24. St. John’s (13-5)
For much of this season it’s seemed like St. John’s just hasn’t been able to realize their true potential. Rick Pitino’s crew entered the year with plenty of eyes on them and fumbled their early opportunities, losing winnable games against Alabama, Iowa State, and others. A home loss to Providence was an early black eye in Big East play but St. John’s has started to turn things around in recent weeks.
That turnaround continued Tuesday with a solid 92-68 win over Marquette. Oziyah Sellers scored 24 points, Zuby Ejiofor had 22 points, and the Red Storm did exactly what was needed at home against this struggling rival. Saturday’s effort was their best during this recent spurt, as St. John’s got an 86-79 road win at Villanova. Bryce Hopkins had 20 points and 6 rebounds, Ian Jackson put up 18 points, and another great result went their way.
The Red Storm have now won four straight games, including three of those on the road against notable Big East foes. This team is still far from perfect and is still working out some issues but they’ve got pretty solid metrics and look formidable in a Big East that doesn’t have a real second contender yet behind UConn. Is Pitino’s squad that contender? We’ll see them in action against Seton Hall and Xavier to try to prove that even more next week.