For St. Johns Men’s Basketball fans, the last 20 years have been nothing short of a disaster, with (0) NCAA tournament wins to show for. This is all while being in the same conference as two of the premier basketball programs in the NCAA, Villanova and UConn. To put it lightly, being an SJU basketball fan has been an absolute nightmare since the 90’s. Even in years where the Johnnies have had hope, they have come up short time and time again.
But things seem to be changing, and now more than ever, there is real hope. Starting with the hire of Rick Pitino in 2023. Rick and the Redmen had a solid first season, coming up just shy of an NCAA tournament bid in a controversial decision to exclude them from the tournament. The team finally hit their stride late in the season winning six of their final seven games, with the last game being a 90-95 loss to the eventual National Champion UConn Huskies in the Big East Tournament.
With all that being said, it seems that Pitino has now got his guy – and the once great program has finally been revitalized. St. John’s was able to land star point guard Kadary Richmond from their Big East rival Seton Hall. His decision to transfer to St. John’s signifies a major win for the program, especially as it aims to break out of a challenging two-decade period marked by sporadic success and frequent coaching changes.
The arrival of Richmond is part of a broader effort by head coach Rick Pitino to transform St. John’s basketball. Alongside Richmond, the team has secured commitments from several other top recruits, including Utah point guard Deivon Smith and North Texas forward Aaron Scott. With the NIL and Transfer portal now in full effect, it looks like the Legendary Rick Pitino has done it once again! Many top experts believe that St. John’s of all schools, landed one of the best class of transfers in the entire country.
Kadary Richmond was the top transfer available in the portal according to many media outlets (for example, 247 Sports Transfer Portal Player Rankings) and should make the Redmen a contender right away. The 6-foot-6 point guard has tremendous court vision and will make the lives of shooters like player Brady Dunlap and Aaron Scott much easier. He is an all-around star with exceptional playmaking ability, the size to rebound over guards, the quickness to blow by big men, and super high-level finishing and defensive abilities. Richmond is the only one of the five Big East First Team players to return from the 2023/24 season – making him a prime candidate to be Big East Preseason player of the year and one of the odds-on favorites to win Big East POY .
St. John’s now has the depth, the star player and the coach to make a deep postseason run. Barring any injuries, the Redmen should make it back to the big dance for the first time since 2019, and hopefully they’ll get that first tournament win since the days of Ron Artest. And even more importantly, St. John’s looks poised to reclaim its place as a powerhouse in college basketball, giving us fans plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future.
I will however close out with this – if there is one thing I have learned since becoming a St. John’s basketball fan, no matter how good things are looking, never get your hopes too high as the Johnnies will let you down time and time again.
