For weeks, St. John’s has been the hunted.

The team the rest of the Big East has looked to take down.

The highest-ranked school in the conference sitting atop the league.

This week, that feeling will only be heightened, after the sixth-ranked Johnnies swept the league’s major awards on Wednesday and entered the Big East Tournament as the favorite.

They are the top seed, having equaled last year’s Connecticut team for the most wins (18) ever in conference play.

There are massive expectations following the program’s best regular season in 25 years, a belief that a tournament title will land St. John’s a No. 2 seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament.

“I think pressure is not knowing what your next meal is going to be, or where you’re laying your head at night,” said RJ Luis Jr., who became the first Johnnie to be named the Big East Player of the Year since Walter Berry in 1986. “Pressure [in basketball] is great. It obviously comes with success. If we didn’t want this type of pressure, we would’ve never won the regular-season championship, we never would’ve been ranked No. 6 in the nation.

“I think pressure is a great thing. The main thing is staying humble during these times and not getting big-headed.”

Rick Pitino, named the Big East Coach of the Year for the first time in 12 seasons coaching in the conference, knows how to navigate this tournament. He won it three times as the Louisville coach.

“We better win it or I’m going to jump in the East River,” he joked to NBC’s Bruce Beck.

St. John’s (27-4), it should be noted, has handled heightened expectations, extra attention and hype well. The Johnnies have lost just once since New Year’s Eve. They appeared on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” last week, and followed that up with their best win of the year, at No. 25 Marquette.

“We just have to stick to our identity and stay level-headed. We still have a lot more to prove,” forward Zuby Ejiofor said. “Now the start of the Big East Tournament is tomorrow for us, and we’re trying to win that, too, and see how far we can go in the NCAA Tournament.”

The one time when it looked like the pressure was getting to the Johnnies was the week leading up to clinching the outright Big East regular-season title on March 1.

They played tight in narrow wins over Big East bottom-feeders Butler, who they play in Thursday’s quarterfinal round, and Seton Hall. But after a bye week, they rebounded at Marquette, with what Pitino called his favorite win of this magical season.

But now a new season — the postseason — is here.

St. John’s hasn’t won the Big East Tournament since 2000. The Red Storm will have a bull’s-eye on their back the next three days. As impressive as their 18-2 league mark was, 10 of those wins came by single figures. St. John’s rallied from 14 points down to win on four occasions.

The road isn’t easy. Thursday’s opponent, ninth-seeded Butler, played the Red Storm tough in a pair of losses. The No. 4 Xavier/No. 5 winner would follow. St. John’s went 6-0 against those teams.

“I think it’s great having a target on your back. The team knows it — they have to bring it,” Pitino said. “Boxers get knocked out because they’re overconfident, they put their hands down, they get knocked out by lesser boxers.

“You’ve got to keep your guard up and be ready, and this team never takes anybody lightly at all. They’re very much in-tuned that they can get beaten by anyone.”

True to form, Luis was asked if he had a prediction for the tournament. During Connecticut star Liam McNeeley’s speech after winning Freshman of the Year, he said: “I’ll see you all on Saturday [for the championship game].”

Luis’ response: “That’s good for him, but we’re focused on Thursday.”