No program was being watched more this offseason than St. John’s Basketball, who arguably made the biggest head coaching hire in Rick Pitino from Iona. The move triggered a complete roster turnover, as just about everyone from this past season had transferred out.
That includes a group of junior players, as David Jones, Posh Alexander, Dylan Addae-Wusu, and Andre Curbelo moved on. But arguably the most important departure was freshman guard AJ Storr, who could’ve been a key building block for the program in the future.
But Coach Pitino was able to rebuild the roster to look fairly competitive for the future. It certainly started out slow, as the Red Storm missed out on a few key targets. But the coach was able to bring with him a few players from Iona along with him, including guard Daniss Jenkins. He reportedly is taking classes this offseason in order to graduate and avoid needing a waiver to play so for the purpose of this article, we’ll assume that there won’t be issues regarding that.
There are 10 newcomers to the roster, with nine of them being transfers. The only freshman joining the Red Storm is Brady Dunlap, a four-star wing and former Notre Dame commit. Right now, the only role that’s certain next season is Soriano’s as the starting center. But the rest of the others’ could go a number of ways when it comes to potential minutes.
Here’s an early look at the likely starters and overall role players for St. John’s Basketball.