This version of the St. John’s basketball team is not the same as last year.
Frankly, it’s not close and that’s a good thing. It’s very difficult to replicate the success of a prior season but better to try and forge your own path. However, it had been so long since the Red Storm experienced success and it happened to quickly that it was easy to compare this group of Johnnies to last year.
Bigger expectations entering the season with another highly ranked transfer portal class and returning one of the best players in the conference. It was easy to get swept up in the hype.
But it didn’t take long for the hype to fall flat. St. John’s lost its first marquee game of the season against Alabama and then dropped two games in Las Vegas. Soon after it was blown off the court in the second half by Kentucky and humbled in the final five minutes in a home loss to Providence.
But since the Red Storm have won six straight games, four of which came on the road.
After being the preseason No. 5 team in the country to unranked in seven weeks, the Red Storm are back in the Top 25 poll, at No. 25, after five weeks outside of the rankings.
The team is finding its stride. It’s figuring out who they are. They aren’t last year’s team but there’s something brewing with the Johnnies.
“We’re just playing really good basketball right now,” Bryce Hopkins said over Zoom on Tuesday afternoon. “We know what Coach [Pitino] expects from us and we’re just playing free.”
In its last two games. St. John’s dug deficits of 15 points against Seton Hall and 16 points against Xavier before rallying to win each. It was reminiscent of the grit and toughness from a year ago.
“We don’t panic when we’re down,” Hopkins continued. “We come together and rally as a unit.”
Again, a familiar message, but it’s something they didn’t do earlier in the season when seeing second half leads vanish against Auburn and Kentucky. It’s a growth and maturity that St. John’s desperately needed to learn and it’s starting to play its best basketball of the season at the right time of the year.
After January 1 last season St. John’s only lost two games, on the road against Villanova and in the Round of 32 against Arkansas. It’s last loss this year was its first game in the new calendar year, and its players vowed not to lose again.
So far, it’s been working as the No. 25 Red Storm (15-5, 8-1 Big East) will look to carry that momentum into Wednesday’s (7:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) matchup against Butler (13-7, 4-5 Big East) inside Madison Square Garden.