St. John’s basketball: Rafael Pinzon commits to Bryant

St. John’s basketball transfer portal entry Rafael Pinzon has found a new home. 

It did not take very long for St. John’s basketball transfer Rafael Pinzon to find a new home.

The 6-foot-6 wing announced his commitment to Bryant on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m ready to go win a championship,” the Puerto Rico native captioned on Instagram.

Bryant, after winning the Northeast Conference and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament a season ago, joined the America East Conference this season and did not have the same success, falling in the quarterfinals of the league tournament and finishing in 6th place in the regular season standings.

Pinzon struggled to stay on the court because of injuries and illness during his two seasons with the Red Storm after a length bout with COVID-19 during his freshman season that limited him to just 13 games.

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An ankle injury and another COVID-19 diagnosis, although not nearly as serious, limited the former Long Island Lutheran (NY) standout to only 19 games as a sophomore but he did not play in the final six games of the season as he served an indefinite suspension for not adhering to team polices.

Rafael Pinzon averaged 6.1 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game this season while shooting 42.1-percent from the floor and 35.6-percent from 3-point range.

St. John’s basketball rumored connection with Bryant

Bryant head coach Jared Grasso was thought to be a potential coaching candidate for St. John’s earlier in the season, before there was mutual interest between the program and Rick Pitino, should the school move on from Mike Anderson.

The Bulldog program has been a destination for transfers coming from major programs such as Memphis’ Earl Timberlake, Rutgers’ Peter Kiss, and Doug Edert, last year’s NCAA Tournament darling from St. Peter’s.

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Rafael Pinzon was the first St. John’s player to enter the transfer portal and he is the first to find a new home as the program saw O’Mar Stanley, Kolby King, AJ Storr, Dylan Addae-Wusu, Posh Alexander, and Andre Curbelo enter the transfer portal within the last 10 days.

St. John’s has yet to land a commitment from a player in the transfer portal as the roster has become very barren, as expected, in the first two weeks under Rick Pitino.