22. St. John’s Red Storm - 11-2
The Red Storm are a few bounces away from actually being unbeaten, having just the close loss to Georgia and the OT setback versus Baylor as their lone blemishes. Their key wins to this point are against Virginia, Kansas State, and New Mexico, along with the opening Big East victories over DePaul and Providence.
Entering the season, all eyes were on the transfer pickups of Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith, two triple-double playmakers. They’re both filling up the stat sheets overall, but the scoring is down, with them averaging 11 ppg. The lead scorer is RJ Luis, who is putting up 16.9 ppg and 6.0 rpg.
A good case can be made that the Team MVP is Zuby Ejiofor, who is having a breakout campaign as the starting center. He’s averaging 14.7 ppg and 7.8 rpg and has had a few big outings when the Red Storm needed him the most.
St. John’s has a six-game win streak as they get back into Big East play. The next opponent is Creighton on the road, followed by key matchups with Xavier and Butler, two other teams on the bubble in the conference.