3 takeaways from St. John's Players Era Festival appearance
Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford (0) heads to the basket as St. John's guard Dylan Darling, back left, forward Bryce Hopkins (23) and Zuby Ejiofor (24) defend during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Players Era tournament Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025, in Las Vegas. Credit: AP/Steve Marcus
LAS VEGAS — Three days. Three games. One very disappointing experience.
St. John’s was one of the nine nationally ranked teams among the 18 that earned $1 million in NIL to play in the second annual Players Era Festival, and while the competition was excellent, the results weren’t.
On Monday, the 14th-ranked Red Storm blew a one-point lead in the final two minutes and ended up with a one-point loss to No. 15 Iowa State.
On Tuesday, they not only turned the page on a tough loss but also appeared to be realizing some of their prodigious potential in a 15-point win over Baylor.
On Wednesday, they were paired with No. 21 Auburn, led by 11 early in the second half and then closed the game with arguably the worst 10 minutes of basketball they’ve played this season in an 85-74 loss.
St. John’s (4-3) returned to New York on Wednesday night disappointed and with questions about starting point guard Dylan Darling, who was hampered during his seven minutes of Wednesday’s loss with what coach Rick Pitino called a hamstring injury.
In the minutes after the game, the severity of the injury was unclear. So was Darling’s availability for St. John’s next contest, Dec. 6 against Ole Miss at the Garden.
Here are three takeaways from the Red Storm’s westward excursion:
1. The number of opportunities for a signature non-conference victory are dwindling
Whether or not St. John’s will fall out of the AP Top 25 — after starting the season at No. 5 — remains to be seen, but it has played three nationally ranked non-conference opponents and lost all three. Every team is looking to build its NCAA Tournament resume with high-profile wins before conference play starts. The Red Storm made sure they’d have plenty of opportunities to do that by scheduling the Nov. 8 game against then-No. 15 Alabama — now ranked No. 8 — as well as this tournament.
St. John’s has one more game against a non-Big East team that’s in the current rankings, a Dec. 20 date with No. 19 Kentucky in Atlanta.
The issue is this: How many wins over Big East teams will be resume-builders? Right now, No. 5 Connecticut is the only one on the schedule. Perhaps another program or two will prove strong and present opportunities. Just not so far.
2. Oziyah Sellers has rediscovered his shot
The 6-5 transfer from Stanford was attractive to St. John’s because he was a great three-point shooter — making 40% last season — and the Red Storm lacked one in 2024-25. On Monday, he had a season-high 20 points and was 5-for-6 on three-point attempts against Iowa State. He followed that by scoring 22 and going 5-for-7 from beyond the arc against Baylor.
That made four games in which he played shooting guard and Darling took over point guard responsibilities. In those games, he was 13-for-21 from three-point range.
3. The Red Storm have flaws, and rebounding is among the biggest
St. John’s didn’t have a good rebounding game in the tournament. In a second half in which Iowa State came back to win, the Cyclones got 10 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points. In the Red Storm’s win over Baylor, the Bears had 26 offensive rebounds. Auburn had 16 second-chance points in the second half when it blew past St. John’s.
After the loss to Iowa State, Pitino said, “We’ve got to do something. You can’t lose the game by giving second shots up. You’re not going to win games that way.”
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.
