Hofstra, St. John's meet for first time since 2009

A lot has changed for St. John's since the arrival of Rick Pitino in March — including the Red Storm's willingness to play Hofstra. A local rivalry will resume on Saturday afternoon when St. John's is slated to play Hofstra in Elmont, N.Y. Both teams are returning from a lengthy Christmas break. St. John's hasn't played since Dec. 23, when the visiting Red Storm squandered an eight-point, second-half lead in a 69-65 loss against then-No. 5 UConn. Hofstra finished its pre-holiday schedule on Dec. 21 with a 74-56 setback at UNLV. Despite the loss, St. John's (8-4) continued its strong play — especially on defense — against UConn, which shot 42.9 percent overall and 27.8 percent from 3-point land (5 of 18). "We had this game, we should've won…