St. John's lands Arizona State's Joson Sanon from the transfer portal
Arizona State's Joson Sanon. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
St. John’s moved quickly to address its biggest weakness from this past season — outside shooting — by landing transfer Joson Sanon from Arizona State.
Sanon, a 6-5 wing, averaged 11.9 points and 3.4 rebounds and shot 37% on three-point attempts in 28 minutes as a freshman this season with the Sun Devils. He was ranked as one of the 10 best players in the NCAA transfer portal as of Wednesday, according to 247sports.com.
St. John’s shot 30% on threes for the season — in the bottom 5% of Division I schools — and missed 20 of 22 in last Saturday’s NCAA Tournament West Region second-round loss to Arkansas.
“When Joson was officially in the portal, St John's was our first call,” said CJ Ward, who along with Derek Malloy of LIFT Sports management, reps Sanon. “They were pretty firm and they needed shooting. That was probably the one thing they didn’t have when this year’s team won 31 games.”
Ward said Red Storm associate head coach Steve Masiello had been to see Sanon play in high school and that Sanon made an unofficial visit and saw the Red Storm’s win over Villanova at the Garden last season, but by that time he’d already picked a different destination.
There was a phone call with St. John’s coach Rick Pitino and then a Zoom with him and staffers before a decision was made, Ward said. "When Rick calls, you know, he has juice," Ward said.
“If he went to the draft, he probably could have been a late-first to mid-second [round pick], but we think he needs another year development and that’s Rick’s M.O.,” Ward said. “He gets guys, he develops them, he coaches them tough, and he'll be able to add layers to Joson’s game. It’s what we feel he needs for the next level . . . Once he called it was kind of an easy choice.”
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.
