2025-26 Rankings

[Amaseinyourface]

His last line is interesting, considering how much higher the expectations for SJU seem to be heading into this season:

I wrote this in the offseason’s first top 25: “If Rick Pitino lands a stud guard, I’ll probably be inclined to move St. John’s into the top 10 because it’s Pitino.” Since then he’s landed Ian Jackson (averaged 11.9 points as a freshman at North Carolina), Dylan Darling (the Big Sky MVP at Idaho State) and Oziyah Sellers (averaged 13.7 points on a middle-of-the-pack ACC team at Stanford). Arizona State transfer Joson Sanon, who was already committed at the time of April’s top 25, is also a nice upside addition from a crummy team. None of the three high-major guys have contributed much to winning outfits, and even Darling was on a fourth-place Big Sky team, so I’m hesitant to move the Johnnies all the way into the top 10.

It’s also hard to assume Bryce Hopkins is going to be the Bryce Hopkins of his sophomore season at Providence. Hopkins has played four games since the beginning of 2024. Pitino did get some insurance by landing former Texas/Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell, who I think is a great fit for his defense. If Hopkins is healthy, it’s a top-10 frontcourt. It’s possible I’m underestimating Pitino, but I think I’d take the 2024-25 roster over this one.

Guarantee he would not have predicted anything close to Zuby as first team or RJ as BE POY this time last off season.

 

[Andrew]

Sorry if this video was already posted.

I was watching the video and it seems like he forgot that UCONN won two NC’s in a row. As for the roster it’s impossible to tell. I do think our defense will be solid and we will score a lot in transition so the lack of a known quantity at PG may work out.

 

[Anthony Mattia]

His last line is interesting, considering how much higher the expectations for SJU seem to be heading into this season:

I wrote this in the offseason’s first top 25: “If Rick Pitino lands a stud guard, I’ll probably be inclined to move St. John’s into the top 10 because it’s Pitino.” Since then he’s landed Ian Jackson (averaged 11.9 points as a freshman at North Carolina), Dylan Darling (the Big Sky MVP at Idaho State) and Oziyah Sellers (averaged 13.7 points on a middle-of-the-pack ACC team at Stanford). Arizona State transfer Joson Sanon, who was already committed at the time of April’s top 25, is also a nice upside addition from a crummy team. None of the three high-major guys have contributed much to winning outfits, and even Darling was on a fourth-place Big Sky team, so I’m hesitant to move the Johnnies all the way into the top 10.

It’s also hard to assume Bryce Hopkins is going to be the Bryce Hopkins of his sophomore season at Providence. Hopkins has played four games since the beginning of 2024. Pitino did get some insurance by landing former Texas/Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell, who I think is a great fit for his defense. If Hopkins is healthy, it’s a top-10 frontcourt. It’s possible I’m underestimating Pitino, but I think I’d take the 2024-25 roster over this one.

I don't know if our defense will be as good as last year because at times it was suffocating. However, our offense should be much better simply because we actually have some guys coming in that have a proven track record of being able to shoot the 3 at a high %