In recent years, the New York Knicks captivated their fans by making deep postseason runs.
St. John’s did the same last season with its best showing in four decades before struggling to consistently score in a second-round loss to Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament.
A season of massive expectations and coach Rick Pitino’s third season will commence on Monday when the fifth-ranked Red Storm debut a retooled roster vs. Quinnipiac in New York City.
The Red Storm went 31-5 last season after going 20-13 and missing the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24. St. John’s won its first Big East title since 2000 and its first outright regular-season conference title since 1984-85, when it reached the Final Four.
After being the only No. 2 seed to lose before the Sweet 16 last season, Pitino went to work following a disappointing loss to Arkansas and added several newcomers to surround Zuby Ejiofor — the Big East Preseason Player of the Year. Ejiofor is the lone returning starter after averaging 14.7 points and 8.1 rebounds a game last season.
Among the newcomers are former Providence standout Bryce Hopkins, who is fully recovered from a knee injury that limited him to 17 games in the past two seasons. Another is Joson Sanon, who averaged 11.9 points as a freshman for Arizona State.
Pitino also added Ian Jackson, an all-freshman player from North Carolina and Dillon Mitchell from Cincinnati.
Transfer Oziyah Sellers is a career 39.6% shooter from 3-point range at Southern California and Stanford.
Pitino got his first unofficial look at the retooled roster in an exhibition game against seventh-ranked Michigan on Saturday, and the offense appeared to be ahead of the defense in a 96-94 loss. Ejiofor scored 24 points, Sanon added 14, and Mitchell and Hopkins added 13 apiece in a game in which the Red Storm shot 39.7% but allowed 52.2% shooting.
“They’re not together defensively, and they’re not together because they don’t know each other,” Pitino said.
“We have no time to waste in figuring it out, but we got to figure it out,” Ejiofor said. “There’s no excuses. Winning is a standard that we’re trying to build here at St. John’s. Everybody came here to win. All the transfers? They came here to win. So whatever it takes.”
Quinnipiac is coming off consecutive regular-season titles in the MAAC. The Bobcats (20-13, 15-5 last season) enter coach Tom Pecora’s third season still seeking the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in school history after losing in the semifinals of the conference tournament to Iona last season and Saint Peter’s in the same round in 2023-24.
“It’s a great honor to be champions back-to-back years,” Pecora said. “The whole thing comes down to, ‘Can you win the (MAAC) tournament?’ It sounds like coach-speak, but you take it one day at a time.”
For the second straight season, Quinnipiac is the preseason pick to win the 13-team league, and Amarri Monroe is back for his final season.
Selected as the MAAC’s preseason player of the year, Monroe was the league’s third-leading scorer at 18.1 points per game. Monroe, however, was held to four points on 0-of-9 shooting last season when the Bobcats held a four-point lead before taking a 96-73 loss to the Red Storm.
“I’m expecting him to grow as a player and continue to be a great leader for us,” Pecora said about Monroe, who returned after being courted by bigger schools, including UConn.
–Field Level Media
