{"id":87851,"date":"2025-06-09T23:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T23:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/87851\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T23:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T23:57:10","slug":"st-johns-transfer-portal-class-named-best-in-college-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/87851\/","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s transfer-portal class named best in college basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hype around St. John\u2019s<\/a> continues to grow.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s built the best transfer-portal class in college basketball this offseason, according to a ranking<\/a> published Monday by ESPN\u2019s Jeff Borzello.<\/p>\n

With touted transfers<\/a> including Ian Jackson, Bryce Hopkins and Joson Sanon signed on to play for coach Rick Pitino this fall, St. John\u2019s edged out Kentucky, Michigan, Louisville and Florida in ESPN\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

This comes after the recruiting website 247 Sports gave the Red Storm\u2019s transfer class the highest grade of any school<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s about seven of them that we\u2019re ecstatic about,\u201d Pitino said last week at Yankee Stadium of his incoming transfers. \u201cSeven or eight of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new players are expected to provide a scoring punch for a team that shot just 30.1% on 3-pointers last season.<\/p>\n

Jackson, a former five-star prospect from the Bronx<\/a>, averaged 11.9 points per game and shot 39.5% on 3-pointers as a freshman at North Carolina last season.<\/p>\n

The wings Sanon, who transferred from Arizona State<\/a>, and Oziyah Sellers, who comes from Stanford<\/a>, are both accomplished shooters, too.<\/p>\n

Hopkins, a senior forward, averaged at least 15.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in each of the last three seasons at Providence, though the last two were both compromised by knee injuries.<\/p>\n

And junior forward Dillon Mitchell \u2014 formerly of Texas and Cincinnati \u2014 arrives with a reputation as one of college basketball\u2019s better defenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re extremely athletic,\u201d Pitino said of his revamped roster. \u201cWe improved our shooting, which needed to be addressed. I think we\u2019ll be a very good 3-point shooting team this year, and we\u2019ve just got to match the defense we played last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That infusion of talent will need to replace leading scorer RJ Luis Jr., who entered the NBA Draft<\/a>, as well as outgoing seniors Kadary Richmond, Deivon Smith and Aaron Scott.<\/p>\n

But St. John\u2019s is bringing back senior power forward Zuby Ejiofor, who last season was an All-Big East First Team selection and the conference\u2019s Most Improved Player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis talent may not be the talent of my 1996 [Kentucky] team, but I think it\u2019s as close to some of the other teams,\u201d Pitino said, referring to his Wildcats team that won an NCAA championship.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest uncertainty that St. John\u2019s faces is the lack of a true point guard, but Pitino believes Jackson can handle the position after playing shooting guard at UNC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ian can be a great playmaker. I really do. I think he was in high school,\u201d Pitino said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has [Tyrese] Haliburton a little bit in him. I think he\u2019s that type of size. He could be a Haliburton. He knows how to get in the lane and make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s went 31-5 last season and won its first Big East regular-season championship since 1985 and its first conference-tournament title since 2000. The second-seeded Johnnies were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, however, as their shooting deficiencies loomed large in a loss to Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Pitino, 72, said he doesn\u2019t expect St. John\u2019s to have as sterling of a record next season after he scheduled what he called \u201cthe toughest and best schedule\u201d in school history.<\/p>\n

The Red Storm\u2019s non-conference slate includes games against Alabama and Ole Miss at Madison Square Garden; as well as neutral-site bouts with Kentucky, Iowa State and Baylor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to find out early on where we are, because sometimes it\u2019s fool\u2019s gold,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cYou play some weaker opponents and you beat them, and you think you\u2019re much better than you really are. I want to find out exactly where we are when we play early in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hype around St. John\u2019s continues to grow. St. John\u2019s built the best transfer-portal class in college basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,6903,217,130,1771,231,772,1544,1284,4783,2051],"class_list":{"0":"post-87851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bryce-hopkins","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-ian-jackson","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaab","16":"tag-rick-pitino","17":"tag-st-johns","18":"tag-transfer-portal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114656119774039677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}