Drissa Traore commits to St. John’s basketball as first recruit of 2021 class

The St. John’s basketball program received its first commitment of the Class of 2021 today from Drissa Traore.

The moment St. John’s basketball fans have been waiting for has finally arrived.

The Red Storm has its first commit in the Class of 2021 after Harlem native Drissa Traore announced on his Twitter page that he will be heading to Queens for his collegiate career.

Mike Anderson and his coaching staff offered the Long Island Lutheran product back in September of 2019 and just conducted a Zoom meeting with the prospect this past Wednesday which appears to have sealed the deal on his recruitment.

The 6-foot-7 forward is rated as a three-star recruit and is ranked as the No. 50 power forward and No. 7 player in New York, according to 247 Sports.

Traore spoke about his decision with Zach Braziller of the New York Post mentioning how he loves the culture and the family atmosphere surrounding the program and that he wants to start a trend and try to recruit other local players that are very interested in the program.

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The last point especially is encouraging to hear from Traore and shows the leadership potential that he has by trying to entice other local prospects to join him in Queens as it is a critical goal for the program to be strong locally, challenge, and hopefully get the higher level recruits here in New York.

Traore is teammates on the PSA Cardinals with St. John’s targets Franck Kepnang (Class of 2021) and Kyle Cuffe Jr. (Class of 2022).

The commitment of Traore boosts the Red Storm’s frontcourt options in the 2021-22 season as he would potentially join Josh Roberts, Isiah Moore, Julian Champagnie, Vince Cole, and Marcellus Earlington.

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Despite the disappointing news of missing out on four-star recruit Jordan Riley last week, Mike Anderson and the rest of the coaching staff have bounced back nicely as the Red Storm get a commitment on the board after missing out on several options this summer.

It is good for the Johnnies to finally get the monkey off their backs and get started in the 2021 recruiting class as they have seen many of its Big East rivals filling up their 2021 classes, but they must not rest on their laurels and continue to scout options to build on Drissa Traore’s commitment.