2023-24 Rankings

Make no mistake, Pitino will go into every game thinking they can, and very well should, win. But we know that won’t be the actual result.

Anything is possible. A sweet 16 wouldn’t shock me in the least. But expecting an ncaa tourney win in year one isn’t realistic IMO.
 
Make no mistake, Pitino will go into every game thinking they can, and very well should, win. But we know that won’t be the actual result.

Anything is possible. A sweet 16 wouldn’t shock me inthe least. But expecting an ncaa tourney win in year one isn’t realistic IMO.
Why shouldn't it be a realistic goal, Soriano and Dingle with the inside outside game should be the focal point, they'll get there's. If one or two of the shooter's get hot from downtown, then it will be even tougher on the opposing defense.
They'll be playing defense as well.

I think there's a damn good shot to not onlysle the tournament, but to also win a game or 2.
 
Why shouldn't it be a realistic goal, Soriano and Dingle with the inside outside game should be the focal point, they'll get there's. If one or two of the shooter's get hot from downtown, then it will be even tougher on the opposing defense.
They'll be playing defense as well.

I think there's a damn good shot to not onlysle the tournament, but to also win a game or 2.
To me a “realistic goal” for the players and the team, and what’s the actual expectations for the team, are 2 different things. Their goal will be to win the BE and go far in the tourney.
 
I think we've got to win one game in the tournament. Get the 23 year old monkey off our back as a program.
Not participating in the March Madness bracket for nearly a decade is almost just as bad tbh. My favorite sports time of the year is that Thursday at noon and being the first team since Lavin's to be able to pick them in my bracket would be really exciting. Even that Lavin appearance was rather anticlimactic with his job status up in the air and the Obekpa suspension right before.
 
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Well of course if the roster was bad Pitino wouldn't be enough, but if there was another coach with this roster there would not be top 25 consideration. You could say that there would be potential but the nation would be in show me mode. Because it's Pitino they err on the side of the opposite of caution. ;) But there's still less returning stats and/or high level recruits than a wide range of rosters including a 3-4 in the BE and and a bunch more nationally. I'm not denigrating the players. I see tons of potential and am pleasantly surprised with what transpired. My glasses have shifted from gray to clear but I won't be putting on the rose colored ones Pitino has afforded us all until fall.
I try to look at what we expected from last season's team for comparison.
Everyone on this forum expected an NCAA invitation with that talent. We were all optimistic.......until the Big East season actually started.

Once real competition got under way, the roster WAS BAD. Poorly constructed, with an incompatible backcourt and a fluctuating roster of forwards who were out of their league. David Jones had real talent but the previous coach was helpless in harnessing his, and any other player's talent. Soriano was the exception because of his competitive mindset.

However, your comment regarding SJ having less returning stats or high level recruits is absurd. Soriano, Dingle, Luis, Taylor and Jenkins stats speak for themselves.
The last time St. John's had this many 4* players was during the Steve Lavin era.
St. John's went to two NCAA and rwo NIT tournaments under his tenure.
This first group under Pitino has as much, if not more talent, than the frosh laden team whose players we remember fondly to this day.

Frankly, I think some skeptics are still hung over the firing of CMA and almost the entire turnover of a roster that WAS BAD.
 
I am really not concerned if we are ranked preseason. I think this is a well balanced team and hopefully we will
add one more big. Pitino will have them playing well from the start and they will get better as the season goes along. My hope is to win a tournament game and I think they will.
 
Frankly, I think some skeptics are still hung over the firing of CMA and almost the entire turnover of a roster that WAS BAD.

Certainly not the case for me and other posters in this thread. I was calling for Pitino since December on here and stated that I'd be okay if Pitino overturned the entire roster (outside of Soriano who we knew day one was staying). I have zero attachment to the rest of last year's team or Anderson.

Let's see what more national pundits, and especially the analytic models like KenPom, have to say. The models I've seen (prior to Wilcher) didn't imply we will be close to a top 25 team. As others have stated, a lot of the preseason attention is from guys like Goodman who are kind of hedging their bets by putting us at the very end of their Top 25 lists. This fan base falls into the preseason hype trap every year and I think that's what's happening by setting expectation at a Tournament win.
 
Certainly not the case for me and other posters in this thread. I was calling for Pitino since December on here and stated that I'd be okay if Pitino overturned the entire roster (outside of Soriano who we knew day one was staying). I have zero attachment to the rest of last year's team or Anderson.

Let's see what more national pundits, and especially the analytic models like KenPom, have to say. The models I've seen (prior to Wilcher) didn't imply we will be close to a top 25 team. As others have stated, a lot of the preseason attention is from guys like Goodman who are kind of hedging their bets by putting us at the very end of their Top 25 lists. This fan base falls into the preseason hype trap every year and I think that's what's happening by setting expectation at a Tournament win.
I love the preseason hype!! Good for the fan base and good for recruiting. Gets us in the news more and visible again. Little negative to it failure to not be top 25 or so us no big deal for a first year team with all new roster.
 
Certainly not the case for me and other posters in this thread. I was calling for Pitino since December on here and stated that I'd be okay if Pitino overturned the entire roster (outside of Soriano who we knew day one was staying). I have zero attachment to the rest of last year's team or Anderson.

Let's see what more national pundits, and especially the analytic models like KenPom, have to say. The models I've seen (prior to Wilcher) didn't imply we will be close to a top 25 team. As others have stated, a lot of the preseason attention is from guys like Goodman who are kind of hedging their bets by putting us at the very end of their Top 25 lists. This fan base falls into the preseason hype trap every year and I think that's what's happening by setting expectation at a Tournament win.
I don’t even know how Kenpom’s analytic machine could even conjure a ranking for us with such a turnover. What did kenpom have Kansas state or Florida Atlantic preseason last year? Things have changed with Nil and the portal.
 
I don’t even know how Kenpom’s analytic machine could even conjure a ranking for us with such a turnover. What did kenpom have Kansas state or Florida Atlantic preseason last year? Things have changed with Nil and the portal.

They use stats of high school rankings, how transfers did in other conferences, etc. (just as they've always done). They still have data, as for how accurate it is during the transfer times we live in is debatable. Lunardi for instance certainly has a model and he had us just outside the bracket. Also have seen other brackets with us outside them. Will Wilcher, an unproven freshmen, push us way up in these models? I doubt it, but I think the general consensus will be that we'll be around a projected 10 seed (and thus not a Top 25 team). If that's the case then the expectations on here would be much higher than the general national consensus.
 
I see too many guys here who are so beaten down by the past few decades that they are afraid to dream big. We will be 33-6 headed into the championship game against 39-0 FAU. Crystal ball is hazy after that.
And If there’s one thing I know for certain it’s that FAU isn’t going 40-0 baby!
 
I try to look at what we expected from last season's team for comparison.
Everyone on this forum expected an NCAA invitation with that talent. We were all optimistic.......until the Big East season actually started.

Yeah as I read all the posts today I was beginning to see the disconnect. I'm not comparing this team to previous St Johns teams. This combination of coach and players puts the team in better position in June than any team going way back. Lots of solid contributors and a couple potential stars, senior mature leaders, all time coach. All great positives and I'm expecting commensurate improvement in results compared to every team since at least Lavin's first year, maybe Jarvis' second. But in this discussion I'm comparing them to other top teams in the BE, other top teams in the country, other top Pitino teams. They're good, maybe real good. But I don't see them as great . . . yet.
 
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