St. John’s Basketball Will Find Big East To Be More Competitive

The Big East is going to be a lot tougher this season for the St. John's Red Storm.

Feb 28, 2026; New York, New York, USA; Villanova Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard and St. John's Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

For two straight seasons, the St. John’s Red Storm men’s basketball team has been the cream of the crop in the Big East.

They are the back-to-back regular-season champions and have won the Big East Tournament in consecutive years as well. With another talented roster, the Red Storm are poised to make it a three-peat in both regards.

Alas, their path to winning both the regular season and tournament championships in a third straight season is going to be a challenge. Everyone knows how good the UConn Huskies can be. Led by Dan Hurley, they are predicted by many analysts to be the best team in the conference heading into the season.

However, the Big East is much improved in 2026-27 compared to years past. There are a lot of talented teams and some programs on the rise, something the head coach, Rick Pitino, recently spoke about during a Zoom interview.

Big East looks to be much improved this season

Oct 1, 2026; New York, NY, USA; Georgetown Hoyas head coach Ed Cooley is interviewed at 2026 Big East Media Day at Marriott Marquis. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“Xavier has improved dramatically. Georgetown, Providence have improved dramatically. Creighton will be much better, and they just beat Iowa State at Iowa State in the scrimmage. They'll be much better than the expectations. We all know Marquette is going to have a lot of players returning. We all see that Connecticut, UConn, is one of the premier teams in the nation,” Pitino said to St. John’s Red Storm On SI.

What the St. John’s head coach said does certainly hold merit. Entering the 2026-27 season, UConn and the Red Storm are the only teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25, but the Villanova Wildcats and Marquette Golden Eagles, two teams that Pitino didn’t even mention, received votes.

Over at KenPom, the beginning-of-season rankings have six teams in the top 40. Joining the Huskies, who are ranked 11th and St. John’s, which is ranked No. 23, are the Creighton Bluejays (No. 30), Villanova (No. 32), Marquette (No. 34) and Providence Friars (No. 39).

Every team in the conference is in the top 90 of the KenPom rankings. The DePaul Blue Demons are No. 56, right ahead of the Xavier Musketeers that Pitino mentioned, who are No. 58.

Rick Pitino on the Big East:

“Xavier has improved dramatically. Georgetown, Providence have improved dramatically. Creighton will be much better than they just beat Iowa State at Iowa State in the scrimmage. They'll be much better than the expectations. We all know Marquette is…

— Nick Ziegler (@NickZiegler20) October 23, 2026

The Seton Hall Pirates are No. 64, followed by the Georgetown Hoyas at No. 75 and Butler Bulldogs at No. 88.

There aren’t going to be any cakewalks during the Big East schedule for the Red Storm, who have gone a combined 36-4 over the last two seasons during conference play.

During the 2025-26 campaign, the only ranked opponent St. John’s had during Big East play was UConn. That could certainly change this season, more closely resembling 2024-25, when they played three different ranked programs five total times, including the Big East Tournament.