St. John's Red Storm guard Ian Jackson. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s is a virtual certainty to have a number next to its name when The Associated Press preseason national rankings are revealed next week. The big question is where the Red Storm will land.
This Storm roster is clearly the most talented one that Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino has assembled in his four seasons at the school. But as is the case with many of the programs expected to be in the national rankings, the Storm has some player eligibility questions hovering above them.
The voters on the AP poll had to turn in their ballots for the preseason poll on Monday. With approximately 300 players either waiting for NCAA reinstatement after playing professionally overseas or involved in court cases against the NCAA seeking a fifth year of eligibility because they were excluded from new association rules permitting “5-in-5,” assessing and ranking teams was no easy task.
Newsday spoke with four of them about the process they used and how they applied it to St. John’s. All four said that the Red Storm were among the toughest to assess.
“A few teams were really hard to judge, and St. John’s was certainly in that mix,” said Kevin McNamara from WPRO in Providence, Rhode Island
“Texas Tech, St. John’s and Missouri all have important players where things could go one way or another,” said Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News.
Four Storm players had some ambiguity hanging over their eligibility as of Monday. Auburn transfer Keyshawn Hall and Indiana transfer Reed Bailey are both in state lawsuits against the NCAA and ruled eligible while they await further court actions. Quinn Ellis was awaiting an NCAA ruling on “reinstatement” because he played professionally in the Euro League, but received it on Tuesday and is eligible. Babacar Sane, who signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Utah Jazz and played in the G League, was ruled eligible until at least Nov. 9 when a hearing with witnesses is scheduled and thus can play in all three exhibition games and the Storm’s first two regular season games.
The NCAA has granted eligibility to most of the foreign pros with the same profile as Ellis. Hall's temporary restraining order was upheld in a Queens court on Tuesday. Bailey is in a case that will be continued Oct. 20.
Two weeks ago, Pitino was asked about the eligibility questions at Big East Media Day and replied, “We feel everybody’s going to be fine. . . . everybody’s going to be playing.”
And some of the AP voters Newsday spoke to see the Red Storm just as Pitino does.
“I’m going with the ‘right now’ to assess who is eligible,” said Dave Borges of the New Haven Register. “There’s hundreds of guys in an (array) of court cases. You can assume some of these guys — most of them, all of them, none of them — will stay eligible, but you just don’t know. . . . Given what Rick said, you want to assume most or all of his guys are going to be eligible.”
“Unless someone is definitely ruled ineligible and it's pretty clear they're not going to be eligible, I'm counting everyone as eligible,” McNamara said. “St. John’s four guys — I am considering them all eligible for this vote. The big one here is the ruling on Sane because lots of guys who are tainted by signing [an Exhibit 10] are getting turned down, but he didn’t. And Ellis? I’ve yet to see one of these highly acclaimed Europeans get turned down by the NCAA.”
Wilner said, “I'm just kind of taking the view right now that none of these guys are eligible at their new places, and if that changes and they play, I’ll assess the team they end up with.”
“Part of the calculus with St. John's is always going to be Pitino . . . because he’s good,” said Donna Ditota of the Syracuse Post-Standard. “Even if one or two of these guys becomes ineligible, he’s going to figure out how to win with what he has.”
Though Newsday spoke to each voter before they’d submitted their ballots, each revealed where they’d ranked the Red Storm at the time they were interviewed. Wilner had them No. 12. McNamara had them at No. 13. Borges had them at No. 20. Ditota had St. John’s at No. 21.
To Ditota’s point, Pitino’s St. John’s teams have overcome perceived flaws each of the past two seasons en route to Big East championships and NCAA Tournament trips. In 2024-25, the Storm overcame poor shooting by becoming elite on defense and rebounding and went on to win its first NCAA game since 2000. Last season, St. John’s didn’t have consistent point guard play, but made its first Sweet 16 in 27 years.
“[Voting] is challenging,” Borges said. “What to do with St. John’s? They have Rick Pitino, two key guys in [Ian] Jackson and [Ruben] Prey back [and] there’s [Tounde Yessoufou], who is going to be real good . . . But if Ellis isn’t eligible, it’s a great roster without the starting point guard.”
Understand that St. John’s isn’t the only program that could fall in a variety of tiers.
“Louisville is a good example because they either will have Seth Trimble or they won't have Seth Trimble,” she said of the UNC transfer who also is in a suit to play next season. “I'm not going to try to do any kind of adjudicating the whole process. Louisville with Trimble is Top 15. Without him? Now you’re talking 20-25.”
Like the other voters, Wilner said Pitino’s resourcefulness may ultimately determine how high the Storm can rise this season — even more than who is eligible and who is not.
“I would say St. John's, with what we know it has, is going to be 10 to 14 no matter who else is playing for him,” he said. “With Pitino, you’ve got like 50 years of proof. You can bank that his teams are going to be good.”
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.
