St. John’s basketball: Daniss Jenkins officially cleared to join Johnnies

The St. John’s basketball team will have the services of Daniss Jenkins this season. 

Entering the fall semester, the St. John’s basketball team is finally complete.

Transfer guard Daniss Jenkins has been academically cleared to participate with the Red Storm, according to multiple reports, after he had to graduate from Iona this summer in order to be immediately eligible with the Johnnies.

Jenkins had already used his one-time free transfer when he began his career at Pacific before stopping at Odessa College, a junior college program, prior to landing at Iona with head coach Rick Pitino.

It would have been unlikely the 6-foot-4 guard would have been able to play for St. John’s this season without graduating as the NCAA has not been willing to give out many waivers to two-time transfers.

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Jenkins averaged 15.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per game with the Gaels last season as he shot 48.1-percent from the floor and 36.1-percent from 3-point range.

“He has something that nobody else on the team has, he makes everybody else better,” Pitino told ZagsBlog on Wednesday night at the U.S. Open.

“Daniss, we needed him more than any player on the team,” the Hall of Famer continued.

St. John’s basketball ready for big expectations entering season

Daniss Jenkins will likely serve as the starting point guard for St. John’s when the program begins its season on November 7 against Stony Brook as the Red Storm have a daunting schedule with Michigan, the Charleston Classic, and a trip to West Virginia all within the first month of the season.

Rick Pitino brought in 12 new players to the program in his first offseason in Queens and only retained Joel Soriano and Drissa Traore from last year’s roster.

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Many project the Red Storm to be a team that can contend at the top of the Big East Conference make the NCAA Tournament, which would be its first since 2018.

St. John’s has not won a NCAA Tournament game since 2000.