Three resolutions St. John's can make to improve play in 2026
St. John's forward Zuby Ejiofor (24) dribbles the ball against Georgetown forward Jayden Fort (0) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass) Credit: AP/Nick Wass
St. John’s put a nice bow on the year 2025 Wednesday night with a whole bunch of positives in a 95-83 Big East victory over Georgetown at Capital One Arena.
Zuby Ejiofor had 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, returning to the form that earned him Preseason Player of the Year honors in a vote of Big East coaches. The Red Storm had four players make at least three three-pointers and sank 15 overall, tying the school record for a Big East game. And the squad that had lost 10 straight Dec. 31 games dating to 2008 finally got to ring in a New Year on a winning note.
No calendar year is all good or all bad, and St. John’s 2025 was no different.
The best of it came before summer as it closed last season by winning the Big East regular season and tournament championships, earned a No. 2 seeding as it returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 and won a tourney game for the first time in 25 years. The Red Storm’s season ended with a disappointing upset loss to No. 10 Arkansas in the second round, but before the end of May, coach Rick Pitino and his staff had brought in the top-ranked transfer class in the country, according to 247sports.com.
Since autumn, however, there has been more disappointment than joy for Red Storm fans, though everything is relative.
The Red Storm have started the 2025-26 season 9-4 and 2-0 in the Big East and have won five of their last six games. The numbers look pretty good, but St. John’s has gone from the preseason No. 5 team in the country to unranked. It lost all four games it played against programs that either are or have been in the AP Top 25.
Regardless of how anyone feels about St. John’s right now, consider this: For the year 2025, St. John’s record was 29-6 and Pitino has turned the program into a force in the Big East.
Now it’s on to 2026. Here are three New Year’s resolutions the Red Storm could make:
1. On offense, take advantage of the best frontcourt in the Big East
No program in the conference — including No. 4 Connecticut — is better on the interior than the quartet of Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins, Dillon Mitchell and Ruben Prey. Ejiofor and Hopkins are the team’s two leading scorers and also the Red Storm’s best chances for getting to the free-throw line. If St. John’s gets the ball inside, opponents struggle to handle the bigs one-on-one and need to commit more resources to stopping them. With those extra resources focused on the interior, it will open the door for the collection of strong outside shooters that Pitino recruited out of the NCAA transfer portal: Oziyah Sellers, Ian Jackson and Joson Sanon. It was there against the Hoyas as the Red Storm made 56% from outside the arc.
And about those four potentially unlocking the offense’s potential? They are the top four players in the regular rotation in assists per minute. They had 14 of the team’s 20 assists against Georgetown, and nine led to three-pointers.
2. Get a defensive rebound
The Red Storm have played eight games against power conference teams and gone 4-4. In those games, they’ve done reasonably well at getting opponents to miss shots, holding them to an aggregate 43.6% shooting, but have been terrible at ending the possession with a defensive rebound. When those opponents have missed a shot, they’ve gotten an offensive rebound 42% of the time and have scored an average of 16 second-chance points.
Those numbers have to come down significantly for the Red Storm to have a successful season.
3. Understand that to get a good NCAA Tournament seed, there’s no margin for error
St. John’s didn’t get the signature non-conference win that would have made its NCAA Tournament resume shine after playing well in the Big East, so what it cannot afford is a loss that tarnishes it. And there are plenty of chances for a so-called "bad loss" on the Big East schedule. As of right now — and one needs this qualifier because the NET rankings move so often — there are five games that are Quad 3 or 4. They include both meetings with Marquette, which had a NET of 175 on Thursday. The Red Storm might have a shot at a seeding better than a No. 6, but a loss in these games could be a killer.
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.
