St. John's narrowly picked to win Big East as expectations continue to grow

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00:00Who's ready for the year of the Red Storm?

00:02Last week, St. John's was ranked top five team in the country heading into the season,

00:06and this week, they were picked number one in the preseason coaches' poll for the Big East.

00:11That's their first time since 1991 they've been picked to be the Kings of the North.

00:17Well, the Big East in this case, just a Game of Thrones reference.

00:21So they got seven first-place votes out of 11.

00:24UConn got the other four.

00:26Creighton was picked third, Providence fourth,

00:28and Marquette finished up at fifth.

00:31The Johnnies being the top-ranked team in the conference was pretty much expected

00:35because they're coming off a monster of a season.

00:38They won both the Big East regular season and postseason,

00:42and they got their first NCAA tournament win in 25 years.

00:46They're led by star forward Zuby Ojaford,

00:49who is considered one of the country's top-way or two-way forwards in the country.

00:55He was also voted preseason Big East Player of the Year.

00:59He's the only returning starter, but that shouldn't matter because Rick Pitino hit the transfer portal

01:05like a lot of us hit Costco.

01:07According to 247 Sports, he added the top-ranked transfer class in the country.

01:12Star transfer Bryce Hopkins was also picked to the first team.

01:16Ian Jackson, a North Carolina transfer, was named to the second team.

01:21And Red Storm duo, Joson Sanon and Dylan Mitchell, were picked to the third team.

01:27The hype around the program is so real that last week's top-five AP preseason poll ranking,

01:33well, that was the school's highest preseason ranking in program history.

01:36You guys going to catch the Johnnies in action?

01:39Well, check this out.

01:40They take on seventh-ranked Michigan in an exhibition game on Saturday,

01:44and that one's at the Garden.

01:45And the regular season opener is set for November 3rd, and that's against Quinnipiac.