St. John’s basketball fills major hole with Fordham transfer Joel Soriano

St. John’s basketball filled a major hole with Fordham transfer Joel Soriano. 

A true center and paint force is coming to Queens as the St. John’s basketball program landed a commitment from Fordham transfer Joel Soriano.

Soriano stands at 6-foot-11, 250 pounds and played his final years of high school basketball at Archbishop Stepinac (NY) after beginning his career at St. Thomas Moore (CT).

https://twitter.com/joelsoriano22/status/1382751153734189057?s=20

Over the course of his two seasons at Fordham, Soriano played in 44 games, starting 26, and averaged 6.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks per game while shooting 49.6-percent from the floor.

However, the Yonkers, New York native blossomed in a shortened sophomore campaign, posting eight double-doubles in 14 games played.

Soriano averaged 10.4 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in his final season with the Rams.

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St. John’s was very quick to jump in the recruitment of Joel Soriano upon his entry into the transfer portal while battling with Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, and Western Kentucky for his services.

All four schools held Zoom meetings with Soriano over the course of the last week.

St. John’s has been hit hard by the transfer portal this offseason with players such as Isaih Moore, Vince Cole, Josh Roberts, John McGriff, Marcellus Earlington, Rasheem Dunn, and Greg Williams Jr. exploring other options.

St. John’s basketball continues to reload roster

As of Thursday morning, St. John’s only had two players from last season’s team scheduled to return in Posh Alexander and Dylan Addae-Wusu.

Sophomore standout Julian Champagnie is testing the 2021 NBA Draft waters but there is still heavy optimism of him returning to Queens for his junior season.

ALSO READ: St. John’s working quickly for Fordham transfer Joel Soriano

Despite its departures, head coach Mike Anderson has landed Vermont’s Stef Smith and Purdue’s Aaron Wheeler to go along with the addition of Joel Soriano.

The Johnnies are also adding a freshmen class comprised of Long Island Lutheran teammates Drissa Traore and Rafael Pinzon as well as power forward O’mar Stanley.

St. John’s still has plenty of room to work with having three open scholarships remaining for the 2021-22 season.