Rick Pitino’s St. John’s Red Storm has drawn plenty of positive comments after a busy offseason. The Big East program comes off a 31-5 season in which it returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2020.
Pitino’s second season put people on notice, as the Red Storm advanced to the second round of the national tournament, but ultimately lost against John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks.
They have renewed expectations for the 2025-26 season, and their busy offseason has turned a lot of heads. Joseph Shaw of “Busting Brackets” lauded the programs for pulling off a terrific offseason and adding seven players.
Rick Pitino’s team is ready for big things
“The transfer portal is where Rick Pitino went unconscious, bringing in 7 commits, and almost all of them were major contributors to their team last season,” he said. “The players he brought in include Handje Tamba from Milligan College, Dillon Mitchell from Cincinnati, Dylan Darling from Idaho St, Ian Jackson from UNC, Oziyah Sellers from Stanford, Joson Sanon from Arizona State, and Bryce Hopkins from Providence. This is potentially one of the greatest transfer classes we have ever seen.”
Pitino and Co. are ready to compete for the national championship, and many are starting to see them as legit contenders.
College basketball analyst Jon Rothstein shared his latest ROTHSTEIN 45 rankings and included St. John’s in the top three. The veteran placed Purdue at No. 1, followed by the Houston Cougars and the Red Storm. Florida and Michigan complete the top five, while Dan Hurley’s UConn was ranked at No. 6.
After adding multiple players who contributed to their former teams, the Red Storm appear to be in a solid position to compete for everything this year. It won’t be easy, as they aren’t the only team that upgraded in the offseason, but they could make a leap and place themselves among the top teams in college basketball.