St. John’s basketball: Rick Pitino lauds additions made in transfer portal

St. John’s basketball coach Rick Pitino is thrilled with his additions in the transfer portal. 

Adding 11 scholarships players is not as foreign of a concept in the new age of the transfer portal in college basketball but the St. John’s basketball team and head coach Rick Pitino quickly got its roster filled out.

Less than two months after being introduced as the head coach of the Johnnies, Pitino made his final addition in Kansas transfer forward Zuby Ejiofor on Monday afternoon.

It marked the 10th player that the Johnnies added from the transfer portal in addition to landing one high school prospect and retaining Joel Soriano and Drissa Traore from last year’s team.

“Just an incredible job by our staff in recruiting 11 quality athletes with great potential,” Rick Pitino said on Twitter.

ALSO READ: St. John’s completes roster with Kansas transfer Zuby Ejiofor

“A culture is formed with selfless people that have a strong thirst for winning. So excited to work with these 13 talented men.”

St. John’s basketball newcomers with early expectations

Rick Pitino is brining with him four transfers from Iona, his previous head coaching job, to Queens in Daniss Jenkins, Cruz Davis, Quinn Slazinski, and Sadiku Ibine Ayo while adding Nahiem Alleyne, who just won the National Championship with UConn.

Virginia Military Institute’s Sean Conway was one of the first players to join the Red Storm while wings Glenn Taylor Jr. (Oregon State) and RJ Luis (UMass) were much needed additions in trying to fill out the roster with players who could score in a variety of ways.

ALSO READ: St. John’s lands Ivy League Player of the Year Jordan Dingle

Perhaps the most impactful addition from the portal will be Penn transfer Jordan Dingle who was the second leading scorer in the NCAA last season at 23.4 points per game.

There will only be one freshmen on Pitino’s roster, 4-star wing Brady Dunlap, after he reopened his recruitment following the dismissal of head coach Mike Brey from Notre Dame.

St. John’s now has NCAA Tournament aspirations behind its Hall of Fame coach in his first year at the school and the the expectations will only grow bigger in the media capital of the world if the team finds early success.