Everyone knew the preseason expectations for the St. John’s basketball team were going to be sky-high entering the season, but the Red Storm have entered a place that the program has never experienced.
The Johnnies were ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 poll, the highest ranking ever for the team. Prior to the announcement on Monday, No. 7 was the highest-ranking St. John’s had ever been placed prior to the 1984-85 season.
It’s the first time St. John’s has been ranked in the preseason poll since 1999-2000 and its first Top 10 preseason ranking since 1991-92.
Purdue, Houston, Florida, and UConn were ranked ahead of the Storm with Duke, Michigan, BYU, Kentucky, and Texas Tech rounding out the Top 10.
Creighton was the only other Big East team included in the poll at No. 23.
“I don’t think it’s really important because you’re going to find out with Michigan and Alabama if we are for real,” Rick Pitino said about his team’s potential ranking in the AP Poll last week at an open practice at Madison Square Garden.
The hype around the team reached an all-time high last season enroute to its first Big East regular season championship, tournament title, and NCAA Tournament win since 2000 and now added another stellar transfer class to try and replicate that success.
In addition to the return of Zuby Ejiofor. Pitino landed highly sought after transfers like Ian Jackson (North Carolina), Bryce Hopkins (Providence), Joson Sanon (Arizona State), Dillon Mitchell (Cincinnati), and Oziyah Sellers (Stanford), culminating in the No. 1 class in the country according to various recruiting sites.
St. John’s opens its preseason slate on Saturday afternoon (2:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+) inside Carnesecca Arena against Towson, the preseason favorite in the CAA, before battling No. 7 Michigan the following week in its final exhibition game at Madison Square Garden.