Why St. John’s basketball is a clear March Madness pretender

Why St. John’s basketball is a clear March Madness pretender appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Rick Pitino turned St. John’s around quickly. They won the Big East regular season and tournament for the first time since 1985-86, while making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018-19. Pitino recently took his 900th win on the court and is now looking to win his first national championship since 2012-13. Despite all these positive developments, St. John’s is a pretender in 2026.

Advertisement

The Red Storm are 16-5 on the season and 9-1 in conference play. Still, many of their losses were earlier in the season, against solid teams, and most of them at neutral sites. They lost to Alabama at home in early November, and then lost to both Iowa State and Auburn at the Players Era Festival in Vegas. The lone loss in conference play came back on January 3, a 77-71 loss to Providence at home. Since then, they have won seven straight.

Regardless, St. John’s may not have what it takes to make the run, with some glaring issues and a tough path to winning it all.

Play on the glass will be an issue

Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

St. John’s head coach Pitino has pointed out in the past that rebounding has been an issue.  Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell have been solid on the glass this year. Ejiofor is averaging 7.4 rebounds per game while Mitchell has seven per game this year. Still, there is not a lot of help outside of those two, and rebounding has been a major issue for their guards. Only Ozijyah Sellers has more than three rebounds per game.

Advertisement

St. John’s is 39th in rebounds per game this year, but is also 139th in opponent rebounds per game. The major issue has been the defensive glass. St. John’s is 17th in Division I at offensive rebounding rate, but 144th in defensive rebounding rate. The team has struggled on the defensive end of the court, not giving up second chances to opponents. In their five…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/why-st-john-basketball-clear-210851891.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-02-02 21:08:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.