The St. John’s basketball team is at the forefront of the transfer portal and things aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
It’s a big weekend for the Johnnies with scheduled visits from Princeton guard Xaivian Lee, North Carolina guard Ian Jackson, and Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers and the program is trying to position itself for the potential of landing all three guys.
Its pursuit of multiple guards would likely send current players at the position into the transfer portal, but that hasn’t been the case yet with Simeon Wilcher, who remains committed to returning for his junior season.
“I’m just a big guy on loyalty,” he said on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field as the team was honored prior to the New York Mets game for its Big East championships.
“It wasn’t really too much of a process. I knew what I wanted to do already.”
There was also a desire from Rick Pitino wanting Wilcher back after the departure of Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith from the backcourt due to eligibility restraints and keeping continuity of the roster with the additional exits of RJ Luis and Brady Dunlap.
“I wouldn’t be here if he didn’t,” Wilcher responded when asked if he felt wanted by Pitino.
“I’m not really worried about anything. I know we are going to bring in some guys because we need to because we want to win some games.”
The former 4-star recruit out of New Jersey started 25 games for the Johnnies this season as his minutes exploded to 25.4 per game after averaging just 9.1 during his freshman season.
The scoring numbers rose as well for Wilcher, but the biggest area of concern was his shooting struggles, only making 29.7-percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Pitino has mentioned that he wants him to focus on getting a quicker release this offseason.
“Sim’s a competitor, he’s a veteran, he knows the system,” Pitino explained. “It’s going to be much more difficult for the people coming in than it will be for Sim.”
Wilcher said he views himself more as a point guard because that’s what he has done throughout his career but acknowledges that he has to continue to adapt to the shooting guard position.
“A combo guard,” Pitino detailed when asked about Wilcher’s position. “That doesn’t mean he can’t play some [point guard].”
Despite the interest in transfer guards, Pitino reiterated that he “definitely” sees Simeon Wilcher having a prominent role next season and stressed the importance of having multiple guards on the roster.
“I mean, we can’t play with one guard. You got to have four guards in your backcourt…If any of our players transferred, there’s going to be five guards at any program in America.”
St. John’s has already landed commitments from Arizona State’s Joson Sanon and Providence’s Bryce Hopkins in the portal but despite Sanon’s rookie year with the Sun Devils, the Red Storm head coach sees him as a wing instead of a guard.
It sets the stage for a very important weekend and one that could set the tone on how the 2025-26 Johnnies will look next fall.