SJU 2024 Off-Season Thread - Onto Year 2

Greetings,

First time posting! We are now fully entrenched in the off-season and wanted to create a thread and keep everything Johnnies (and NCAA b-ball) related in here as we all wait for next season. I have been an avid Johnnies fan for 10 years now, so 2014 is still the most successful team I have seen lol. I am caught up on my St John’s and Big East history at this point too.

For the most part, I thought we had a good year and we did get better throughout the year, but of course we fell short. Again. I will say I was iffy that we’d make the tournament as I thought our resume was lackluster.

I thought Seton Hall got early enough wins to make it in and then Providence had 6 Q1 wins to make it in too. I thought they for sure both were going to make it regardless of not receiving much buzz towards selection Sunday. However, both those teams got snubbed too (much more than SJU).

Continuing, I have been HEAVILY looking forward to year 2 of Pitino. Historically, Pitino’s 2nd year on a new team has shown great, great success. I saw a stat that he jumps to high 60’s-70% win percentage in that 2nd year and after. Now this is a new NCAA basketball era with the transfer portal and NIL money in place so we’ll see how all things fall into place and how Pitino handles it. We also got Mike Repole backing us as well, so we all should be excited.

I look forward to Wilcher, he seems to have a good head on his shoulder and his physique is crazy. His first official game for St John’s he was constantly looking up at a man who I assume has been a huge part of his success. Could tell he was a nice kid and he always looks like he’s having fun even when he was on the bench/didn't play at all. Dunlap, idk he could turn into something okay for us, but I’m not sure how he will develop (best case imo like a Wusu development). Lastly, Zuby and RJ might be in weird situations with some of these transfers we’re getting, but I hope they’re starters for us next year as they both have great potential. Definitely looking forward to these transfers as well but will miss having some homegrown talent on our teams.

Overall, I wanted to hear others' thoughts, expectations, and opinions for this 2024 SJU season and NCAA basketball.

Additions (as of 5/4):
Vince Iwuchukwu, Center (from USC)
Aaron Scott, Forward (from North Texas)

Departures (as of 5/4):
Joel Soriano (SR) (13.8 pts, 9.5 reb, 1.5 ast)
Daniss Jenkins (SR) (14.9 pts, 3.5 reb, 5.4 ast)
Nahiem Alleyne (SR) (6.4 pts, 1.6 reb, 1.0 ast)
Jordan Dingle (SR) (11.6 pts, 2.0 reb, 1.7 ast)
Chris Ledlum (SR) (9.5 pts, 6.9 reb, 1.8 ast)
Sean Conway (SR) (2.0 pts, 1.5 reb, 0.5 ast)
Glenn Taylor (JR) (4.4 pts, 2.2 reb, 1.2 ast)
Drissa Traore (JR) (1.7 pts, 1.2 reb, 0.2 ast)
Cruz Davis (SO)
Sadiku Ayo (SO)

Ayo still on team as well as incoming freshman Glover, Maker and the Greek kid.

This is a nice article about the guards and newest transfer from Seton Hall, Khadary Richmond.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/08/sports/how-rick-pitino-envisions-st-johns-revamped-backcourt-will-work/

I think our guards are top tier and can compete with anyone with the new transfers, Glover and Wilcher.

As for our bigs- glad Rick prioritized Vince and Maker. Scott will slide in nice at forward with Brady too. Vince and Maker have to crash that glass with Zuby.

I don't know how the rest of Big East recruited except heard stories that UConn did well too but I think we can jump to 22-23 wins. We gotta play better in conference though. The mid-season conference slump cost us the tournament.

Things seem to be looking up but that's what we thought last season although this year's team does have more proven commodities. I'll wait for on court results before getting too excited though I am pretty optimistic.

saw Deivon Smith highlights from the indiana state game in the NIT and he plays pretty much plays how Jenkins played tbh (only seen this one video lol)

Highlights:
https://streamable.com/xksun3

If we can close out games and not have a mid-season slump we will be in good shape. Have to win the games you are supposed to win and take advantage of stealing some games against ranked teams especially in-conference. We cannot go 0-2 to in-conference teams during regular season unless its UConn and even then would be nice to get at least one upset against them.