STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The original, pre-COVID schedule for the Stony Brook men's basketball team included ESPN-televised nonconference games against Kansas, Florida and West Virginia as well as against Iona at Madison Square Garden. Those games largely have been punted to the 2021-22 season.

Then, upon scrambling and revising the schedule, the Seawolves had early season games against Bryant and Sacred Heart canceled.

So head coach Geno Ford was not about to pass up a late-arising opportunity to face St. John's on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena on FS1, even if obstacles exist beyond the strength of the Red Storm, which enters the game with a 3-1 record after suffering its first blemish, a 74-68 loss to BYU on Wednesday at Mohegan Sun.

Stony Brook (1-1) played its season opener on Tuesday against Saint Peter's, then earned an overtime win in its home opener on Friday against Fairfield. And with regular practices leading up to both of those games, and NCAA rules mandating a day off each week, the Seawolves are forced to be idle Saturday. They are unable to conduct a practice to directly prepare for St. John's.

It will mark the first game between the Seawolves and Red Storm since Dec. 2, 2009 — a 63-55 St. John's victory in Jamaica. Stony Brook Athletics Hall of Famer Bryan Dougher, who was at Island Federal Arena as an assistant coach with Fairfield on Friday, led three Seawolves in double-figures with 13 points and Stony Brook held St. John's to 39.6 percent shooting, but D.J. Kennedy scored a game-high 19 points for the Red Storm in that meeting 11 years ago.

"There's no team in the country that's ever played, taken a day off, and then hopped on a bus to play a 2:30 tip," Ford said. "But we weren't going to pass on the chance to play St. John's and give our kids a chance for some exposure. It's a tall ask. St. John's is terrific, and they're big and athletic. And we struggled the other day against pressure [against Saint Peter's]. So I'm sure they're going to try to heat us up, and we're literally going to go into the game with zero practice. It's going to be a really, really tall order for us on Sunday. But it's a rare opportunity in this season."

Ford went on to liken Stony Brook's nonconference schedule this season to the NBA preseason. The Seawolves played three intrasquad games before Tuesday's season opener, but formal scrimmages against other teams were not allowed. So Ford is hoping to use the nonconference schedule primarily to prepare for the America East opener at Binghamton on Dec. 19, which is where the journey to punching an NCAA Tournament ticket begins in reality.

"I'm looking for improvement and growth and trying to figure our team out," Ford said. "We want to win. We're going to play as hard as we can and we're going to give our best effort.

"But this is the silliest preparation and silliest thing going into a game that's ever happened in the history of the world," he added dryly about the St. John's matchup without a practice the day before. "This will sound crazy. I want to win every game we play. We're coaching them to win. The guys are playing to win. In my mind, though, for the first time in my career, with everything we're dealing with, this is like NBA preseason games to me. It really is. We have to figure our team out. We have to figure our rotation out."

TWO-MINUTE SKILL: Mount St. Mary's transfer Omar Habwe played only two minutes in the opener against Saint Peter's after rating below other perimeter players on Stony Brook's analytical tools during the preseason. But he made such an impact in the limited time against the Peacocks — taking a charge, nabbing an offensive rebound, and driving baseline, jump-stopping and making an on-target diagonal pass — that the coaching staff rewarded him by upping his playing time to 23 minutes against Fairfield.

HOMECOMING: Manhattan transfer Tykei Greene grew up near the Jamaica train hub, a short distance from Carnsecca Arena.

POWER PLAY: Ford said he has no worries about Mouhamadou Gueye's showing through two games (5.0 ppg on 4-for-15 from field). With Akron transfer Jaden Sayles commanding time at center, Gueye still is growing accustomed to playing power forward. Ford estimated Gueye only played 13 or 14 minutes at center per game so far. Ford experimented with Gueye playing the No. 4 with Jeff Otchere at center last season, but Gueye primarily thrived when he was playing center. Gueye, incidentally, is three shy of matching Eric McAlister's career block total (75) for eighth on the program's all-time list.

CHARITY WORK: Through two games, the Seawolves have shot 28-for-58 (.483) from the free-throw line. Ford suspects that will correct itself, given the newcomers generally were solid free-throw shooters in their last stops, including Sayles (.667 for career at Akron) and Juan Felix Rodriguez (.752 at Monroe College).

TIME WILL COME: Tyler Stephenson-Moore did not see action against Fairfield after logging five minutes against Saint Peter's. And Ford said that's primarily a product of the team's depth. Ford called Stephenson-Moore a "10 as a kid and a 10 as a teammate" and expects his playing time to increase as the season progresses based on merit, as it did last year. Ford also expects Mohamed Diallo's playing time will rapidly increase. Diallo missed four and a half weeks of the preseason due to injury and has only been back for eight days. He has logged 19.0 minutes per game so far off the bench.