SJU will play fewer games at Garden

St. John’s considers Madison Square Garden it’s second home.

It’s more like a vacation spot this year.

The Red Storm will have just three Big East games at the Garden this season, playing the other six contests at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

An MSG source said it was a scheduling crunch, the result of the Big Ten Tournament coming to the Garden the week before the Big East Tournament and the building going dark for two weeks when it hosts the Grammys in late January.

St. John’s, hoping to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid in coach Chris Mullin’s third season, does have five home dates at the Garden: The three Big East games, Duke on Feb. 3, and Iona in the Holiday Festival on Dec. 17. It played seven games there each of the previous two seasons, and a combined 11 Big East games.

The three Big East league games at the Garden will feature the return of Patrick Ewing — as Georgetown’s coach — Jan. 9, a Jan. 13 showdown with four-time Big East defending regular-season champion Villanova, and local rival Seton Hall on Feb. 24.

St. John’s Big East schedule begins Dec. 28 at Carnesecca Arena in Queens against Providence before a New Year’s Eve showdown at the Prudential Center in Newark against Seton Hall.

The Johnnies have three two-game road trips, and close the year at Providence on Mar. 3.

Meanwhile, Seton Hall, a likely preseason top-25 team, opens with two home games, hosting Creighton on Dec. 28 and St. John’s Dec. 31, and closes that way, too, as Villanova (Feb. 28) and Butler (Mar. 3) come to The Rock to close the regular season. The Pirates visit Villanova on Feb. 4.

St. John’s will have two games on FOX Sports, the Duke and Seton Hall games at the Garden. Seton Hall will have three, against Xavier at the Prudential Center, at Villanova on Super Bowl Sunday and the St. John’s game at the Garden.