The legal battle continues in Queens as the St. John’s basketball program has taken the next step in trying to ensure one of its prized international additions, Babacar Sane, is eligible for the upcoming season.
Sane was granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday morning after he was previously deemed ineligible by the NCAA following his experience playing in the G-League.
The Senegal native played 37 total games in the G-League, including 26 with the G-League Ignite from 2022-24 and 11 games with the Salt Lake City Stars and Iowa Wolves in 2024-25. Sane also signed an Exhibit 10 contract in the NBA but was waived before he reported to training camp.
“I recruit internationally, and I have for a long time. Recruiting a young man who has been paid to play somewhere else is ordinary now, and until this case I had no reason to think the association treated it as a problem,” St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said in his affidavit.
“Ruben Prey plays for us. He was paid to play for Joventut Badalona in the Spanish ACB before he came to Queens. He practices with us every day, and nobody at the NCAA has ever suggested to me that there is anything wrong with that.”
A hearing is set for October 1 for Babacar Sane, which will be a pivotal step in securing his eligibility for the season. The date also marks the annual Big East Media Day where every men's basketball head coach and select players from the conference will gather in New York City to answer questions from the press.
Sane joins a decorated international transfer class for St. John’s that included British point guard Quinn Ellis, who is going through his own eligibility process against the NCAA after spending time in the Euro League.
“In the spring of 2026, I started hearing about Babacar, a forward playing in Germany,” Pitino continued. “I sent my assistant coach to watch him in person, and we were and are extremely impressed with his athleticism. He has a great future in basketball if he is allowed to showcase his talent at this high level of NCAA Division I.”
“Babacar is not a finished basketball player. That is the whole reason to come to college. He came here to get better, and player development is what I have done for fifty years. He also wants a college education. College is important to him and to his family, and he will get a world class education here at St. John’s.”
The Red Storm are looking to win its third straight Big East regular season and tournament championship this year under Rick Pitino as well as a longer stay in the NCAA Tournament after being upended by top-overall seed Duke in the Sweet 16, the program’s first second weekend appearance since 2000.
“I have spent time with Babacar since he got to campus, and I recruited him for who he is as much as for how he plays,” Pitino continued. “His grandmother raised him in Bignona, in the south of Senegal, in a house with fifteen to twenty of his relatives in it. School there is not free. His mother paid his fees by cooking in other people’s houses. In 2019 he was picked out of a tryout and taken into NBA Academy Africa, where he started with English classes, moved into American coursework, and earned a high school diploma. Nobody in his family has been to college in this country. He would be the first.”
According to the affidavit, St. John’s agreed to a NIL deal worth “more than $1 million” for this season with Babacar Sane.
“He has also told me that he sends money home, and that what he earns is the only support of that kind his family has. I have coached a lot of young men who carry a family. For he has also told me that he sends money home, and that what he earns is the only support of that kind his family has. I have coached a lot of young men who carry a family.”
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