11. St. John’s (22-5)
With their work in recent weeks, you could certainly say that St. John’s is one of the hottest programs in the nation. They’ve taken charge during a long winning streak, including that important performance against UConn just a few weeks ago. As a result, the Red Storm sit atop the Big East standings and Rick Pitino has to be excited about this team after their shortcomings earlier in the year.
The streak kept chugging along with a 76-70 road win at Marquette to begin the week. Bryce Hopkins emerged with 23 points and 10 rebounds while Oziyah Sellers had a cool 12 points off the bench. The Red Storm then coasted on Saturday afternoon in an 81-52 win over Creighton. Dylan Darling came off the bench with 17 points while Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor had 15 points apiece in the easy victory.
Now winners of 13 games in a row, St. John’s is clearly doing much better right now than earlier in the year when shooting and defense were both sinking this team. Let’s not ignore the facts, St. John’s still has significant struggles from outside the arc at times but they’ve found a way to survive those outings and keep building this momentum. The ultimate test comes Wednesday in their rematch at UConn in a game that’ll help decide the Big East regular season champion.