Big East Basketball Power Rankings: Creighton, Georgetown emerging

Consider me a believer in St. John’s. The Red Storm entered this season with extremely low expectations but definitely look like a better team that they are getting credit for nationally. I am not willing to say that I think St. John’s will compete for an NCAA Tournament bid this season as that would be a major overreaction to a very weak non-conference schedule, but they have exceeded most expectations.

Head coach Mike Anderson has quickly implemented his scheming with the program and the roster appears to be buying in.

St. John’s is playing at a frenetic pace on the offensive end of the floor while forcing its fair share of turnovers on the other end as well. Their defense is so opportunistic and pressure-heavy that it could scare some teams this season. Although the Red Storm are often getting killed by allowing offensive rebounds, they are limiting finishes at the basket at a high rate while exhibiting the ninth-best block rate in the country. Additionally, SJU ranks 15th in steal rate at 13.0%.

Looking ahead, we are about to find out who this team really is. To this point in the year, St. John’s has played the eighth-easiest schedule of any team in the entire country but that is about to change. The team’s next four games will come against Arizona (neutral), Butler (home), Xavier (away), and Georgetown (away). They will be underdogs in all four contests – can they pull off an upset or two?

Monitoring Mustapha Heron‘s injury status for those games will be important. It is worth mentioning, though, that Marcellus Earlington is starting to gather some momentum as a solid sophomore performer. He had 16 and 9 against Albany.