1. St. John’s
If anyone doubted Rick Pitino, his team answered a lot of those questions with their inspired play last year. Pitino’s second year at St. John’s saw the Red Storm in 31 games, taking both the regular season and tournament titles in a competitive Big East. The NCAA Tournament didn’t go as planned and several important pieces were lost from that squad, but St. John’s has an incomparable transfer class to put them near or at the top of preseason polls for next year.
First and foremost, Pitino grabbed two of the Top 25 freshman recruits from the past offseason, landing North Carolina’s Ian Jackson and Arizona State’s Joson Sanon. Both those backcourt pieces averaged exactly 11.9 points per game and will be significant pieces for the Red Storm. Don’t be shocked to see former Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers putting up notable numbers either.
Dylan Darling averaged nearly 20 points per game as a sophomore at Idaho State and his shooting and scoring will be valuable for the Red Storm. Former Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell was once a 5-star recruit and could continue to blossom in the Big East under PItino’s leadership. Finally we get to the former Big East star, as Bryce Hopkins did awesome work at Providence and now gets one last shot in the Big East with the Red Storm.
It’s hard to properly quantify just what makes this class special, but this staff hit on all needs and has buffed this roster with incredible talent. They have raw untapped potential and experienced veterans uniting on a team that just might win another Big East crown. St. John’s is absolutely a team to watch again next season and there are dozens of reasons why even beyond Pitino’s presence.