St. John's offense could outshine the defense early, and that's not necessarily a problem
Oziyah Sellers of St. John's grabs a rebound during a scrimmage at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Ed Quinn
St. John’s ascended to heights it hadn’t reached in decades last season, winning the Big East regular-season title outright for the first time in 40 years and the Big East Tournament championship for the first time in 25 years. The Red Storm got a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seeding and their first tourney win since 2000.
St. John’s did all that despite big flaws — it ranked 347th of 363 in three-point shooting percentage and 285th in free-throw percentage — but overcame these shortcomings by becoming one of the nation’s best offensive rebounding teams and the No. 2-ranked squad on the defensive end.
The 2025-26 Red Storm could be a far better team after coach Rick Pitino brought in the nation’s best crop of transfers (according to 247Sports), packing the roster with elite scorers and great outside shooters.
The Red Storm held an intrasquad scrimmage at the Garden on Wednesday, and one could see they are incredibly athletic, play fast and have an array of shot-makers to deploy. The starting five as currently constructed — Zuby Ejiofor, Joson Sanon, Bryce Hopkins, Ian Jackson and Oziyah Sellers — looked especially lethal.
Every program goes into the season with many questions, though. For St. John’s, the biggest is how well it will defend.
Pitino’s teams have always had defense as a primary directive. Some featured a suffocating press, some had quick-handed pass deflectors and still others were helped by great rim protectors. The very best ones had them all.
The first indicators could come at the Garden in two weeks when the Red Storm have a big-time exhibition against Michigan. The state of the defense will be more definitive in four weeks when they face Alabama at MSG in the season’s second regular-season game.
Pitino has been integrating a bunch of players who haven’t played together, much like last season. St. John’s didn’t start to become the superlative defensive team that would go 31-5 until its communication started to click sometime in December. A schedule with five games against high majors among the first eight will require a faster timeline.
To that end, this team was having high-level workouts in the summer, so it’s possible the defense will be there.
“They’re not the defensive team of last year — yet,” Pitino said. “But I think they’re all highly intelligent, a very mature team. Whatever you ask them to do, they’ll give you 100%. They’ll be a good defensive team.”
He added, “Now you know [with] the schedule we’re playing, you may not see the numbers that we had last year defensively because . . . the competition’s pretty amazing.”
Asked how close the Red Storm are to becoming the defensive team Pitino demands, Ejiofor replied, “I’ll say we’re close . . . Everybody’s committed. Every [member] of the coaching staff is harping on defense, especially Coach P. It’s a process, and I think we’re going to get there sooner rather than later.”
Pitino is working with different ingredients this time around. The solid defenders of a year ago sought to become a great offensive team (though mostly unsuccessfully). This bunch is offensively skilled and learning to play defense.
“It’s much easier to teach defense than teach offense, shooting the ball and things like that,” Pitino said.
Pitino’s defensive message clearly has landed with the players. “[They] were a top two or three defensive team last year, so that’s what they expect again,” Sellers said. “Every day . . . we’re just getting a lot better at that end. We’ve all bought into it, so we’ll be all right.”
The Red Storm have to be more than all right, though. For their offensive skills to pay off with the type of season they’re hoping for, they need to be elite.
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.
