Consider Monday’s national ranking a first step. A start. A beginning to what St. John’s and its fans hope will be a long-awaited breakthrough season.

It doesn’t mean this program will reach the main draw of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. That it will advance in March Madness for the first time in a quarter century. That it is a legitimate Big East contender.

That is all to be determined. A number next to its name after two games — 22 in this case — doesn’t mean this will be the year everyone in Queens has been waiting forever for.

But it matters. It matters for optics. It matters for buzz. It matters for interest. It certainly matters to the school’s long-suffering fans, who have been trapped in the desert without water for years.