By March, it will be 25 long years since St. John’s last won an NCAA Tournament game.
Ten long years since it reached the main draw of the Dance.
Six long years since it was even part of March Madness.
Will this, at long last, be the season this beaten-down fan base has been waiting for? Can the Johnnies finally break through? Will results match the hype for a change?
On paper, they have the personnel and the coach to do it. Rick Pitino brought back his top four players with remaining eligibility: juniors Zuby Ejiofor and RJ Luis, and sophomores Simeon Wilcher and Brady Dunlap.
He added the nation’s fourth-ranked transfer class to that core — bringing in Kadary Richmond of Seton Hall, Deivon Smith of Utah, Aaron Scott of North Texas and Vince Iwuchukwu of USC.
The group narrowly missed being included in the Associated Press preseason Top 25. It was picked to finish fifth in a very deep Big East by the league’s coaches. There are immense expectations for a program that has too frequently fizzled over the past 2 ¹/₂ decades.
“Last year was Rick Pitino’s first year. The roster was put together very late after he got the job and the team won 20 games, made the Big East Tournament semifinals for the first time in 24 years and just missed the NCAA Tournament,” CBS Sports analyst Jon Rothstein said in a phone interview. “The team that he’s about to coach in his second season is significantly more talented than his first.
“You’re adding Kadary Richmond, who is a Big East Player of the Year candidate, and also is somebody that I think is an All-American candidate. You’re adding Deivon Smith, who has yet to do it in a winning situation — the team he was on last year didn’t make the NCAA Tournament — but I think he’s obviously a defensive upgrade from what they had that allows them to play the way [Pitino] wants to play. And RJ Luis being healthy is something that can be a game changer for them.
“If I was looking at two teams in the Big East that would make the biggest jumps compared to last year, it’s St. John’s and Xavier, and I wouldn’t hesitate with that at all. I think they will be the two most improved teams in the Big East.”
Pitino’s first season in Queens ended in demoralizing fashion, with an NCAA Tournament snub. It found itself too late, despite reaching the Big East Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2000. Nobody played back-to-back national champion Connecticut tougher in the postseason than the Red Storm.
“It was a sad day,” the 6-foot-9 Ejiofor said, recalling last March’s Selection Sunday. “There were a lot of sad faces, especially for the older guys that was essentially their last year of playing college basketball. We wanted to do it for them. We all thought we were going to make it and see our name called. It didn’t happen.
“Our job this year is to not let that happen again. … Our job is to make it to the tournament, and not only make it, but go far as well.”
At this time last year, St. John’s was full of uncertainty.
Pitino was entering his first season at a new school. The only returning contributor was Joel Soriano. There were 12 new players.
The Hall of Fame coach has far fewer questions about his team compared to last season at this time. He has one of the best players in the country in the 6-foot-6 Richmond, a now-healthy Luis, athleticism and versatility that his first team lacked. He doesn’t know yet what the ceiling for these Johnnies can be, seeing room for improvement in the newcomers.
“I like this team,” Pitino said. “I think they play hard, they have good chemistry, I think they’re good defensively. … We’re deep, we’re very athletic, we’ve had two great exhibition games against very good competition [in Rutgers and Towson].”
He added: “In March of last year, we were a really good basketball team. I hope we can start much better, but finish like that team.”
There remain doubts, understandable because of how long it has been since St. John’s has been nationally relevant.
Depth, 3-point shooting and how well the new pieces fit in with the returning ones are question marks. Skeptics want to see proof in the results.
But the potential is clearly there. St. John’s fans can, and should, dare to dream.
“[We’re] right up there with the best,” Richmond told The Post’s Steve Serby, when asked where this team stacks up with the rest of the Big East. “I’ll take us against anybody.”
“We’re here,” he added. “That’s my message [to the fans].”
