None of the departures from the St. John’s basketball roster this offseason have been surprising but that changed on Friday when Simeon Wilcher decided to enter the transfer portal.
Wilcher was previously thought to be returning to the Red Storm, especially after he and Rick Pitino spoke about his pending junior season last week at Citi Field when the team was honored by the New York Mets.
“I’m just a big guy on loyalty,” Wilcher said. At the time, he mentioned he felt wanted by the coaching staff to return after his exit meeting.
The New Jersey native was in the first recruiting high school recruiting class that Pitino brought to Queens and now leaves just weeks after it was announced Brady Dunlap, his classmate and roommate, would also enter the transfer portal.
All four American high school recruits that the Hall of Famer landed have now entered the transfer portal with the departures of Jaiden Glover and Khaman Maker on Tuesday.
Simeon Wilcher started 25 games this season for the Red Storm and saw his minutes increase from 9.1 during his freshman season to 25.4 as a sophomore. However, he always struggled with consistency despite showing flashes of brilliance.
The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 8.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.4 turnovers last season on 40.7-percent shooting from the field but only 29.7-percent (33-for-111) from 3-point range.
Wilcher said last week that he views himself as a point guard, a position that he has played for his entire basketball life, but Pitino was adamant that he is an off-ball guard and was not shy about stating the need to add a point guard to the Red Storm roster.
The Johnnies have not landed a prototypical point guard like Kadary Richmond in the transfer portal this offseason but have landed Arizona State wing Joson Sanon and Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers while being heavily linked to North Carolina guard Ian Jackson in the transfer portal.
St. John’s has remained involved with 4-star high school guard Acaden Lewis, who recently decommitted from Kentucky and visited the program.