In the span of hours, the St. John’s basketball team lost two freshmen from its roster.
Early on Tuesday afternoon former 4-star recruit Jaiden Glover announced his intentions to transfer which was followed by Khaman Maker entering the portal about five hours later.
Maker, a 7-foot-1 center, is a 3-star recruit from South Sudan and was expected to redshirt this season before being put into a mid-December game against DePaul for the final three minutes of a blowout victory and burning his chances to maintain four years of eligibility.
He did not enter another game during the season.
Maker, who spent most of his high school career playing in the Las Vegas area, marks the fourth player on the Johnnies to enter the portal this season along with Glover, Brady Dunlap, and RJ Luis, although Luis has every intention of remaining in the NBA Draft.
Playing time would have been difficult to come by for Khaman Maker next season had he remained in Queens with the returns of Zuby Ejiofor and Vince Iwuchukwu in addition to adding Providence forward Bryce Hopkins to its roster from the portal.
It leaves only sophomore Simeon Wilcher and international freshman Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos as the high school recruits remaining in the program since Pitino took over two years ago.
Maker held offers from Arizona State, BYU, Missouri, and UNLV – according to 247Sports – during his high school recruitment. It’s unclear at the moment which schools will be pursing him in the transfer portal in the coming weeks.
St. John’s does not have any commitments from high school players entering the 2025-26 season but is putting together an impressive transfer portal class with Hopkins and Arizona State wing Joson Sanon as others will be added soon as the coaching staff continues to host highly touted prospects.