For the first time this season, St. John’s is unranked.
The Red Storm fell out of the AP Top 25 two days after Saturday’s 78-66 loss to Kentucky dropped them to 7-4.
St. John’s opened the season ranked No. 5 but has failed to live up to the lofty expectations thus far.
The Johnnies are 0-3 against ranked opponents and 2-4 against power-conference teams.
“We are a decent basketball team. Nothing more than decent,” head coach Rick Pitino said after losing to Kentucky at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. “We’ve got to take decent to good, and that means you’ve got to play two great halves defensively.”
St. John’s was No. 22 in last week’s poll. It received 23 voting points in Monday’s poll, putting it behind Kentucky, Seton Hall and Auburn among unranked teams.
The Red Storm blew a second-half lead in all four of their losses.
On Saturday, St. John’s took an eight-point advantage with 16:07 remaining. But the Red Storm went nearly nine minutes before they made another field goal — a stretch in which St. John’s missed seven shots, committed six turnovers and surrendered a 14-0 run to the Wildcats.
“It’s important to take one game at a time and take things one day at a time,” senior forward Zuby Ejiofor said. “We don’t have a lot of opportunities, so we’ve got to stay focused and keep working.”
St. John’s went 31-5 last season and won the Big East’s regular-season and conference tournament championships. Although Ejiofor was the only returning starter, St. John’s assembled a transfer class that many touted as the best in the country.
Pitino scheduled a brutal non-conference schedule with the intention of determining his roster’s weaknesses early on.
But with losses to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn and Kentucky, the Johnnies went 0-4 in their four hardest non-conference games. Their best wins are over Baylor in Las Vegas and Ole Miss at Madison Square Garden.
No. 4 UConn (12-1) is now the only Big East ranked within the top 25. The Huskies’ lone loss came to undefeated Arizona, which topped the AP poll for a fifth week in a row on Monday.
St. John’s is set to conclude its non-conference schedule on Tuesday night against Harvard at Carnesecca Arena. It resumes Big East play on Dec. 31 at Georgetown.
“Every person on the team has to look themselves in the mirror,” Ejiofor said, “and realize that in order to have a successful season, you have to be willing to make changes in yourself personally.”
