Rick Pitino's Red Storm climb five spots in Top 25 national rankings to No. 15

St. John's guard Simeon Wilcher against Xavier on Jan. 22, 2025, at MSG. Credit: AP/Pamela Smith
Call it the Rick Pitino Effect.
St. John’s still was a big part of the New York basketball discourse when it reached the 1999 Elite Eight and won the 2000 Big East championship. Then it spent more than two decades on a slide toward irrelevance, making only four trips to the NCAA Tournament and failing to win a game in any of them.
However, things are changing, and quickly. Pitino is in his second year as coach and the Red Storm again are relevant and drawing big crowds.
On Monday, St. John’s ascended to No. 15 in the AP Top 25, up five spots from a week ago, and while it sits behind No. 9 Marquette, it has leapfrogged No. 25 UConn, the two-time defending national champion.
The Red Storm’s 17-3 record is their best start to a season in 35 years. Their 8-1 Big East record is their best since the team that made the run to the Elite Eight.
St. John’s last was ranked as high as No. 15 in 2014-15, the last time it was in the NCAA Tournament’s main draw of 64.
“Everybody is so excited and pleased [with] what he’s done,” athletic director Ed Kull said last week. “And the Year Two numbers speak for themselves. And us being [tied for] first place [in the conference] and Top 25 in the country, I don’t think we could ask for more right now.”
Pitino’s arrival certainly perked up the fan base, but the winning truly has stirred it. This season, St. John’s is drawing an average of 5,393 in games played at Carnesecca Arena, a 32% increase over the 4,089 it averaged in 2022-23, Mike Anderson’s final season. The average attendance for a St. John’s game at Madison Square Garden is 14,446, up 22% from the 11,852 it averaged the year before he arrived.
This season’s numbers compare favorably even to previous successful ones. Relative to 2014-15, when St. John’s was last in the main draw, attendance today is up 15% at Carnesecca Arena and 52% at the Garden.
“This is New York. It’s all about winning,” Pitino said Wednesday after his team drew 14,545 for the win over Xavier.
“In New York, if you don’t win, [a fan base] won’t show up, and we know that. And we’re winning right now. We’re bringing St. John’s back to where it needs to be . . . We really, really want to get St. John’s back where it belongs, and [if] we just keep winning, that’ll take care of itself.”
Pitino has rebuilt fallen college basketball giants at Kentucky and Louisville, but he calls this St. John’s project “the toughest job I’ve ever had.”
“Even though there was a scandal at Kentucky, they never really lost their fan base,” Pitino said. “You had two years of very difficult times financially as well, but you still had 23,000 people [coming]. We were sold out every single game. You had to build the fan base back here. It was a lost fan base, and we’ve got it back in a year and a half. That’s exciting.”
In addition to that, there were the challenges of putting in place adequate facilities to compete at the highest level as well as the NIL fundraising required to draw in and keep top talent. The Red Storm have some of that in place, and there will be groundbreaking in April on a new basketball training facility on campus.
“This is the toughest job I’ve ever had because so many other things have to be done,’’ Pitino said, “but we are accomplishing them, so it’s great satisfaction.”
St. John’s will try to extend its six-game winning streak Tuesday when it faces Georgetown (13-7, 4-5) at 6:30 p.m. at Capital One Arena.
It appears the Red Storm again will be without starting guard Deivon Smith, who is recovering from a right shoulder injury. Smith received a second cortisone injection last week and was aiming to do non-contact activities in Monday’s workout.
“He’s had two shots and it’s a little concerning,” Pitino said Monday. “A good thing is there’s no dislocation. There’s nothing like that.”
Asked if Smith might be able to return for this weekend’s game against Providence or the Feb. 4 matchup with Marquette, Pitino replied, “I’d be guessing because he hasn’t practiced now in two weeks. So he’s going to need a lot of practices to get his reps back.”
St. John’s beat the Hoyas, 63-58, on Jan. 14 at the Garden without Smith, who suffered the injury three days earlier in a collision with Villanova’s Woogie Poplar.