He was the biggest name on the St. John’s basketball transfer portal board.
He got to have a workout inside Madison Square Garden, which is extremely rare for a recruit, and had one of the biggest NIL offers the Johnnies have ever dished out, but, in the end, none of it mattered as Massamba Diop announced his commitment to Gonzaga over the Red Storm.
The 7-foot-1 center truly only considered the two programs, taking visits to each over the last two weeks.
In his freshman season at Arizona State, he averaged 13.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. He was one of the names that was most closely associated with St. John’s as soon as the transfer portal opened but the obstacles were too much to overcome.
Diop’s agency is very tied into the Gonzaga basketball program, representing several of its former players and that relationship is what swung him to Spokane over New York City despite the Red Storm’s lucrative offer.
Rick Pitino told St. John’s fans in a video following the season that the team was going to prioritize getting a 7-footer in the offseason to replace superstar Zuby Ejiofor but has not been able to land an impact player yet after seeing Moustapha Thiam, a Cincinnati transfer, commit to Michigan.
Thaim visited St. John’s but the Red Storm preferred to wait and get Diop on a visit, and it burnt them. It’s other targets, Flory Bidunga and Najai Hines, never made it to campus after committing to Louisville and UConn, respectively, after their initial visits.
Now, Rick Pitino will have to work to get a center with very limited options available to him with the transfer portal closed and nearly all of the top players committed to a new program.
St. John’s has been very active in the international prospect pool this spring, landing British point guard Quinn Ellis, Montenegro forward Djordije Jovanovic, and Serbian 7-footer Lazar Stojkovic.
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