St. John's men's basketball starts new season hoping Kadary Richmond, fellow transfers can push Storm into NCAA Tournament
Rick Pitino’s edict from Day 1 was that making NCAA Tournaments is the measure of a program. So, when St. John’s — as good as it became during last season — wasn’t selected for the 68-team field last March, it was a virtual inevitability that the Hall of Fame coach was out to get great players and improve the roster. It was his first full offseason of recruiting for the Storm and they had come on late to finish with 20 wins.
He did that. St. John’s transfer class was rated among the nation’s five best. But if there was one surprise among the four incoming veterans, it was the arrival of Kadary Richmond from Seton Hall. It wasn’t just that the 6-6 guard was an All-Big East first team selection after averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.1 assists. No, the Storm had also snatched the top player from a conference rival.
The surprises keep on coming regarding Richmond. Pitino announced at Tuesday’s on-campus media day that the Storm players had elected the soft-spoken grad student to be co-captain for this season along with returning 6-9 forward Zuby Ejiofor. And he said Richmond, who took fewer than two three-point shots per game in four seasons, would be a three-point threat with a re-tooled shot.
“(Pitino) has been implementing that,” Richmond said. “I have to take more, so I guess you'll see a lot more threes this year.”
Asked about how serious Pitino is about that, Richmond replied that when he passes up an open three-pointer in practice “Yeah, practice stops.”
Richmond’s three-pointer is just one thing to look for in the improved Red Storm. Pitino said sophomore guard Simeon Wilcher has been the team’s best player since summertime workouts and added that he is expected to be one of three mainstays in the starting lineup with Richmond and Ejiofor. He called Utah transfer Daivon Smith among the quickest guards he’s coached. And in summer he said, “We're a better basketball team than we were last year in terms of depth, size, athleticism. Now we got to prove it on the court.”
The first chance for that comes Thursday when St. John’s travels to Rutgers for an exhibition that is reportedly sold out at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Rutgers has freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey — both projected to go among the first five picks in the 2025 NBA Draft — and was ranked No. 25 in this week’s AP preseason poll. St. John’s was just two spots behind the Scarlet Knights.
“There's no better place than to play a sold-out (arena) on the road to get ready for a season . . . (it) right away tells you about your team,” Pitino said. “It tells you who's mentally tough, who's physically tough, and who's ready for the likes of Baylor, Tennessee, Fordham, Georgia and teams like that as you segue into the Big East. We're very excited about it and looking forward to seeing what we have.”
Richmond didn’t admit to surprise about being chosen co-captain “because I am starting to learn what he expects from us.”
“The attention to detail is big,” he added of Pitino’s workouts. “Everything has to be almost perfect or close to perfect for you to move on to the next thing. So I think that's been a big thing for (me).”
“I told them vote for someone who you think brings it every day, someone you look up to, someone that can come and speak to me to make changes, someone that can speak to the players when they're down,” Pitino said. “And (Ejiofor) was unanimous. Kadary was near-unanimous.”
Wilcher said that his initial reaction to Richmond’s transfer was that the team would become “super tough” and he has come to see him as a respected leader for the team.
“He's just not the guy that's going to be screaming . . . to get his point across — he’s going to just go out there and do it,” Wilcher said. “When he talks, the team listens. Everybody listens. Everybody tunes in.”
Scott, Luis to play. Aaron Scott and RJ Luis Jr. have both missed some time because of concussions and have returned to practice and Smith has returned from a shoulder injury. Pitino said everyone on the roster will play in Thursday’s exhibition. Scott and Luis are likely to join Ejiofor, Richmond and Wilcher in the starting lineup.
No young recruits. Pitino said St. John’s is unlikely to recruit any high school players this season “unless he's an impact player that plays extremely hard.”
“We have Jaiden Glover right now who are extremely high on,” he added. “Ruben Prey’s another freshman who we're very high on. There’s (freshman Lefteris Liotopoulos), who were high on. So we have enough young players right now that we don't need to take a freshman.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.