Surprising news in Xaivian Lee recruitment could be trouble for St. John's basketball

The St. John’s basketball team was hoping for a magical weekend as it hosts a handful of high-profile transfer portal prospects, headlined by Princeton point guard Xaivian Lee.

All indications were that Lee was having a great visit with the Red Storm, posting pictures from a photo shoot in which he wore a St. John’s jersey and was surrounded by the Big East regular season and tournament trophies as well as the uniforms of legends of the program.

However, shortly after his visit concluded news broke that he would be visiting Kansas, shifting all the momentum in his recruitment. Xaivian Lee is also planning to visit Florida in the coming weeks.

His scheduled visit to Kansas was first reported on On3.

St. John’s and the Gators were considered as the favorites for Lee, despite others being in contention, but now many are expecting his decision to come down to the National Champions or the Jayhawks which sends the Johnnies looking in another direction to fill the shoes of Kadary Richmond at the point guard position, who has exhausted all of his eligibility.

Lee averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game this season for Princeton while shooting 43.9-percent from the field and 36.6-percent from 3-point range.

North Carolina guard Ian Jackson, a priority target for the Johnnies, is visiting this weekend and could fill a need at the position while other options could become available in the transfer portal with less than two weeks remaining for players to enter.

Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers is also taking a visit to Queens this weekend although the 40-percent 3-point shooter is much more of a shooting guard than a point guard.

Rick Pitino mentioned on Wednesday at Citi Field as his team was honored by the New York Mets that he expects rising junior Simeon Wilcher to play more off-the-ball rather than point guard next season.