Massive St. John's basketball targets hit transfer portal within hours of each other

The transfer portal did its thing on Thursday afternoon and the St. John's basketball program is right in the middle of it.

After landing two commitments in as many days, USC's Vince Iwuchukwu and North Texas' Aaron Scott, more targets for the Johnnies became available in Miami forward Norchad Omier and Seton Hall guard Kadary Richmond.

Both players went into the transfer portal within hours of each other, setting social media ablaze.

Omier is a bit different than Richmond, however, as he entered the portal with a "do not contact" tag, according to ESPN. The tag means that schools cannot contact the 6-foot-7 forward, instead he has to initiate the communication first.

The Nicaragua native has been a superstar at each of his previous two stops, beginning his career at Arkansas State before transferring to Miami. He was a two-time First Team All-Sun Belt selection before being the Sun Belt Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore. He was the conference's Freshman of the Year also.

At Miami, he was a two-time All-ACC selection, averaging 17.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game this season. He's averaged a double-double in all four of his college seasons.

Norchad Omier has entered the 2024 NBA Draft but seems likely he will return to college for his final year of eligibility.

Kadary Richmond is a player that St. John's is very familiar with, playing three seasons at Seton Hall after transferring from Syracuse. It had been rumored since the Pirates missed the NCAA Tournament that he would be entering the portal, which was delayed by the team winning the NIT.

The New York native is coming off the best season of his career, averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 2.2 steals per game. It resulted in him being named to the First Team All-Big East.

Richmond would immediately slide into the starting point guard role for the Johnnies, which has been vacated by the graduation of Daniss Jenkins.

St. John's has three open scholarships remaining and adding Norchad Omier and Kadary Richmond would be the two major splashes that Rick Pitino has been looking for this offseason.

There has been no update yet on the status of Chris Ledlum and Jordan Dingle's waivers that would grant them an extra year of eligibility.