St. John’s Red Storm
2021-2022 Overall Rank: #68
Conference Rank: #7 Big East
Coach Mike Anderson is still building his style of team at St. John’s, but the first two seasons have gone relatively well. The Red Storm saw a big boost in their Big East win total last year, finishing 10-9 in conference play which was good enough for fourth. The grind of the Big East may see St. John’s move down the standings a little bit, but this should be a group that can pull off some surprises and potentially play their way into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
2020-21 Record: 16-11, 10-9
2020-21 Postseason: None
Coach: Mike Anderson
Coach Record: 33-26 at St. John’s, 403-227 overall
Key Departed Players:
Greg Williams Jr, Guard, 9.5 ppg
Rasheem Dunn, Guard, 9.4 ppg
Isaih Moore, Forward, 9.2 ppg
Vince Cole, Guard/Forward, 8.7 ppg
Marcellus Earlington, Guard/Forward, 6.8 ppg
Josh Roberts, Forward, 2.6 ppg
Arnaldo Toro, Forward, 1.2 ppg
Key Returning Players:
Julian Champagnie, Junior, Guard/Forward, 19.8 ppg
Posh Alexander, Sophomore, Guard, 10.9 ppg
Dylan Addae-Wusu, Sophomore, Guard, 6.5 ppg
Artemios Gavalas, Sophomore, Guard, 0.0 ppg
Jalen Rosemond, Senior, Forward, dnp last season
Key New Players:
Tareq Coburn, Senior, Guard, Transfer from Hofstra
Montez Mathis, Senior, Guard, Transfer from Rutgers
Esahia Nyiwe, Junior, Forward, JC Transfer
Rafael Pinzon, Freshman, Guard
Stef Smith, Senior, Guard, Transfer from Vermont
Joel Soriano, Junior, Center, Transfer from Fordham
O’Mar Stanley, Freshman, Forward
Drissa Traore, Freshman, Forward
Aaron Wheeler, Junior, Forward, Transfer from Purdue
Projection:
Most teams return a ton of players from last year. That is not the case here so it may take a little time for all the new pieces to come together. Coach Anderson has just three players back who played any real minutes. Julian Champagnie is certainly a good one to have back though. The 6-8 junior averaged 19.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks. Champagnie’s ability to attack the basket and consistently hit three-pointer’s makes him extremely difficult to defend. Posh Alexander is also back after ranking second on the team with 10.9 points per game last season. The sophomore point guard also dished out a team high 4.3 assists and tallied 2.6 steals. Dylan Addae-Wusu added 6.5 points and 2.4 assists. Five very experienced Division I transfers will help fill the many holes on the roster. Tareq Coburn averaged 15.1 points at Hofstra last year and will add a very dangerous shooter to the roster. Montez Mathis was a three-year starter at Rutgers and tallied 8.3 points in 2020-2021. Stef Smith comes from Vermont where he led the Catamounts to four straight America East titles. The frontcourt adds Joel Soriano from Fordham and Aaron Wheeler from Purdue. Soriano had a breakout sophomore season and averaged 10.4 points and 9.2 rebounds. Wheeler never put up huge numbers with the Boilermakers, but he continually showed promise and could now start to deliver with his new surroundings. Coach Anderson has a lot of talent here, but it remains to be seen if this group is ready to play together effectively. That may lead to some early struggles, but by March St. John’s could be a very, very dangerous team.
Projected Postseason Tournament: CBI/CIT
By the Numbers:
Scoring Offense: 79.0 (30th in nation, 1st in conference)
Scoring Defense: 76.7 (300, 11)
Field-Goal Percentage: 44.7 (131, 4)
Field-Goal Defense: 46.3 (285, 10)
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 7.4 (159, 5)
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: 34.5 (134, 4)
Free-Throw Percentage: 74.9 (50, 3)
Rebound Margin: -1.9 (247, 11)
Assists Per Game: 16.3 (17, 2)
Turnovers Per Game: 12.6 (130, 7)
