St. John's moves up to No. 12 in AP national rankings
St. John's Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. shoots for a three-point basket against the Providence Friars at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s will enter its biggest regular-season game in more than a quarter-century as the 12th-ranked team in the nation.
In the AP Top 25 poll released Monday afternoon, the Red Storm rose from No. 15 after a week in which they won at Georgetown and defeated Providence at the Garden to move into sole possession of first place in the Big East.
St. John’s (19-3, 10-1) hasn’t been ranked this high since it was No. 9 in the final poll of the 1999-2000 season, also the season when it last won an NCAA Tournament game.
The Red Storm will meet No. 11 Marquette (18-4, 9-2) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Garden, the first time they’ve been part of a game between Top 15 teams since they were ranked No. 9 and lost to No. 1 Connecticut on Jan. 30, 1999.
They go in having won eight straight and 14 of 15.
“I’m excited,” RJ Luis Jr. said. “I think last year was the first time I played against a ranked team in my college career, and now going into [one] as a ranked team, it’s pretty surreal. It’s a really cool experience, especially to do it at the Garden. I can’t wait to kind of take care of business on Tuesday.”
St. John’s has even more on tap this week: an 8 p.m. clash with No. 19 Connecticut on Friday at Gampel Pavilion. The two-time defending national champion Huskies moved up six spots in this week’s poll after taking down then-No. 9 Marquette in Milwaukee.
“It’s a big, big, big week for St John’s,” Luis said.
Red Storm coach Rick Pitino said guard Deivon Smith, who returned from a right shoulder injury for Saturday’s 68-66 win over the Friars but shot 1-for-10, has felt no further discomfort and will come off the bench against the Golden Eagles.
“I don’t think he’s 100% . . . in basketball shape,” Pitino said. “He’s missed 10 days, he’s only had three practices, but he looks good [and] ready to go.”
These next two games begin a rigorous final stretch to the regular season. The Red Storm’s last nine games include two against Marquette, two against UConn and one at MSG against Creighton, the three teams immediately behind them in the standings.
Pitino said St. John’s will do nothing different for this challenging week than he would if the schedule brought games against teams at the bottom of the standings.
“Matter of fact, we probably pay more attention to those games than we do these games. Not in terms of scouting, not in terms of being meticulous, but in terms of [motivation],” Pitino said. “You don’t have to motivate for Marquette or Connecticut because there’s so much hype behind the games.”
The Red Storm’s three losses have been by a total of five points, but this is only the second time they’ve faced a ranked opponent. The first was the double-overtime loss to then-No. 13 Baylor in the Bahamas on a buzzer-beater.
Tuesday’s game could serve as a measuring stick for St. John’s.
“Every game we have something to prove,” Simeon Wilcher said. “And not to everybody out there but to ourselves that we could do it. What we do, it kind of travels . . . We’ve had nights where [we] can’t hit the side of a barn and we were able to come out with the [win]. That’s not really something that’s pretty easy to do. So I trust in the guys and . . . feel like we’re going to be 1,000% ready for everything this week.”
“We all came in from one mindset, and that is to play hard, to win games, to win big and obviously go dancing in March,” Luis said. “We’re just a very gritty, hard-working team. The whole season. We’ve just been showing a lot of fight.”
Notes & quotes: Billionaire entrepreneur Mike Repole, a St. John’s alumnus, and the Flat Top Fund collective that raises NIL money for Red Storm athletes launched a major capital campaign Monday. Repole has pledged to match donors dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million. “Mike is, for us, a godsend for our program because he gives and asks for nothing back,” Pitino said. “We’re very appreciative of him, obviously. Without him, I don’t know where to hell we would be.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
