RJ Luis Jr. was the best player on the floor. Zuby Ejiofor posted a double-double. The backcourt duo of Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith combined for 29 points on 52 percent shooting. Aaron Scott pitched in 14 points and 3 steals. As a whole, the team won the rebound battle by 17 and dished out 20 assists.
But perhaps the most encouraging sign for St. John’s coming out of its impressive 85-71 victory over New Mexico on Sunday? Head coach Rick Pitino doesn’t think the team, which now sits at 4-0, has untapped even close to its full potential.
“I think we’re a good, solid basketball team right now, but I think there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Pitino tells Hoops HQ. “We’re nowhere near the individual potential or team potential.”
That is terrific news because things are about to get very real for the Red Storm. It has been a fun, heartwarming start to the season — with the Johnnies coasting to three easy victories and then besting a Lobos team that is coached by Richard Pitino, Rick’s son, at Madison Square Garden — but a challenging trip to paradise lies ahead. St. John’s will play No. 13 Baylor in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship tournament on Thursday, with the winner facing either No. 11 Tennessee or Virginia in the title game on Friday.
Pitino says his team just needs more time playing together to realize its potential. “I think that’s one thing that most teams are going to find in this [current college basketball] climate — that it’s just going to take time to get cohesive because of all the new personnel in the portal,” he explains. Unfortunately, St. John’s only has a few days before one of its most difficult stretches of the season, beginning with Baylor and wrapping with 4-0 Georgia on Sunday.
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The Hall of Fame coach, now 72 and in his second season at St. John’s, hasn’t slowed one bitSt. John’s has five returners, four transfers and four freshmen on its roster. The group is still building chemistry, and the newcomers are getting adjusted to Pitino’s fast-paced system. For example, senior guard Kadary Richmind, a high-profile transfer from Seton Hall who was named to the All-Big East First Team a season ago, has never played at the tempo that Pitino demands. “Kadari’s main thing right now, he’s got to learn to play fast,” Pitino says. “He’s never played fast before, and he’s just got to learn that from a conditioning standpoint, from a tempo standpoint.” Richmond has averaged 8.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists in the early season.
According to Pitino, the team gets along well and does not have one clear leader, a role that Daniss Jenkins assumed last season. The 2024-25 squad leads “by committee,” with multiple voices in the locker room.
After its win against New Mexico, one of the strongest teams in the Mountain West, St. John’s remained at No. 22 in the latest AP poll. New Mexico was the first real test for the Red Storm and they passed it decisively. All five starters scored in double figures, led by junior wing RJ Luis Jr., who almost notched his first career triple-double (21 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists). Luis battled shin splints last year, appearing in just 23 games and seeing his numbers decline across the board. This season, he has been the Johnnies’ most reliable offensive option, averaging 17.7 points on 49 percent shooting. He also has been asked to defend the opposing team’s best perimeter player each game.
“I’ve said it all along, he’s a first round draft choice,” Pitino says of Luis, adding that he believes the 6-foot-7 guard will be an even better pro than he is a college player because the lanes are less congested in the NBA.
St. John’s pulled down 22 offensive rebounds against the Lobos, the most in a single game for the program since February 22, 2009, and had 25 second-chance points. That is St. John’s in a nutshell — the team is tough, physical and aggressive on both ends of the court. It is loaded with scrappy, versatile defenders and has good positional size. Through four games, the Red Storm rank 18th in defensive rating, per KenPom. They have held opponents to just 62.3 points per game and 37 percent shooting from the field. “Defensively. I think we’re ready to play,” says Pitino. “We’re creating a lot of turnovers, we’re getting a lot of steals, we’re in the passing lanes. I like what I see.”
On offense, St. John’s does its damage inside the arc. This is not a three-point shooting team and Pitino isn’t trying to make it one. So far, the Red Storm are averaging just 21.8 three-point attempts per game, which ranks 241st in Division I, but its offensive rating is in the top 25, per KenPom. The Johnnies have a few capable outside shooters but they are most effective attacking the rim. Dynamic guards such as Luis, Richmond and Utah transfer Deivon Smith find ways to get to the paint, and junior forward Zuby Ejiofor bullies other big men down low. Both Richmond and Smith, two creative playmakers, are averaging five-plus assists.
“We’re not running things by design to get a three-point shot,” Pitino explains. “I’m telling them, ‘Look, get the basketball moving. If you have an open shot, take it, but don’t try to force the three-point shot.’ Outside of maybe Brady Dunlap and Aaron Scott, they’re not three-point shooters. They can make it if open, but I don’t want them hunting for threes and then breaking away from what they’re good at.” The coach estimates that his squad will likely average between five and eight made three-pointers per game throughout the season.
Stylistically, that makes the Red Storm very different from their opponent on Thursday. Baylor has several sharpshooters and more offensive firepower overall. The team is ranked sixth in the country in offensive rating (per KenPom), despite being routed on opening night by No. 3 Gonzaga, 101-63.
Guards Jayden Nunn, Jeremy Roach, Robert Wright III and Jalen Celestine are all averaging double-digit points and shooting at least 38 percent from distance, with Nunn leading the way at 48 percent. Fifth-year forward Norchard Omier, a transfer from Miami, has been a double-double machine and dominant interior presence for his entire career. And freshman guard V.J. Edgecombe, a projected top 10 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, is starting to come into his own, dropping 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks in a 104-41 win over Tarleton State on Sunday.
“They got guys that can shoot the basketball. They got a tremendous athlete in V.J. Edgecombe. They’ve got one of the best, strongest low post players in college basketball who’s done it at three different schools now [in Norchad Omier],” Pitino says. “So they got all the answers. They’re a great offensive basketball team, and they can hurt you in so many ways.”
The key for the Johnnies is limiting the damage that Baylor does from behind the arc. That will be the major emphasis in practice and film this week, as well as preventing run-outs by taking care of the basketball and not forcing bad shots. “I think this tournament will be a tough one because you’re really jumping up to teams that could be Final Four teams,” Pitino says.
Roughly a month ago, Pitino told Hoops HQ that what excited him the most about the impending season was “the unknown.” He didn’t know exactly how good his team was or how it would perform when the games mattered. “The unknown always gets the nerves and the stomach going, but the anticipation into the season is very high for me because I think we have a really good basketball team,” he said.
Four games in, that much has been confirmed. Now the question is, how good can this team become? When it returns from the Bahamas after the weekend, we will know a whole lot more.
