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Pomeroy predicts St. John's last in the Big East

Notes the possible lack of offensive punch from the brand-new Johnnies.

By Norman Rose
Ron Mvouika defends, back when he was a Missouri State Bear
Ron Mvouika defends, back when he was a Missouri State Bear
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

Well, according to pretty much all preseason predictions, St. John's pulls up the rear. And Ken Pomeroy's well-respected predictions are no exception.

What you read below is the table taken from KenPom.com, with projected conference wins, losses, projected winning percentage against an average Division 1 team (listed here as "Pyth"), the ranking of that winning percentage, and adjusted (for schedule strength) offensive and defensive efficiencies - with ranks among Division I teams.

Num Team Proj W Proj L Pyth Pom Rank AdjO AdjO Rank AdjD AdjD Rank
1 Villanova 14 4 0.9229 5 112.3 6 90.5 6
2 Georgetown 11 7 0.8403 27 108.5 26 93.9 41
3 Butler 11 7 0.8361 29 107.7 33 93.4 34
4 Xavier 11 7 0.8344 31 108.2 28 94.0 44
5 Marquette 9 9 0.7630 54 104.5 68 94.4 48
6 Providence 9 9 0.7454 62 105.9 50 96.4 79
7 Seton Hall 8 10 0.6959 83 104.4 71 97.1 94
8 Creighton 7 11 0.6794 86 105.3 57 98.6 115
9 DePaul 6 12 0.5953 113 103.8 89 100.3 175
10 St. John's 5 13 0.5107 150 99.4 184 99.0 136

Predictions are not reality, especially for a team with so many new pieces. But it's interesting that Pomeroy expects the team, with so many freshmen and new transfers, will be an outlier in terms of offensive efficiency.

And if you were looking closely, maybe you could see that at Red Storm Tip-Off. It wasn't a serious game, it was fun, but the team's defense looked to be ahead of the offense. And as scoring goes, besides Durand Johnson's three point shot, Darien Williams' inside-out ability at the junior college level and Marcus LoVett's ability to create shots, it was hard to see where the scoring was going to come from.

And LoVett's ability to create shots (assuming he is eligible - no confirmation on that yet) doesn't mean he will MAKE those shots. Remember, he is a 6-foot tall guard moving up to a major basketball conference.

But as LoVett said at St. John's Media Day, "as long as we're in the gym and we're working hard together as a team that will say more than some rankings."

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