16 with a 24-7 record, in the opener and takes on the host Yellowjackets the following day. 

The Johnnies' non-conference record improves to 146-74 (.664) without UWS' 6-19 mark from last year. 

The Johnnies make their way to Connecticut the following weekend (Nov. 14-15) for tip-offs against Hartford and Western Connecticut State before returning to Collegeville for a three-game homestand: Dec. 2 vs. Hamline, Dec. 5 vs. St. Olaf and the aforementioned Dec. 9 tilt against BVU. Western Connecticut State won the Little East regular-season and playoff championships en route to the NCAA tournament and finished with a 21-7 record a year ago.

SJU returns to Wisconsin Dec. 12 for a showdown at Wisconsin-Stevens Point and takes on Trine (Ind.) Dec. 13 on the Pointers' court. The 2023-24 Division III national champion, Trine went 20-8 with a season-ending loss in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) playoff title game last season.

The Johnnies end non-conference play in a warmer climate – Naples, Fla. – Dec. 19-20 with neutral-site games against Transylvania (Ky.) and Olivet (Mich.). Transylvania reached the NCAA tournament thanks to winning both Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) regular-season and playoff championships and tallied a 20-9 record.
  
Conference competition returns in 2027 starting Jan. 2 at Saint Mary's, followed by home games against Carleton (Jan. 6) and Bethel (Jan. 9). The Johnnies venture to St. Scholastica Jan. 16 and the reigning MIAC champion, Gustavus Adolphus, Jan. 20. 

The remaining MIAC schedule alternates home and away for SJU in bunches, beginning with a pair of contests in Sexton Arena vs. St. Scholastica (Jan. 23) and Macalester (Jan. 27). The Johnnies then travel to Northfield for back-to-back games against St. Olaf (Jan. 30) and Carleton (Feb. 3), before ending the home schedule vs. Saint Mary's (Feb. 6) and Concordia (Feb. 10). The regular season closes with trips to Augsburg (Feb. 13), Hamline (Feb. 17) and Bethel (Feb. 20).

The MIAC playoffs start with the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 23, followed by the MIAC semifinals on Thursday, Feb. 25. The MIAC championship game, as well as the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament, will be determined on Saturday, Feb. 27. The high seed hosts in all three rounds.

The Johnnies finished second in the MIAC with an 11-5 record (16-11 overall) and advanced to their sixth MIAC playoff championship game in the past seven seasons in 2025-26. SJU is expected to return 98 percent of its scoring – 2,062 of 2,101 points – from last season.