St. John’s is in it to Win it

Daniel Griffin

Opinion Editor

With another March rapidly ending, it’s still worth mentioning the tradition which certainly has made its mark on the month of March, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Otherwise and most commonly known as, “March Madness,” this tournament begins in the early spring every year and runs into the first week of April. It has fans across the nation glued to their seats. Creating personalized brackets, conducting advanced research, and spending weeks on end in front of a screen, the frenzy of March Madness surely will not disappoint for the 2025 season.

 With so many competitive teams and also a tremendous amount of upsets through this turbulent college basketball season, the crown is up for any team’s grasp. Being one of the most unpredictable and diverse brackets in recent memory, the question on the table is who will win the tournament? Will it be a blue blood, like Duke, dominating the playing field for another consecutive year, or a scrappy yet notable team in the modern period, like Tennessee or Houston, no-one truly knows. However, based on my research and understanding of the chaotic scene of college basketball, I believe there is one team who has the potential to make a one of a kind run out of the Big East.

With the St. John’s Red Storm, a team who has shown out throughout the entire 2024-25 season and continues to make headlines even within the past few days, I have faith in this fiery squad as my pick for the 2025 March Madness champion. Led by a controversial, yet historically successful head coach, Rick Patino, St. John’s men’s basketball has brought back some of its previous glory of the early 1980s. A time where Big East basketball was big, bad, and brutal, St. John’s’ behind hall of famer and gritty player Chris Mullin was at the top of the ranks. Running the table and achieving many feats in his four years at this Catholic University, these years of exponential success are similar to what we are witnessing today.

Remaining closely tied with their culture and their one of a kind pride coming out of Queens, New York, under Patino, the Red Storm have been unbelievable, shocking much of the college basketball fanbase.

Upsetting powerhouses, like Virginia, Creighton, and most influentially #20 ranked Marquette, this season, unlike anything seen in the past 40 years, is one which has the prospect to last well into late March.

Dominating in conference play with a .900 win percentage and an 18-2 record on top of an overall record of 27-4, St. John’s men’s basketball, resting as the 5 seed nationally, is entering the Big East tournament boasting a form of confidence unrecognizable in the program’s recent years.

Claiming the #1 seed in their conference tournament and riding off of numerous high profile wins, the fact of the matter is that the Red Storm deserve to be so confident because of the strength they reflect in their gameplay. Artistically crafting a line-up of rebounding and point scoring across the board, Patino has created a squad who looks inward in times of pressure and rarely becomes rattled. Led by Guard RJ Luis Jr. averaging 18.1 points and Zuby Ejiofor with 14.1 a night, this St. John’s squad is firing on all cylinders, and it will be up to other squads like Auburn, Duke, or Florida to stop them.

Having an unusually strong season and a lot of promise from a strong core which Patino has hand-built over the past couple of years, St. John’s is a passionate and fiery squad, truly representing the Queens neighborhood.

Influenced by their head coach Rick Patino, a longtime basketball coach who has been involved in the Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Louisville, Memphis, and now St. John’s programs, these institutions in his over 40 years of his basketball experience are an immense positive for the ambitious squad.

Led by Guard RJ Luis Jr. averaging 18.1 points and Zuby Ejiofor with 14.1 a night, this St. John’s squad is firing on all cylinders, and it will be up to other squads like Auburn, Duke, or Florida to stop them.

A desire, will, and want, I can’t wait to see what the Red Storm brings to the NCAA tournament in the next couple of weeks, and will surely be watching close as this historic squad makes a run for the ‘chip unlike any other in this new generation of men’s college basketball.