2019-2020 Big East Conference Basketball Power Rankings 9.0
By Dan Stokes
8. St. John’s Red Storm (4-11, 15-14)
Despite their poor conference record, Mike Anderson is building something special. The Johnnies have signature wins over Arizona and West Virginia and most recently added No. 10 Creighton to the exclusive list on Sunday.
The Red Storm hadn’t knocked off a Top-10 opponent at Carnasecca Arena since 1975. 45 years ago, the Johnnies did it against No. 7 Tennessee. What’s more ironic. the Vols leading scorer was New York Knicks legend, Bernard King and right behind him was former Knicks player and General Manager Ernie Grunfeld.
With six single-digit losses, three of them by three points or less, St. John’s season could look a lot different than it is. They can’t change the past, but it’s a great future indicator of the program.
Anderson has only four seniors on the current roster including Mustapha Heron and Nick Rutherford. St. John’s will have their core returning, with plenty of experience for the 2020-2021 season.
St. John’s just knocks off Creighton. Mike Anderson and the Storm have had their moments this season with wins over Creighton, West Virginia and Arizona. Gonna be interesting to see what Anderson does with this program in next couple years.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 1, 2020
7. Marquette Golden Eagles (8-8, 18-10)
Markus Howard is the greatest scorer in Big East Conference history. There is no disputing it since he leads the conference with 2,700 points for his career. He has a few more games left to add to that total. On this basis and the fact that the senior guard has also taken home five Big East Player of the Week Awards this year, upping his career total to 13 as compared to Seton Hall’s Myles Powell’s four, Howard should claim Big East Player of the Year.
After appearing in the AP Poll in Week 15 at No. 18 and No. 19 in Week 16, the Golden Eagles have fallen out of the rankings and find themselves stumbling into the Big East Tournament losers of four of their last five. Steve Wojciechowski‘s squad can get to 20 wins with games left against bottom dwellers DePaul and St. John’s (although this game will be Senior Day at Madison Square Garden) and get back their confidence.