NCAA Basketball: 20 teams who should target St. John’s transfer LJ Figueroa
The best player for St. John’s is now in the NCAA Basketball transfer portal. Which teams should be in play for LJ Figueroa in the coming days?
It looked as if the NCAA Basketball was starting to die down a bit in the past week until a couple of NBA Draft prospects made the decision to come back… just not to their original teams. First was Mac McClung at Georgetown and now it’s LJ Figueroa from the St. John’s Red Storm.
After playing at Odessa Community College, Figueroa became a prime target for D-I programs. It was St. John’s who landed the 6’6 guard and he became an instant impact player out the gate. He averaged 14.4 ppg and 6.4 in his sophomore season, third on the team in scoring. The scoring machine put up similar numbers this past year (14.5 ppg), albeit with less shooting efficiency from the field. He did lead the Red Storm in scoring overall and reached 20+ points in six games as a junior.
The guard made the decision to enter the NBA Draft and is still technically in the process. There’s also the potential for him to go pro and leave NCAA Basketball altogether. But this move means that he won’t be coming back to the Red Storm and will be playing his senior season somewhere else. The biggest question right now is whether or not he’d get a waiver to play immediately without having to sit out next year.
Schools have been in LJ Figueroa's ear that he would be able to get a waiver if he transferred based on the coronavirus's impact in NYC. Huge news that he's in the portal obviously. #sjubb
— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) May 26, 2020
Covid-19 and its impact are going to have big implications in college sports this upcoming season and players/transfers could use the situation to get waivers for “unprecedented situations”. At the moment though, there’s no telling what the NCAA will do for all of the players set to sit out for 2020-21. It’s hard to envision Figueroa personally willing to do that, making him an option to just leave college altogether.
But for now, he’s in the portal, and teams are going to want to land a 15 ppg scorer at the power conference level. As a two-way player who can play the shooting guard and small forward positions. There are plenty of programs still looking for a missing piece who could use Figueroa, and here are 20 specific ones that I have in mind.