St. John's opens the season ranked 13th in the AP Top 25 poll

St. John’s is striving to take the next step this season after reaching the 2026 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time in 27 years and will begin the 2026-27 season as the 13th-ranked team in the nation, according to The Associated Press preseason poll released Monday afternoon.

The Red Storm began last season with its highest national ranking at No. 5. The last time the program debuted with a national ranking in consecutive seasons was in 1990-91 and 1991-92, the final two years of coach Lou Carnesecca’s Hall of Fame career.

The Red Storm, who went 30-7 last season, lost three NBA Draft picks off that team in Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins. However, Storm coach Rick Pitino has rebuilt a roster he calls his “deepest, most talented” in his four seasons at St. John’s.

It returns three rotation players — starter Ian Jackson and Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos — and adds elite point guard Quinn Ellis, who arrived from the Euro League and Tounde Yessoufou, who could be an 2027 NBA Draft lottery pick.

Big East rival Connecticut, who last season played in the NCAA Tournament title game for the third time in four years and lost to Michigan, is ranked No. 4.

Two other Big East teams, Villanova and Marquette, are not ranked but received votes.

The Red Storm could have up to seven regular-season games against teams that were ranked on Monday, up to three when they compete in the loaded Players Era Festival in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week.

After opening against Oregon, St. John’s will meet either No. 11 Louisville or No. 19 Texas Tech next. Among the potential foes for its third game there are No. 8 Tennessee and No. 18 Iowa State.

The field of possible opponents if the Storm earn a spot in the championship game has four that were ranked on Monday: No. 14 Miami, No. 15 Gonzaga, No. 16 Michigan and No. 20 Alabama.

Already fixed on the Red Storm’s schedule are a non-conference game against No. 5 Arizona on Dec. 5 at the Garden and one against the 20th-ranked Crimson Tide in Birmingham. And, as usual, there are the two conference games against UConn.

St. John’s had a bit of a roller coaster season before reaching the Sweet 16 last season. It slid quickly from it’s preseason ranking and was unranked before the end of 2025.

The Storm were 9-5 in the first week of January and then won 21 of their next 22 games to capture the Big East regular season and tournament titles for a second straight season. After falling to overall No. 1 seed Duke in an East Regional semifinal in Washington, St. John’s was No. 10 in the final 2025-26 AP poll, taken after the Final Four.

St. John’s will next be in action Sunday at MSG in an exhibition game against No. 7 Texas, its final tuneup before the Nov. 2 season opener against Monmouth at Carnesecca Arena.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.