St. John's Finishes January Strong and is Officially a Force in the Big East
Rick Pitino has the boys playing right! After losing a tough game to Creighton on New Years Eve, the Red Storm have won 7 straight games and currently hold a record of 18-3. The wins against Xavier and Georgetown were particularly exciting considering they were without G Deivon Smith for those contests. The Johnnies are a weak 3pt shooting team to begin with, however playing without two of their better 3pt shooters,Brady Dunlap and Smith, has proved to be difficult. Against Xavier on January 22nd, the Storm shot an abysmal 8.3% from three in a hard fought OT victory.
Even while missing players, The Johnnies have been scrappy and pulled off wins with scoring in the paint and tenacious defense. Ken Pom has St. John’s ranked as the 15th best team in the country (equal with their ranking in the AP poll) and the 4th best defensive team according to defensive rating (89.0). Additionally, due to UCONN’s struggle so far, the Big East is beginning to feel like a two team race between the Red Storm and the Marquette Golden Eagles. Ken Pom has given a slight edge to the Eagles as they are ranked 13th compared to the Johnnies at 15, however St. John’s has the slight edge in the Big East standing as they currently hold the 1st place position. The Johnnies and Golden Eagles have still yet to play in the 24-25 season but will on February 4th and March 8th. Two games to circle on your schedule for sure.
The brunt of their schedule is still ahead of the Johnnies, but the 18-3 record they have built for themselves offers much more cushion than the squad from Queens is used to. Two games against UCONN, a rematch vs Creighton, and a pair versus Marquette won’t be easy, but St. John’s is a legit team!