Rick Pitino knows he has arguably the most talented roster in his tenure with the St. John’s basketball program and the flashes were very apparent from opening tipoff in its exhibition victory on Wednesday night against Drexel.
Babacar Sane, an international player that’s in the midst of an eligibility battle with the NCAA due to signing an Exhibit 10 contract earlier in his career, was a major standout.
The 6-foot-7 forward was too athletically gifted for the Dragons to keep up with and showed why the Johnnies have fought so hard for him to be allowed on the court this season.
He went for a team-high 17 points and eight rebounds – 12 of which came in the first half – and was a catalyst in a 24-3 first half run for St. John’s yet the team doesn’t know how long he will be on the court.
The steal ➡️ the score 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pJ3KHknhK5
— St. John's Men’s Basketball (@StJohnsBBall) October 14, 2026
Sane has his final hearing scheduled for November 9 when a New York judge will rule on his status. Until then, he is able to play in games behind a temporary restraining order.
“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Sane explained after the game on his uncertainty. “I love it here since the day I got here.”
“I’m not really into focusing about what’s going on in court,” he added. “I’m focusing on getting better every day and how I can help this team really go far, but I know I have to go back to court next month, but I’m praying every night that everything’s going to turn out to be good for me.”
For St. John’s to reach its peak this season it feels like having Babacar Sane on the floor is a must.
Rick Pitino recalled a conversation with Sane’s agent, whom he’s known since his time coaching at Kentucky.
“He said to me, ‘If you can get him to understand and learn the game of basketball the right way, you will have a great player.’ And I agree with that.”
“But it’s going to take a lot of work to get him to understand a good shot versus a bad shot, how to protect the basketball, not turn it over. And he’s just got to learn it,” Pitino added. “He’s such a great guy and such a great leader that I know he’ll get it. It’s just going to take some time.”
Sane’s agent gave him Rick Pitino’s book to read, Success Is a Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life, which he does with all his clients and he’s on the fifth chapter. It’s teaching him about worth ethic, something that Pitino explained he necessary for the Senegalese native to learn in order to reach his potential.
“He has so much to learn. It’s like coaching a freshman…except he’s a man-child.”
Babacar Sane, voted a team captain, has at least four more games to play in a St. John’s uniform – two exhibitions and two regular season – before he learns his fate and the Red Storm are praying equally as hard that he remains on the roster.
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