2025 Big East Basketball Previews: St. John's Red Storm
The most accurate St. John’s Red Storm preview written by a staff entrenched in Big East basketball.
Coach: Rick Pitino– 3rd year here (51-18). Prev; Hawaii 1975-76 (2-4), Boston 1978-83 (91-51), Providence 1985-87 (42-23), Kentucky 1989-97 (219-50), Louisville 2001-17 (416-143), Iona 2020-23 (64-22)
2024-25: 31-5 (18-2), 1st Big East, second round NCAA Tournament
2025-26 Big East Rank: 1
Returning Starters/Players: 1/4
Returning Minutes (Torvik): 24.2%
Just as it seemed the college basketball world had begun to appreciate St. John’s as a top eight overall seed that had won 31 games and swept both the Big East regular and postseason championships, the Red Storm unceremoniously belly flopped in a second round NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas.
But that shouldn’t – and to any Big East fan, doesn’t – epitomize how dominant the Johnnies were in 2024-25. A tie for the most wins in a single season in program history (31), the first AP Top 10 ranking this century (that reached as high as No. 5) and a defense that finished second nationally in adjusted efficiency (behind only national runner-up Houston) does.
The Johnnies, and grizzled head coach Rick Pitino, have more to worry about than their reputation, however.
The Red Storm will (most likely) open the season inside the top 10 of the AP Poll for the first time in 34 years and be picked alongside Connecticut as Big East favorites heading into 2025-26.
The New York college basketball landscape hasn’t seen a consistent winner since the Johnnies last made a run at the Elite Eight at the turn of the century. The city is starving for a winner, and Pitino, alongside his band of highly touted transfers, could be the group that satiates those growing pangs.
Off Season — Additions and Losses
Pitino dove headfirst into the transfer portal this April looking to replace eight of the top nine scorers from a team that had just won 31 games.
The consensus was that he did pretty well.
The Johnnies’ transfer portal class ranked 11th in the country according to On3, just edging conference-foe Creighton (12th) for the top spot in the Big East.
It’s bejeweled by a quartet of bucket-getters in Bryce Hopkins (Providence), Oziyah Sellers (Stanford), Joson Sanon (Arizona State) and Ian Jackson (North Carolina) who all averaged double-figures at previous stops. Dylan Darling (Idaho State) and Handje Tamba (NAIA Mulligan) add invaluable depth to the roster, which went 10 deep at times last year.
Dillon Mitchell (Cincinnati) adds a rebounding edge and intangible attitude to the group, which has its sights set on replacing a hardy group of defensemen from a year prior.
Four starters move on from last year’s group, including All-American and Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis and veteran guard Kadary Richmond, two players who combined to average north of 30 points per game in 67 starts last season.
Aaron Scott (30 starts, 36 appearances), Simeon Wilcher (25/36) and Deivon Smith (17/30) combined for 72 of the Johnnies’ 113 other starts, and Brady Dunlap (2/10) and Vincent Iwuchukwu (1/34) take three additional starts with them to St. Louis and Georgetown, respectively.
| RANK | TEAM | RETURNING MINUTES % |
| 1 | Connecticut | 56.2 |
| 2 | Marquette | 53.8 |
| 3 | Providence | 41.2 |
| 4 | Creighton | 36.7 |
| 5 | DePaul | 35.9 |
| 6 | Georgetown | 30.8 |
| 7 | St. John’s | 24.2 |
| 8 | Butler | 15.2 |
| 9 | Seton Hall | 15 |
| 10 | Villanova | 12.8 |
| 11 | Xavier | 0.1 |
Thirty-five of the remaining 38 starts can be found under the belt of forward Zuby Ejiofor, who averaged 14.7 points in a breakout campaign in the low post. He’s back for his senior season, and he’s considered to be one of the most coveted big men in the conference – and perhaps the country.
Pitino added some international flare with the recruitments of Imran Suljanovic and Fotis Konstantinidis. He also landed a pair of guards in Kelvin Odih and Casper Pohto that are bound to make an immediate impact.
Ball Handlers
Pitino declared Sellers, a Stanford (and previously USC) transfer, the team’s starting “point guard” earlier this week following an inter-squad scrimmage at Madison Square Garden.
Take that with a gigantic slab of salt. Pitino infamously declared the point guard position dead over the summer, vowing to stack ball handlers across the starting lineup to help the offense facilitate and run the floor.
Sellers tallied 71 assists in 93 career games for the Trojans and Cardinal, or 0.8 per game. That number will have to go up – either on his own accord or by Pitino’s force – especially in a system that will be predicated on spreading the wealth.
He’s a sure hand from three and a confident, willing shooter, evidenced from his 10.8 field goal attempts per game (84th percentile). If Sellers can progress as a facilitator to match his scoring ability, the Red Storm will be buoyed by an All-Big East caliber guard.
There is a slew of other ball handlers that could all see time at the one… or two… or even three when Pitino is feeling pass happy. Jackson and Darling appear to be the first two off the bench and should see meaningful time in a thick rotation.
Jackson comes to Queens with five-star-plus recruiting pedigree and a year under Huebert Davis at North Carolina. The true sophomore guard started 12 games for the Tar Heels last year and was tabbed an All-ACC Freshman selection for 11.9 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.
The Harlem native strung together a few explosive performances (such as six 20-plus point efforts in a seven game stretch) but failed to reach double-figures in 16 games as a true freshman.
Darling finished third in the Big sky in points (19.8) and fourth in steals (1.7) per game as a redshirt sophomore for Idaho State and will bring juice off the bench.
Konstantinidis and Pohto are also ball handlers, but they’ll face an uphill battle for playing time given the depth of the room.
Other Guards
The arrival of Sanon gives Pitino a true gunslinger on the wing that he’ll look to mold into a pesky on-ball defender. As a true freshman last season at Arizona State, Sanon hit 36.9% of his three pointers at a clip of 4.5 attempts per game, which ranked in the 73rd and 77th percentile, respectively.
He’ll need to develop more of an inside game and play aggressive defense, particularly off the ball, for the Red Storm in 2025-26.
Odih has the frame at 6-foot-4 – and defensive mentality that Pitino covets – to crack the rotation at the two or three as a freshman. His name has been smattered on social media as the surprise of summer camp, but the jury is still out on whether his at times inconsistent jumper can hold up in the Big East.
Lefteris Liotopoulos appeared in 25 games last year as a true freshman and opted to return to Queens for 2025-26. With a smooth stroke from downtown, Liotopoulos could see spot time as a pure shooter in the Johnnies’ guard heavy rotation.
Wings/Forwards
It isn’t a question of talent with Hopkins, arguably the most anticipated of the transfers brought in by Pitino this off season.
The former All-Big East selection averaged 15.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and shot 36.4% from three as a 6-foot-7 wing at Providence in 2022-23.
It’s about health. Hopkins has played 17 games the last two seasons combined, marred by an ACL injury and later a bone bruise that derailed his junior and senior seasons.
He’s a highly efficient scorer when he’s on the court, reaching double-figures in 28 of 33 games in 2022-23, and can score from all three levels of the court. Whether or not he can stave off the injury bug in Queens could determine the ceiling of the Red Storm.
He’ll work in conjunction with Mitchell on the wing, who spent three years in the Big 12 at Texas (2022-2024) and Cincinnati (2024-2025). For as basket-hungry Hopkins is, Mitchell is equally and oppositely as salty as a rebounder and defender.
The true senior can guard all five positions and will be the defensive poster child for the third rendition of Pitino’s Red Storm defense.
Depth behind them is thin, especially considering Hopkins’ injury history.
Team captain Sadiku Ibine Ayo returns as the first true forward off the bench. Ibine Ayo saw action in 31 games last year and led the team in three-point percentage (38.7), albeit on a small sample size (only 31 attempts).
Suljanovic rounds out the room. The 6-foot-8 true freshman saw action on the Austrian national team in 2024, and averaged 22.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in the FIBA U18 EuroBasket Division B series.
Post Players
Pitino’s post play will be governed by two returning bodies and an experienced veteran who once boasted enormous recruiting pedigree.
Ejiofor, an assumed frontrunner for a plethora of awards and honors, will anchor the frontcourt scoring like he did a year ago. The true senior and team captain scored in double-figures 29 times last year and compiled 10 double-doubles (which led the conference) en route to an All-Big East first-team selection.
Perhaps most importantly, however, Pitino has in Ejiofor a conduit of second chances offensively. Ejiofor led the nation in offensive rebounds per game last season (4.4) and snared at least seven offensive boards on eight separate occasions.
The 6-foot-9 force will be spelled by returning sophomore Ruben Prey and well-traveled Handje Tamba off the bench.
Prey appeared in 33 games (starting one) and shot 51.5% on two-point attempts in his first season as a Johnny. The Portugal native struggled to find consistency from the floor but measured up as a defender in his eight-or-so minutes on the floor each night.
He’ll be tasked with a larger role, especially offensively, with Iwuchukwu departing for Georgetown.
Tamba enters year four at stop number four. The former four-star prospect (ESPN) never cracked the rotation at Tennessee, dipping down to Weber State for two seasons where he seldom started. Tamba was an all-conference selection at NAIA Mulligan last season, averaging 10.5 points and 8.9 rebounds.
Playstyle
St. John’s rugged, smothering defense and inordinate reliance on mid-range shot making defined – and perhaps placed a ceiling on – last year’s team.
The group floundered from behind the arc, hitting the three ball at a dreadful 30.1% clip – good for 340th in the country. Pitino brought in Sellers (.401), Jackson (.395) and Sanon (.369) to remedy that in the backcourt. The floor-stretching Hopkins, who sank 36.4% of his three point attempts in 2022-23, covers another base on the wing.
Is it realistic to think the Red Storm will be at or near the top of almost every defensive metric while simultaneously seeing a boom in offensive output? Yes.
Pitino’s defensive principles will resonate with this group (you know, the bottlenecking, annoying on-ball defense and “go-go-go” tempo), but if his hand-picked shot makers actually make theirshots, St. John’s could morph into a perennial double-sided juggernaut in 2025-26.
2025 Projection
It’s hard not to be bullish on the Johnnies, especially considering the decades-long pedigree of winning that Pitino has instilled at each of his previous stops.
A systematic rebuild of the backcourt tailored to Pitino’s envisioned scheme and the return of a conference Player of the Year candidate down low puts St. John’s at the forefront of Big East championship discussions and firmly in the top 10 of most preseason rankings.
There’s palpable buzz in Queens surrounding a run for a national title for the first time in four decades. Whether or not Pitino’s Red Storm are up to the task will depend on the cohesion of its unacquainted roster and development of its depth, particularly on the back end.
Our call: Between 27 and 29 wins, a Big East regular-season title and a top three seed in the NCAA Tournament. A Sweet 16 trip seems inevitable considering the lump sum of talent Pitino has stockpiled on the roster.
