UConn men’s basketball 2022-23 opponent preview: St. John’s

St. John's is the 2022-23 UConn men's basketball opponent. Head coach Mike Anderson is in his fourth season as head coach.

2021-22 in review. St. John's beat St Peter's and St Paul's, but lost to teams with lower rankings. The team had four postponements due to COVID-19 and won just two games in two winning streaks. They finished tied for seventh and earned the 7-seed in the Big East Tournament. In the quarterfinals, they played Villanova. Julian Champagnie scored 23 points in his final game before declaring for the NBA Draft.

St. John's lost Champagnie and Aaron Wheeler. Several role players graduated. Posh Alexander, Joel Soriano, David Jones and Montez Mathis return for the junior season. Andre Curbelo, AJ Storr, Kolby King and Mohamed Keita are new to the program as freshmen.  St John’s is looking to get back to NCAA Tournament for first time since 2019.

St. John's will not challenge for the Big East title this season, but they should improve from last year and hang around for an NCAA Tournament bid. The program's non-conference schedule is solid, with several top-100 or top 100 dates, including Temple and either Richmond or Syracuse in the Empire Classic, a trip to Iowa State in Big E-Big 12 Battle, and a neutral site game against Florida State. If the Red Storm can win more of those than they lose and finish in top half of the league, they will have a great chance to return to the NCAA Dance.