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St. John’s Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Red Storm

By Benjamin Zacher

NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 11: Posh Alexander #0 of the St. John's Red Storm dribbles the ball against the Seton Hall Pirates at Prudential Center on December 11, 2020 in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 11: Posh Alexander #0 of the St. John's Red Storm dribbles the ball against the Seton Hall Pirates at Prudential Center on December 11, 2020 in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images) /
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Providence Friars center Nate Watson St. John’s Red Storm Josh Roberts Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports
Providence Friars center Nate Watson St. John’s Red Storm Josh Roberts Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports /

Schedule

Under Mike Anderson, the Red Storm’s schedule has followed a stereotypical pattern: a handful of games against teams from low- and mid-major conferences, and a few games versus power conference squads that have yielded either resume-building wins or narrow, heart-wrenching losses for the Johnnies.

This season is much of the same, with six of the Red Storm’s non-conference games coming against teams that rank below 230 in the preseason KenPom rankings – but at least two duels are scheduled against top-35 teams.  A road showdown with an Indiana team with high expectations awaits on November 17th in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, while St. John’s will take on Kansas – who is expected to be a top-five team this season – at UBS Arena in Elmont in the Big East-Big 12 Battle in early December.

Those are the tilts that St. John’s must win in order to claim an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, in addition to the assortment of buy-games.  The Red Storm will face a potentially dangerous test in their non-conference closer at Madison Square Garden against Pittsburgh, although the Panthers are not projected to be as good this year as last – but it is still another marquee tilt that the Johnnies cannot afford to drop.

The Big East, meanwhile, is coming off one of its most bizarre seasons in its reformed history.  Six teams – including the Johnnies – recorded winning overall records, while five – which also includes St. John’s – notched a winning record in conference play.  Just two – Villanova and Creighton – earned rankings in the national polls by the season’s end, while those two were joined by UConn and Cinderella stunner Georgetown as the Big East’s representatives in the NCAA Tournament.

With Creighton expected to take a step back, that opens up the potential for the Johnnies to climb up – which, despite the massive turnover within the roster, is very much possible.  They will have to compete with both UConn and an improving Xavier team, in addition to the Villanova Wildcats, who are expected to float around the top ten in the national polls.

If the Red Storm are able to topple those projected to finish below them, then – with the exception of a January 12th road duel at UConn – St. John’s has the capability of coasting through nine of their first 10 Big East games.  Where the gauntlet comes is at the end of January – a road trip at Villanova awaits there – and into February, where a three-game stretch against Villanova, UConn, and Xavier will test the Johnnies.

Splitting in their six games against the Wildcats, Huskies, and Musketeers would help the Red Storm mightily in their quest for an NCAA Tournament berth – but St. John’s also cannot allow to slip-up against weaker Big East competition, which is something they struggled with during last season.  The Johnnies likely would have received an at-large bid had it not been for late-year losses to Butler and DePaul that eradicated their stellar wins over UConn and Villanova – and that cannot happen again this time around.