Big East Basketball: Xavier, Seton Hall rises, Villanova slides in latest power ranking

6. St. John's Red Storm

There have been plenty of ups and downs for the St. John’s Red Storm this season in the first year under head coach Rick Pitino. And at this point in time, they are in one of their down periods. Pitino has dealt with COVID which kept him out of the Seton Hall game, a matchup they lost by 15, but they still needed to show a bit more fight in that game. But they are way too talented and have enough solid wins to keep themselves at this point in the rankings. 

And while they have lost three straight, both the Creighton and Marquette losses came to within one-point games. St. John’s has shown they can compete with just about anybody in the Big East, it is just a matter of them putting it all together down the stretch for the rest of the year. But wins are wins and losses are losses, and this has put them all the way down to seventh in the conference standings. If they were able to win the Creighton or Marquette game, they would have found themselves a bit higher, but especially after the huge loss to the Pirates, it is hard to rank them any higher than this. 

Joel Soriano has continued to be a star this season, and they are getting those contributions from transfers that Pitino brought in during the chaotic offseason that was the Red Storm’s. But so far they are right on the edge of being one of the more impressive teams in the conference or being a disappointment after the huge hire of Pitino. They have huge opportunities coming up in their next few games, so they have to take advantage of some of these matchups after a three-game losing streak.