St. John’s basketball rivalry with Seton Hall rises to new level

The rivalry between the St. John’s basketball team and Seton Hall has been turned up a notch. 

Rivals will always be rivals and the tension between the St. John’s basketball program and the Seton Hall Pirates has been multiplied ten fold.

Former St. John’s commit Jaquan Sanders announced his commitment to Kevin Willard and Seton Hall over the weekend.

Sanders originally was a Red Storm pledge after choosing St. John’s over Seton Hall in his first commitment.

The Our Savior Lutheran (NY) standout was committed to Mike Anderson and the Johnnies for nearly a month before announcing his intentions to decommit.

It was reported that potential distractions and bad influences that could follow Sanders from his hometown of Far Rockaway, New York to Queens factored into his family wanting him to rethink his decision.

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Sanders did and now will reside in South Orange, New Jersey for his college career.

After backing off his St. John’s commitment, Jaquan Sanders announced a new Top-5 of Seton Hall, Temple, St. Bonaventure, Hofstra, and Butler.

Sanders is listed as a 6-foot-3 shooting guard and ranked as a three-star prospect by 247Sports.

The 247Sports Composite Rankings list the newest Pirate as the No. 154 player in the Class of 2022, No. 19 shooting guard in his class, and the No. 1 player in the state of New York.

Seton Hall now has the No. 40 recruiting class in the county and No. 4 in the Big East, according to the recruiting data base.

St. John’s basketball could be done with Class of 2022

Mike Anderson still has AJ Storr and Kolby King under wraps in the senior class but that is all the Johnnies could be looking at with the Class of 2022.

Rivals recruiting expert Rob Cassidy answered the question on what St. John’s could be looking at in the rest of the recruiting cycle, “I’d expect Anderson and company to be extremely choosy on the recruiting trail when it comes to 2022 recruits.”

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“The word ‘done’ is relative in the new age of recruiting. ‘Done’ simply depends on who comes knocking,” Cassidy continued.

St. John’s currently has the No. 65 class in the country and No. 9 in the Big East after the decommitment from Jaquan Sanders.

There was never any love lost between St. John’s and Seton Hall but the Pirates prying away a priority from the Johnnies will bring another level to the Big East rivalry.