2025-26 Rankings

[ADORAZ]

After our best season in a quarter century, next season has the potential to be even better. Still a week until the preseason rankings start coming out, but the transfer rankings are pretty impressive to say the least.

St. John's has picked up #6 Bryce Hopkins (#1 Forward) and #12 Joson Sanon (#9 Guard). Silas Demary Jr. visited today and is #10 overall (#8 Guard).

2025 College Basketball Transfer Portal

2025 College basketball Transfer Portal

247sports.com

St. John's also has the #1 transfer class in the nation currently.

2025 Transfer Basketball Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

Think worst case we'll be Top 15-25 preseason, and Top 5 wouldn't surprise me. Wish Luis returned, but between retaining Zuby and adding a couple stars this has been an incredible start to the off-season.

 

[dk423]

Rothstein already said we're a lock for 10-15 on his rankings, just by getting Hopkins

 

[ADORAZ]

Rothstein already said we're a lock for 10-15 on his rankings, just by getting Hopkins

Yep, I'm guessing we'll be top 5-10 preseason, but a ways to go obviously. Also he said we'll have unequivocally the best 4/5 combo in the country.

 

[dk423]

Yep, I'm guessing we'll be top 5-10 preseason, but a ways to go obviously. Also he said we'll have unequivocally the best 4/5 combo in the country.

I think the quality of PG we nab will be the ultimate difference maker between being ranked #15 to being ranked as high as, yeah, #1.

 

[ADORAZ]

I think the quality of PG we nab will be the ultimate difference maker between being ranked #15 to being ranked as high as, yeah, #1.

I agree #1 wouldn't be out of the question if we can get someone like Silas, but that may be an uphill battle.

Also, I know a lot of people put little to no stock into preseason rankings, and there is some truth to that (for example Kansas was preseason #1 this year).

That said, as we saw this year the rankings are extremely important for attendance and overall publicity. With the way our season ended some casual fans have started questioning how good we'll be going forward. Securing a top 5-15 preseason ranking would help maintain the program's momentum over the next 7 months, which would be huge for things such as season ticket sales, OOC ticket sales, merchandise sales, NIL, etc.

 

[room112]

On a related note, wondering what our end of year ranking for this season will be. Any guesses?

 

[Moose]

On a related note, wondering what our end of year ranking for this season will be. Any guesses?

9

 

[ADORAZ]

Very important for the Big East to be significantly better than last year. Still early, but here are the transfer portal and recruiting team rankings thus far:

Recruiting:
#3 UConn
#17 Marquette
#18 Butler
#37 Providence
#43 DePaul
#67 Creighton
#86 Xavier
4 teams without recruits

Transfer Portal:
#3 St. John's
#9 Creighton
#18 Butler
#21 Georgetown
#24 Providence
T#41 Xavier
T#41 Seton Hall
4 teams without transfers

2025 Overall Basketball Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

There's also an "Overall" filter (linked above), but it doesn't mean much until the Transfer Portal decisions are further along (too lopsided towards recruiting for now). Pretty clear that most of the Big East has shifted away from high school recruiting to transfers in recent years, which I think is the correct call.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

One of the things in the off season is the unbridled optimism that fans bring to their respective School BB Programs .

We are losing some pretty substantial talent . RJ, KR , Scott , Smith and Brady although injured and now in portal .

Coming in , so far we have Hopkins and Sanon.
2 highly regarded Players but , highly regarded in the off season doesn’t mean much once the Season starts . Check out AJ Storr last year at Kansas . 6 points a game .

Hopkins , if healthy all season is a excellent player . But , on a player to player comparison , I think Luis is and was better . But , we will see .

We still need a high quality PG , one who isn’t Smurf sized like Smith was .
KR will be most difficult to replace as he did everything . Score , Rebound , Assists , Defense and run the Offense .


Wilcher , to me , is. SG not a PG , so where does he fit ? Back up Sanon ? Doubtful .
I think he would transfer if he thought he was going to be a non starter .
I seem to recall the possibility that Sanon could be the SF role , as KR did on occasion .

Which would leave Wilcher as the SG , a role that seems natural for him .

So , getting a true PG from the Portal will determine how well we will play next season.

Glover , Vince , Lefty , Prey will return .. I didn’t see Ayo’s name mentioned but , might have missed it .

Whatever happened between RJ and Pitino had to be of very serious nature to play out as it has .

We still don’t know and likely won’t know , unless Luis brings it into the Open or , some other player comes foreword .

I don’t think the whole story has come out and may never .


RJ has a lot going for him , elsewhere if he opts to take the NIL money .
Big $$$$.,
.

 

[ADORAZ]

247 Transfer Portal Rankings (4/4/25):
#2 Creighton
#5 St. John's
#18 UConn
#25 Butler
T#29 Xavier
T#29 Georgetown
T#33 Providence
T#33 DePaul
T#54 Seton Hall
2 teams without transfers (Villanova and Marquette)

Very impressive start for the Big East. Won't directly translate obviously, but if our NET rankings look anything like this next year the conference will be stacked.