Eight days ago, St. John’s looked ready for the regular season.

On Sunday, it did not.

Rick Pitino didn’t make too much out of the exhibition win over Rutgers, and he wasn’t going to freak out over the ugly loss to Division II Pace University, either.

Neither game counted. It’s all about preparing his team for the real season, which starts Nov. 7 against Stony Brook.

“Did we look like we were ready against Rutgers? It’s an exhibition game,” Pitino said. “If the Knicks are playing the Wizards in an exhibition game, do they look ready if they lose or win? No, we’ll judge this after Stony Brook, not tonight.”

That may be true, but the Johnnies took a major step back against Pace.

They were shaky at both ends of the floor in a dismal 63-59 loss at Carnesecca Arena.

St. John’s shooting was woeful, its defense was inconsistent and its effort wasn’t there for large stretches of the setback.

It was without projected starters Joel Soriano (calf), Jordan Dingle (left hand) and RJ Luis (broken left hand), and only had nine available players due to other injuries.

St. John’s trailed 13-5 out of the gate and never led in the wire-to-wire defeat.

It shot a jarring 25.8 percent from the field as a team, was out-rebounded by 11 and never really made a run at Pace after trailing by 15 early in the second half.

The Johnnies missed 34 of 40 shots after halftime and were outscored in the paint, 36-10.

“It wasn’t our injuries that lost the game, it was Pace’s play,” Pitino said. “I’m really happy they won. I’m glad we didn’t come back against them. They deserved this victory and we did not. A much smaller team dominated us on the backboard, and that can’t be.

“If I asked for anything for a Christmas present, it was this loss because Stony Brook just beat Manhattan by 50 points and they’ll come in and take us to the woodshed if we rebound like that. … We learned a lot about what we need to work on tonight. That’s what exhibition games are for.”

Senior forward Chris Ledlum struggled in particular, missing 14 of his 16 shots.

Senior Nahiem Alleyne led St. John’s in scoring with 22 points and freshman Brady Dunlap added 10.

Zuby Ejiofor, starting in place of Soriano, went 3-for-11 from the free-throw line, one of the many offensive lowlights for the Red Storm.

Pitino felt his team played with ordinary effort, compared to “extraordinary” effort by Pace.

Forward Bryan Powell, a graduate student from Middletown, N.Y., led Pace with 22 points and 10 rebounds and junior forward Jamaal Waters recorded a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.

St. John’s last lost an exhibition game in 2015, at the start of the Chris Mullin era, to St. Thomas Aquinas. That team was coached by Tobin Anderson, Pitino’s replacement at Iona College.

Pace reached the Division II NCAA Tournament each of the last two years.

Pitino, however, insisted he wasn’t concerned.

His team was shorthanded and just didn’t play well.

He expects to have Soriano and reserve guard Cruz Davis back at practice Monday, which will help since the Johnnies had been practicing with nine players over the last week.

“We obviously played much better against Rutgers,” Pitino said. “Here’s the thing about college basketball: You always see teams with lesser names beat teams with bigger names, and if you don’t learn that lesson [that you need to bring intensity against everyone], then anybody can beat you. We know now Stony Brook can come in and beat us. So now we know how much better we have to get.”

Nursing a shoulder injury, Dingle remained out on Sunday. The high-scoring guard didn’t play in either exhibition and Pitino is unsure of when he will be back. Doctors have told Dingle the injury isn’t serious, but he still isn’t practicing. … Sophomore wing Sadiku Ibine Ayo has a high ankle sprain and is going to miss some time, Pitino said. … Luis is expecting to get his splint off in a week and could return for the Charleston Classic, which begins on Nov. 16 against North Texas. He broke his left hand nearly a month ago.