St. John’s won the Big East regular season and tournament titles in Year 2 under Rick Pitino and secured a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Then, after a second-round loss to Arkansas, the Red Storm got serious about getting better.
For Pitino, not even great is good enough.
Following a 31-win season — the most for St. John’s since 1986 — the 72-year old legend is coming back for more in 2025-26 with a roster defined by the retention of Zuby Ejiofor (+5000 to win the Wooden Award at FanDuel) and much-needed perimeter shooting upgrades.
Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis had another season of eligibility remaining but is gone to the Utah Jazz on a two-way contract, and guard Simeon Wilcher left for Texas after logging 25.4 minutes per game. Point guards Kadary Richmond and Deion Smith ran out of eligibility, as did starting forward Aaron Scott.
Just one of seven players who averaged more than 10 minutes per game is back. But it’s a big one, as Ejiofor returns to patrol the paint after earning all-Big East honors. Arriving to fill the gaps around him is 247Sports’ top-ranked transfer class. Among the biggest questions: will North Carolina transfer Ian Jackson (+12000 to win the Wooden Award at FanDuel) morph into a point guard? Or will he wind up as more of a scoring specialist with Idaho State transfer Dylan Darling emerging to earn a starting role? Also, can Providence transfer Bryce Hopkins reclaim his once-promising trajectory and play at an all-Big East level?
With college basketball’s player movement all but done, it’s time to start breaking down the rosters of the sport’s top programs. For this installment, we’re taking a look at St. John’s, the No. 1 team in the early CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 rankings, and trying to decipher what its lineup could look like when the season begins.
The promising resurgence of St. John’s short-circuited a few rounds too early in the 2025 NCAA…
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