St. John’s men’s basketball picked second in Big East preseason poll

The Big East’s coaches don’t believe a Red Storm three-peat is coming.

The league’s coaches ranked St. John’s second in the conference’s preseason poll ahead of Tuesday’s Media Day festivities. The Johnnies only received two first-place votes, while the Huskies earned eight. Marquette finished fourth, behind Villanova, and still earned one first-place vote from Rick Pitino, who lauded the Golden Eagles as the Big East favorite back in July. Providence, Xavier, Creighton, DePaul, Seton Hall, Georgetown, and Butler rounded out the poll in that order.

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St. John’s dominated the last two Big East seasons, winning 36 of 40 regular-season games and taking home both the regular-season and tournament titles in consecutive years for the first time in program history.

Despite that run of success, the league’s coaches are taking the Huskies to break that streak this year. Dan Hurley’s squad returns its starting backcourt of Silas Demary, Jr., named the Big East preseason player of the year, and Braylon Mullins, complemented by potential breakout transfers Nik Khamenia from Duke and Najai Hines from Seton Hall, and highly ranked freshmen Colben Landrew and Junior County.

Pitino and the Johnnies are still awaiting eligibility rulings for Quinn Ellis, Keyshawn Hall, Babacar Sane, and Reed Bailey, with Ellis and Hall expected to become nightly starters and Sane likely to factor in as a sixth-man of the year candidate. As of today, St. John’s’ starting lineup features preseason first-team selections Ian Jackson and Baylor transfer Tounde Yessoufou, and Ruben Prey in what will be his first season as a starter.

Below is the full men’s basketball preseason poll results and the three preseason All-Big East teams.

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/st-john-men-basketball-picked-161838574.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-01 16:18:00

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