ESPN has been HEAVILY promoting St. John's (despite us not having a TV deal with them). If you go on their college basketball website, the top 3 articles in their main section are (or were as of 15 minutes ago- they just posted something new on realignment):
1. Dick Vitale's men's college basketball Preseason Top 25 for 2023-24
St. John's listed at #25. Ok, this one isn't anything major, but then:
2. Bracketology: Pitino, St. John's throwing strikes early and often
Here we're only the last team in, however, the thumbnail is Pitino throwing from his recent Citi Field first pitch. The headline mentions St. John's.
3. Way-Too-Early Top 25: St. John's is in; Tennessee dips
St. John's is #25, in the headline and Ledlum is in the thumbnail. Also, a long writeup about St. John's.
Again, these are the top / most visible 3 articles on their website, and two of them push St. John's in the picture/headline. Granted it's August and St. John's has done more than any other team over the last month to get us into the Top 25, so they kind of had to write about us, but it's still really cool seeing us being this heavily promoted. They wouldn't be posting thumbnails of Pitino if there wasn't a strong interest from the casual reader.
Also, with rumors of us being on ESPN Radio next year, it does seem ESPN has a strong interest in St. John's basketball. Will be interesting to see how much of a push they make for our next TV contract.