St. John’s is the team to beat in the Big East.
That’s according to the rest of the conference, as Rick Pitino’s Red Storm came in at No. 1 in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll, among a flurry of additional accolades announced Tuesday.
St. John’s received seven of the possible 10 first-place votes to finish a spot ahead of UConn.
“I really don’t pay too much attention to prognosticators,” Pitino said Tuesday during the Big East’s media day at Madison Square Garden.
“Because especially in this day and age, I don’t even know the names of the players from the other teams, because they all changed so much. We have 10 new players. So I think it’s a guess. Everyone’s guessing.”
The coaches also picked St. John’s senior forward/center Zuby Ejiofor as the conference’s preseason player of the year.
Graduate forward Bryce Hopkins made the Big East’s preseason first team, while sophomore guard Ian Jackson was named to the second team and sophomore wing Joson Sanon and senior forward Dillon Mitchell landed on the third team.
“Grateful for the recognition, really, and now I just use it as something to play towards,” said Ejiofor, who finished last season on the All-Big East first team and as the conference’s Most Improved Player.
“Modestly speaking, I’m just trying to be the best teammate, best leader, I can possibly be. This is my last year in college, so I’m trying to end it on the right note.”
Tuesday’s honors continue the momentum around a St. John’s program that last season won its first outright Big East regular-season and conference tournament titles in decades.
This is the first time since 1991-92 that St. John’s earned the top spot in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll.
The vote was notable considering St. John’s is No. 5 in the AP’s national preseason poll — a spot behind No. 4 UConn.
“There’s nothing, probably, more useless than preseason polls and picks,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said Tuesday, pointing out that his 2022-23 team that won the NCAA Tournament began that season unranked.
“Preseason polls are pretty meaningless. I don’t even do mine. I think I told [assistant coach] Luke [Murray] to go do that s–t.”
St. John’s went 31-5 last season, including 18-2 in conference play, and was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament before being upset in the second round.
Adding to this season’s hype is a transfer class that ESPN and 247Sports touted as the best in the country.
The Johnnies are set to face No. 7 Michigan in an exhibition on Saturday night at the Garden, then open the regular season against Quinnipiac on Nov. 3 at Carnesecca Arena.
“If you’re gonna be the preseason No. 1 [in the Big East], you’ve got to act like it and you’ve got to prepare like it,” Ejiofor said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
