Where St. John’s men’s basketball stands in the metrics after non-conference play

It’s no secret that St. John’s had a disappointing start they’d like to put behind them. Entering the season as the fifth-ranked team in the country, they went 0-3 against ranked opponents and spiraled out of the AP top 25 poll. Despite missed opportunities to strengthen their resume, the Johnnies are still in a good position in advanced metrics, particularly those used by the tournament committee, such as NET.

Here is where St. John’s stands in the numbers before heading straight into the Big East season.

KenPom

• Ranked 20th in Net Rating (NetRtg) with +22.78 (second-best in Big East)
  • At this point last season, St. John’s had a rating of +22.78. They finished with a rating of +26.06 (14th-best).
• 38th-best offense in the country (119.6 in adjusted offensive rating)
• 18th-best defense in the country (96.8 in adjusted defensive rating)
• 53rd-fastest team in the country (71.6 in adjusted tempo)

NET

• Ranked 30th in the country (third-best in Big East)
• 1-4 record in Quad 1 games
• 1-0 record in Quad 2 games
• 6-0 record in Quad 3/4 games

BartTorvik

• Ranked 20th in the country (second-best in Big East)
• 34th-best offense in the country (119.8 in adjusted offensive rating)
• 16th-best defense in the country (96.0 in adjusted defensive rating)
• 61st-fastest team in the country (71.6 in adjusted tempo)
• 61st-best in the country with wins above bubble (+0.05)
• 6-seed in T-Ranketology (98.2% chance of making tournament)

Haslametrics

• Ranked 28th in the country in all-play percentage with 92.6% (second-best in Big East)
• 65th-best offense in the country (117.77 in adjusted offensive rating)
• 23rd-best defense in the country (95.06 in adjusted defensive rating)
• 25th-best schedule strength in the country (0.620)
• 67th-best record quality in the country (0.250)

EvanMiya

• Ranked 23rd in the country in relative rating (20.7)
• 43rd-best offense in the country (9.5 in O-rate)
• 14th-best defense in the country (11.3 in D-rate)
• 41st-fastest team in the country (72.2 in True Tempo)

Although ranking within the top-40 in each of the most reputable metrics is a strong indicator that St. John’s is a tournament-caliber team, it doesn’t guarantee that they will earn a bid in March. The 2023-24 Red Storm finished with a KenPom ranking of 21st and still missed the NCAA Tournament while not being considered a First Four Out or Next Four Out team.

If the Johnnies want to avoid a repeat of their exclusion two years ago, they need to pick up big wins against top Big East teams UConn and Villanova while avoiding devastating losses to the likes of DePaul and Marquette (yes, it’s absurd that Golden Eagles have fallen all the way to 180th in NET, but it’s true).