Kadary Richmond joins St. John's from Big East rival Seton Hall via transfer portal
Seton Hall's Kadary Richmond drives past St. John's Simeon Wilcher during the first half of a Big East Tournament game on March 14 at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
St. John’s isn’t going to have to find a way to contain Kadary Richmond next season. The All-Big East first-team selection from Seton Hall is transferring to the Red Storm in a conference-shaking move.
Richmond, a 6-6 guard from Brooklyn, put his name into the NCAA transfer portal at the end of a Pirates season when they narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament but went on to win the NIT. He completed the second of two campus visits to St. John’s on Tuesday and announced his decision to join the Red Storm.
Richmond averaged 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.1 steals last season as Seton Hall finished fourth in the Big East. The grad transfer opted for St. John’s over Oklahoma, Illinois and Syracuse, where he spent his freshman season before transferring to the Pirates.
The Storm have a formidable guard rotation after adding Richmond and Utah transfer Deivon Smith, the Pac-12 assist leader last season, to rising sophomore Simeon Wilcher. Richmond and Smith were two of the best guards to enter the portal this offseason.
“Kadary Richmond is a player I admired so much in the Big East,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said in a news release from the school. “Awesome talent and we are so excited to have him. [Wilcher], Deivon and now Kadary, along with our young talents, is a dream backcourt.”
Richmond had excelled when facing the Red Storm. In seven career games against St. John’s, he averaged 12.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists. This past season the Pirates faced the Storm three times — they won the first two before losing in the Big East quarterfinals — and Richmond averaged 14.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists.
Richmond is the fourth transfer to commit to St. John’s, joining Smith, North Texas transfer Aaron Scott and Southern Cal transfer Vince Iwuchukwu. Wilcher, RJ Luis Jr., Zuby Ejiofor and Brady Dunlap will return from last season’s team.
Pitino could still add at least one more player to the roster for next season.
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.