St. John's Mike Anderson believes his team can outperform Big East coaches' prediction

Mike Anderson believes St. John’s will be among the top teams in the Big East.

Anderson’s colleagues, evidently, view the 2022-23 Red Storm through a different prism.

St. John’s was picked to finish sixth in the 11-team conference by rival coaches in the Big East preseason poll.

The coaches selected Creighton to win the conference. Following the Bluejays, who received eight first-place votes, was Xavier (two), Villanova (one), Connecticut, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Butler, Marquette, Georgetown and DePaul.

“Predictions are what they are,” Anderson said during Big East Media Day on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. “We want to be one of the top teams, not only in this league but in the country. That is our goal.”

St. John’s is returning eight players from a team that went 17-15 overall and 8-11 in conference play last season, including junior guard Posh Alexander, who was named to the All-Big East First Team. The Red Storm also added transfers David Jones and former LI Lutheran High School star Andre Curbelo, and brought in freshmen AJ Storr, Kolby King and Mohamed Keita.

“I may have eight starters,” Anderson said. “It’s that type of team.”

Quality depth is always important, but it is especially vital in a conference that sent six teams (Villanova, Providence, Connecticut, Seton Hall, Creighton and Marquette) to the NCAA Tournament last spring. Two of those teams — Villanova and Seton Hall — will have new coaches. Kyle Neptune replaces the retired Jay Wright at Villanova, while Shaheen Holloway turned Saint Peter’s run to the Elite Eight into the head coaching gig at his alma mater. Seton Hall hired Holloway after Kevin Willard accepted the Maryland job.

“I want to do well for this school,” Holloway said. “I want to win. I want to take it to new heights. I want to do what P.J. Carlesimo did. What he did for a small school at the time is why we’re here today.”

 Big East commissioner Val Ackerman gave a state-of-the-conference address, stressing  that they are willing to partner with other conferences on a blueprint to keep college basketball financially strong.    

“Football in this country is a force. Basketball is actually the connective tissue that binds all schools,” Ackerman said. “And so we plan to work with our colleagues across Division I in the coming months and beyond to make sure that basketball, both men’s and women’s, has its own growth and management strategies apart from football, and that the sport continues to thrive irregardless of whatever governance membership and legal changes come our way.”

Ackerman also used her time to implore Congress to implement national legislation regarding athletes’ NIL rights.

“While the Big East fully supports the opportunities that have become available to our athletes to exploit their name, image and likeness — and a number of our basketball players and other athletes have in fact done just that — we believe the system would benefit from a national standard that preempts the patchwork of state laws now in effect, and clarifies the application of the antitrust and labor laws to college sports programs,” Ackerman said.