St. John’s suffers brutal fall in ESPN rankings after devastating Donnie Freeman injury

The Red Storm fell seven places in Jeff Borzello’s updated Way-Too-Early Top 25 for ESPN, dropping from No. ESPN still has St. John’s comfortably inside the top 25, but the tumble shows how much Freeman was expected to mean to the Red Storm. Arizona matchup will reveal whether St. John’s can adjustESPN selected the Dec. 5 game against Arizona at Madison Square Garden as the most important nonconference test for St. John’s. The Red Storm did not disappear from the rankings after Freeman’s injury, and ESPN still described them as a conference contender. He was supposed to be one of the players who could elevate St. John’s from a strong team into a Final Four threat.