St. John’s to play summer exhibition series in the Dominican Republic

The St. John’s men’s basketball team will be taking a foreign tour to the Dominican Republic this summer, competing in exhibition games against the Dominican Republic’s national basketball team and their under-22 national basketball team.

Foreign trips serve as a chance for teams to build chemistry and earn experience against competition during the dormant periods of the college basketball offseason. As travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic have loosened, teams have renewed this tradition of globe-trotting. Per NCAA rules, teams are allowed to embark on a foreign trip once every four academic years and are only allowed to conduct a maximum of 10 practices and 10 exhibition games on their trip.

Announced in a press release by the university on Monday, the Red Storm will play three games across eight days from August 11th to August 19th in the Caribbean country. The game times, dates, and venues for these exhibition contests will be announced at a later date.

The last time the St. John’s men’s basketball team took a trip overseas was during the summer before the 2013-14 season, when the team competed against five separate professional teams across visits to France, Italy, and Spain over the course of two weeks.

The summer trip will serve as a homecoming for two Dominican players on the Red Storm, center Joel Soriano and forward David Jones. Both earned experience in the Dominican national youth basketball system, including a stint during the 2018 FIBA U-18 Americas Championship when they were teammates for the under-18 Dominican men’s basketball team.

Stops in their trip to the Caribbean nation will include the capitol city of Santo Domingo, the hometown of Jones.