The St. John’s basketball team began off its 2024 recruiting class with international flair.
Rick Pitino and the St. John’s basketball program have already started on its 2024 recruiting class by landing Greek guard Lefteris Liotopoulos.
The commitment was reported first by the Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
The Greek teenager is a highly touted 6-foot-5 guard who had been receiving plenty of high major interest including Stanford, Virginia, and Princeton.
Rick Pitino spent time coaching in Greece with Panathinaikos B.C. in the Greek Professional League before returning to college basketball in the United States with Iona.
The connections that Pitino made during that time played a major role in landing Liotopoulos.
📍Highlights of Lefteris #Liotopoulos (2006, 1.92, Guard) performances in the first three games of the #RisingStarsU18. Can score efficiently in multiple ways. More to come soon + a detailed thread analysing his profile. pic.twitter.com/zNwd3G2xMt
— Theο Anastasoudis (@Theo_Anast) October 31, 2022
Rick Pitino and the rest of the coaching staff will hope that the addition of Liotopoulos will be the first of a massive 2024 recruiting class in Pitino’s first full recruiting cycle with St. John’s.
The coaching staff is rigorously trying to make up for lost time with five-star prospect and local high school standout Boogie Fland, in particular.
St. John’s basketball schedule rounding into form
Another piece of offseason news for St. John’s came in this week as it was announced that the Red Storm will take on Michigan in the Gavitt Games on November 13 at Madison Square Garden.
The time of the game is still TBD.
St. John’s is 4-1 all-time against Michigan, but the two sides have not faced off since December 3, 2000 when the Johnnies came away with a 97-83 victory led by Anthony Glover’s 27 points.
The lone loss for the Johnnies in the series came back in 1996 and the first meeting between the two programs came back in 1965.
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The official announcement of the Gavitt Games is one part of what is set to be a much-improved schedule for St. John’s compared to previous years.
Along with hosting Michigan, the Red Storm is set to take part in the Charleston Classic featuring LSU, Houston, North Texas, Dayton, Utah, Wake Forest, and Towson.
Other opponents on the schedule are set to include a road trip to West Virginia, Boston College at the Barclays Center, and contests against local squads in Fordham and Hofstra at MSG and UBS Arena, respectively.