Big East Roster Analysis: St. John's Red Storm
This is not a team-by-team preview series for the Providence Friars’ 10 Big East rivals, though it’s not far off. What it is intended to be is a look at how each of the 10 rosters is put together for the coming season. There are a lot of new faces and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what each piece brings and how it fits together. I’m sure I’ll be wrong often, but I walk away feeling more informed, and I’m hoping you will, too.
St. John’s Red Storm (see below)
When Rick Pitino called his team “slow laterally” and said it was the “worst time of his life” after a Sunday night loss to Seton Hall in Long Island in February, it was reminiscent of the “not walking through that door” comments as the Boston Celtics coach in 2000. In his first season back at a major conference, Pitino had jettisoned all but one player – Joel Soriano – from the Red Storm’s 2022-23 roster to build a team through the transfer portal and seemed to be admitting a failure of roster-building.
And then St. John’s won six straight games, including a 14-point home win over Creighton, a 23-point road demolition of Butler and a 19-point trouncing of Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. The last of those appeared at the time to have clinched an NCAA tournament bid – it didn’t, as it turned out – and St. John’s ended up closing the season in the Big East Tournament semifinal by playing Connecticut tougher in defeat than anyone else did in March or April.
So, was that a successful season? St. John’s finished 21st at KenPom, the program’s best outcome in a quarter-century. The Red Storm managed to crack the national top 60 in defense despite the self-proclaimed lateral slowness, and its 18th-place finish in offense was also its best in a quarter-century. The bitter taste from Selection Sunday shouldn’t erase the progress the program made, and now Pitino has rebuilt the roster with a very different look, presumably in an attempt to learn from last offseason’s mistakes without overcompensating.
The big addition is Kadary Richmond, a fifth-year who started his career at Syracuse and then became a star at Seton Hall. Any college offense with Richmond will be centered around him, which is mostly a good thing but carries with it some problems to solve. Richmond has the usage of a heliocentric NBA star – think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Luka Doncic; he led the Big East in usage in league play at 32%. Richmond bore that burden with decent efficiency due to his elite passing and ability to create off of drives and posts, including by getting himself to the line, where he made 81%. His style of play should help generate plenty of open looks for teammates, but since he’s not a good 3-point shooter (27% last season on limited attempts), Richmond needs the ball in his hands to ensure sufficient spacing.
Ideally, Richmond should be surrounded by shooters and cutters who can ensure he gets the space he needs to create, and this is where my primary concern about this Red Storm roster comes in – not enough shooting, at least in the starting lineup. Next to Richmond in the backcourt figures to be Deivon Smith, who will be on his fourth team in five years, most recently playing at Utah. Smith had a breakout season as a senior for the Utes and is another high-usage primary ballhandler with elite passing ability. Smith did shoot 41% on 71 3-point attempts last season, but that’s not particularly high volume and not a performance that would eliminate my concerns about his shooting, since he had never made more than 28% in his previous three seasons.
R.J. Luis seems the most likely starter at small forward, and though he has elite athleticism and mid-range skills, he is just 28% on threes over his first two college seasons on low volume. Luis is another player who ran a very high usage rate last season, but his efficiency suffered in his first time in the Big East after starting his career at UMass. Luis is not the same kind of creator as Richmond or Smith.
At power forward, North Texas transfer Aaron Scott is penciled in as the starter. He is an active defender and solid defensive rebounder mixed with a 38% career 3-point shooter on real volume (113 attempts last season). Unlike Luis and Smith, he is the kind of player that fits well next to Richmond – he doesn’t need the ball in his hands and is willing and able to knock down the open threes that Richmond and Smith should create.
At center will likely be Zuby Ejiofor, who was good in limited minutes after transferring from Kansas. He proved to be a superb offensive rebounder and foul-drawer and made 71% when he got there. He attempted just eight threes but made three. Ejiofor also showed potential as a passer when given the opportunity.
With Richmond, Luis, Scott and Ejiofor, Pitino has four starters with length and who won’t provide the “laterally slow” issues that plagued last year’s team, which means that the defensive ceiling is much higher. I’m worried about how the pieces fit together on offense, however, which means St. John’s may need some players to pop from a deep albeit inexperienced bench.
Simeon Wilcher should be the third guard. He’s a better shooter than Richmond or Smith but struggled with turnovers as a freshman while playing just a handful of minutes per game. He’s the kind of player who could play next to either Smith or Richmond and space the floor while serving as a secondary ballhandler. Wilcher needs to add bulk to his 6-foot-4 frame but will still be bigger than most opposing point guards.
Jaiden Glover is a 6-foot-5 freshman wing, ranked in the top 75 of the 2024 class. He has great length to go with a great shooting stroke. Like Wilcher, he likely has more perimeter shooting gravity than Richmond, Smith or Luis, and Pitino will likely need that shooting.
Brady Dunlap is another shooter off the bench. Though painfully skinny and not nearly strong enough as a 6-foot-7 freshman, he attempted more threes than twos and could play a floor-spacing role on this team.
The other three likely rotation players start with Vincent Iwuchukwu, a junior who played as a backup at USC for two seasons. At 7-foot-1, 240, Iwuchukwu has true center size, unlike the more versatile, 6-foot-9 Ejiofor. He’s well suited to a backup role as a rebounder, rim protector and play-finisher.
Pitino has also tapped into his overseas connections to bring in two intriguing prospects: Lefteris Liotopoulos from Greece and Ruben Prey from Portugal. Liotopoulos is a thin, 6-foot-5 guard who appears able to play as a primary or secondary ballhandler. His overall shooting numbers are spotty, but his volume at the U18s (more than six 3-point attempts per game) indicates a willing shooter. He seems to have good feel and composure, particularly on the ball.
Prey is a 6-foot-10 big with NBA potential but a lot of developing left to do. He played in Spanish professional basketball last year, mostly after a loan to the third tier. Who knows how he will translate to the Big East, but he seems to move well, particularly in transition, and is young enough to dream on.
Overall, this squad has plenty of talent and athleticism, including three experienced starters and a half-dozen exciting young prospects. Pitino has plenty of defensive length and activity to play the style he wants, but there is a lot of uncertainty about how the pieces will fit together. Pitino is brilliant at figuring this sort of thing out, but I’m concerned that the offensive pieces won’t extract the most from Richmond, and it will all be a bit bogged down unless the shooting around him is better than expected. I think they’ll need some combination of Wilcher, Glover and Liotopoulos to provide shooting off the bench to truly unlock Richmond as a Big East Player of the Year-caliber player and to get St. John’s into the NCAA Tournament without any Selection Sunday agita.