The first four months of Rick Pitino’s return to the biggest stage of college basketball have proved out one unmistakable fact: St. John’s is officially a recruiting powerhouse, at least for as long as Pitino stalks the sidelines in Queens.
The latest piece of evidence: The commitment of Harvard grad transfer and Brooklyn native Chris Ledlum, who flipped to the Johnnies after originally matriculating at Tennessee this spring. Ledlum was one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal after averaging more than 18 points and eight rebounds in the Ivy League and was recruited heavily by a slew of high-profile programs the first time around. He’s a big, versatile wing with a high-major body capable of scoring in bunches and defending multiple positions. The announcement gives Pitino yet another high-profile addition to his 2023–24 roster, which now features 12 newcomers and 10 total transfers.
“Coach Pitino is probably the best coach in the country, and there’s no place like home,” Ledlum told the New York Post. “I feel like we can do something really great here at home.”
Pitino’s biggest moves in revamping this St. John’s roster have come late in the recruiting cycle. Jordan Dingle, a game-changing addition in the backcourt and the leading returning scorer in the country, committed to the Red Storm in mid-May. That was followed by the addition of Kansas transfer and former highly-touted recruit Zuby Ejiofor, who announced his commitment just days later. The Ejiofor commitment filled what was at the time the program’s 13th and final scholarship, but Pitino didn’t stop there, flipping top-40 recruit Simeon Wilcher from North Carolina in mid-June and now Ledlum from Tennessee in mid-July.
Adam Zagoria reported that Iona transfer Quinn Slazinski is not expected to join the program after all, but the Red Storm are still theoretically one over the scholarship limit. That said, those limits are more nebulous in the NIL era if a player is willing to have his tuition paid for as part of an NIL package, and Pitino has taken full advantage, building a 14-man roster with no guarantees that he’s done yet.
In one offseason, Pitino has built a roster capable of making legitimate noise in the Big East and nationally. The Red Storm aren’t quite as talented as top league contenders UConn, Marquette and Creighton, but have Pitino as a great equalizer on the sideline. There’s clearly enough talent here for this to be a potential top-25 team with upside to make a deep NCAA tournament run, a remarkable shift from the moribund state the program was in under Mike Anderson and for most of the last two decades. Call that the Pitino factor.
Perhaps the scariest thing for the rest of college basketball is that these recruiting wins are coming without any real proof of concept. While Pitino has his Hall of Fame pedigree to fall back on, he’s recruiting to a program that’s behind from an on-campus facilities standpoint and hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 2000. What happens if Pitino takes St. John’s to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament this year? How much more will this recruiting machine take off?
They’re already in hot pursuit of local top-25 2024 recruits Boogie Fland (who just included the Red Storm in his final eight schools) and V.J. Edgecombe, who Pitino watched over the weekend in Las Vegas. Ledlum, Dingle and Wilcher were all local products, and while recruiting in New York City isn’t what it used to be, it’s clear Pitino has major headway early on keeping some of the region’s best players at home.
If nothing else, these four months are proof that players are ready to line up to play for Pitino, and that’s reason enough for swallowing the bad that comes with hiring him. He’s one of the only coaches in America who is bigger than the program he coaches, and that has manifested itself time and time again throughout his tumultuous career. Pitino had proudly proclaimed Iona to be his last stop, then slowly hedged that statement over his three years as his reputation was laundered to the point that he was palatable for a return to the sport’s big-time at St. John’s. He won with the Gaels, but spent his final year with one foot clearly out the door, didn’t win an NCAA tournament game in his three-year tenure and left behind a major rebuilding project with just one scholarship player returning.
There’s no guarantee Pitino won’t get the same itch if and when a blue blood comes calling in a couple of years (he’s already said he’d like to coach for another decade) and will likely leave St. John’s in the same disarray he left Iona. But no other available coach in college basketball could have gotten St. John’s rolling this quickly, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a fan of the program who isn’t happy to ride the rollercoaster with their Hall of Fame coach.
