Nobody will publicly say it but there is a quiet confidence within the St. John’s basketball program that the Johnnies have a team capable of making a deep March run.
After winning back-to-back outright Big East regular season and tournament championships, the Red Storm are hoping to take the next step in the NCAA Tournament under Rick Pitino following long overdue trips to the Round of 32 and Sweet 16.
Now, the Final Four should be a realistic goal in Queens and it all starts on Monday against Monmouth.
It was a long and grueling offseason for the Red Storm as the team battled through eligibility issues, injuries, and legal battles but hopes that everything will soon be focused on the basketball court.
British point guard Quinn Ellis avoided the court room after the NCAA cleared him to play this season while Keyshawn Hall and Reed Bailey are allowed to play on either temporary restraining orders or injunctions issued by judges. Hall, in a singular case in New York, could have a ruling on his case at any moment while Bailey is part of a larger case in the state of California.
The biggest eligibility question comes with Babacar Sane, who is allowed to play through at least November 9 on a temporary restraining order but will have his final hearing next week after the NCAA denied him eligibility due to signing an Exhibit 10 contract.
Still, St. John’s seems to have all the pieces that fit together for a very special season as we breakdown some of the biggest players, storylines, games, and questions for the Johnnies.
Three most important players:
Quinn Ellis
Quinn Ellis might not be the best player for the Red Storm, and he certainly won’t average the most points, but he will be the key to success for St. John’s. Ellis is the pure point guard that Rick Pitino has been searching for since Daniss Jenkins graduated and the former EuroLeague player might even be better than Jenkins.
Ellis showed what he could do in the preseason, and the expectation is that he could be the best point guard in the country this season. He will orchestrate everything for the Johnnies.
Keyshawn Hall
A late addition to the St. John’s roster, Keyshawn Hall has proven to be a pure scorer for St. John’s who can get things done at all three levels on the court. Not only does Hall bring a major scoring punch to the Red Storm’s backcourt, but he also adds the ability to play multiple positions with great size at 6-foot-6 and the ability to handle the ball when needed.
Hall has experience playing nearly every style in four different conferences and will bring that versatility to a St. John’s that could have a daunting non-conference schedule.
Tounde Yessoufou
The player that seems to be getting the least amount of buzz on the St. John’s roster is Tounde Yessoufou, a potential first round pick a year ago.
Yessoufou, a Baylor transfer, withdrew from the NBA Draft minutes before the deadline in May and has a chance to be selected in the lottery this June with a productive season in Queens.
The athletic specimen can do just about everything on the basketball court and has put noticeable work into his 3-point shot, which was a weakness last season. If his performance against Texas in St. John’s exhibition victory was any indication, he could be on his way to an All-American type of season.
Biggest games:
Players Era 16 (Nov. 24-Nov. 27)
St. John’s return to Las Vegas for the Players Era Tournament is important, but it’s the second game that will be the first major test of the season. The Red Storm will only play mid-majors and Syracuse before its trip out West and its week in the desert begins with Oregon.
However, its second game will be against either Texas Tech or Louisville, two teams projected to be in the Top 25 at the time of the game. It’ll be the first test to see how far St. John’s has come.
Arizona (Dec. 5)
After returning from Las Vegas, St. John’s will have a week off before its biggest home non-conference game of the season against Arizona, coming off a Final Four berth a year ago. The Wildcats are expected to be one of the best teams in the country once again in another measuring stick game for the Johnnies.
@ Alabama (Dec. 12)
The conclusion of the home-and-home series which started last season as the Crimson Tide knocked off the Red Storm in the second game of the season. Now. St. John’s will take on Alabama in Birmingham a week after hosting the Wildcats. Three straight weeks of major non-conference tests before Big East play begins.
@ UConn (March 2)
Yes, the Friday night game at Madison Square Garden comes first and will have a lot of hype around it, but St. John’s will be returning to the site of its 32-point massacre last season in Hartford. And if the Red Storm and Huskies are as good as people are projecting them to be, this game could be for the Big East regular season title.
It’ll be the final game of the regular season for St. John’s, and it could have everything at stake.
Biggest questions:
Ruben Prey
Ruben Prey has the unenviable task of trying to replace Zuby Ejiofor as the starting center for St. John’s and filling that void is not something only one person can do.
However, Prey had a slow preseason and didn’t necessarily pick up where he left off in the Sweet 16 against Duke. Needless to say, the Johnnies are relying upon Prey to have a big season in the middle as he needs to be tough on the glass and battle with players that could be bigger than him this season.
If Ruben Prey can find his form early in the regular season, St. John’s will be feeling very good about itself.
Depth
St. John’s has a starting five and sixth man that could matchup with nearly anybody in the country but it’s the depth pieces that could leave something to be desired.
The Red Storm don’t really have a traditional backup point guard or much on the wings behind its starters. Lefteris Liotopoulos enters his third season with the program, and the hope is that he can continue into a rotational player off the bench while international forward Zsombor Maronka has the ability of a very good shooter but hasn’t quite shown it during the preseason.
St. John’s frontcourt could be strong after the performances of Reed Bailey and freshman Theo Edema in the exhibition games, but overall depth is a question that St. John’s must answer quickly.
Shooting
It wouldn’t be a St. John’s season if there weren’t 3-point shooting woes as the Johnnies made 23.6-percent (18-of-76) of its attempts from distance during the preseason.
The team has players who are capable shooters from the outside and the hope is that the exhibition games were just a cold stretch of players trying to find its in-game rhythm and consistent, but it’s something to keep a very close eye on.
Season prediction:
It’s so tough to predict an overall college basketball season in early November but we’ll mix things up and see how right we might be when March rolls around.
St. John’s will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 27-7 record.
They’ll share the Big East regular season title with UConn but fall in the Big East Championship game, unable to complete the 3-peat. However, St. John’s will catch fire in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed and make a run to the Final Four in Detroit before its season comes to an end, capping another remarkable year.
Add us as a preferred source on Google