Fab Five: St. John's Comes In At No. 5 In AP Preseason Top 25

 

St. John's won the Big East Tournament last March. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm, the defending Big East Champions, open the season at No. 5 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25.

It is the highest preseason national ranking in program history, with the prior occurrence before the 1984-85 season, when it came in at No. 7, and that team made St. John's second appearance in the Final Four.

That also was the last time they won the Big East Conference outright before the 2024-25 season. 

It was the first achievement of many for last year's Red Storm squad, which then ran through the conference tournament, winning all three games by at least 16 points.

St. John's reached as high as No. 5 in the AP Top 25 on March 17, just after the Big East Tournament and the team earned a No. 2 seed in the West regional of the NCAA Tournament.

They beat Omaha in the opening round, notching St. John's first tournament win in 25 years before they bowed out against Arkansas.

There are four players from last year's St. John's team returning, headed by Zuby Ejiofor, who was a First Team All-Big East selection and the reigning Big East Most Improved Player.

St. John's also has a seven-member transfer class that was ranked No. 1 in Division I, according to ESPN and 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings.

Ian Jackson and Dillon Mitchell, who both were top-10 prospects went they left high school, will be the first pair of McDonald's All-Americans to play for the Red Storm since Erick Barkley and Ron Artest, who played together on the 1998-99 team.

Jackson is a Bronx native who played last season for the North Carolina Tar Heels, where the point guard earned a spot on the All-ACC Freshman Team. Last season, he averaged 11.9 points per game, while shooting 45.6 percent overall, and 39.5 percent on three-pointers. He ranked second in the nation among freshman in transition points, behind only Tre Johnson of Texas. Jackson was ranked No. 7 overall in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports.

Mitchell is a 6-foot-8 forward who played two seasons for Texas before spending one season with Cincinnati. He has started 106 out of a possible 107 games in his college career. Last season with Cincinnati, he averaged 9.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. He hot 61.4 percent from the field, partly because he ranked tenth in the country with 66 dunks. He scored in double-digits 22 times, and he led his time, while ranking seventh in the Big Ten, with six double-doubles. 

Mitchell's time in Texas was quite impressive, starting with a freshman year in a 2022-23 season in which they went 29-9 and made the Elite Eight for the first time in 15 years. Mitchell started all 38 games that season, a Texas freshman record, and he led the team in field goal percentage, as he shot 63.6 percent, as he averaged 4.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per games. As a sophomore, he stepped it up to 9.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, with the latter number second-best in the Big 12. He also had eight double-doubles, which ranked third in the Big 12, plus 17 double-digit scoring outings.

Oziyah Sellers is a Stanford transfer who averaged 13.7 points per game, while shooting 45.1 percent overall, including 40.1% from three-point range, in his one year at Stanford. He also shot 89.7 percent from the free throw line, which came in at fifth-best in Cardinal history.

The 6-foot-5 guard started in all 35 Stanford games this past season, playing 33.1 minutes per game. 

Sellers ranked second on the team and top-25 in the ACC in scoring, while notching double-digit points 28 times, including six games in which he scored at least 20 points.