Barely 12 hours after an emotional win vs Marquette, the head coach and three best players on the No. 12-ranked St. Johns Red Storm strut into their classic on-campus venue, Carnesecca Arena, and suit up for, as some of the other St. Johns athletes walking around say excitedly, a SLAM cover shoot!
The wild disconnect in the whole scene and story of St. Johns basketball is that to some of the old heads on the scene (*writer most definitely included), the old coach (72-year-old Rick Pitino) and even the players (in this case, the uber-talented and tough trio of Zuby Ejiofor, RJ Luis and Kadary Richmond), St. Johns is supposed to be good. Top-15? Favorites to win the league regular season? To win the conference tournament on the programs other home court, Madison Square Garden? Expecting a deep run in the NCAA Tournament? Whats the big deal? This is one of the 10 winningest programs in the history of mens DI hoops. The home of legends like Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Malik Sealy. Being in the mix for the aforementioned achievements feels like it should be commonplace.
And then you look at the banners on the far side of the court and the reality of things out here in Queens hits you in the face. The programs last conference title was *squints* 2000! The last regular-season title was *shakes head in disbelief*1992!! These players were literally not even alive for any of that.
We dont need to re-litigate what has gone wrong with the Johnnies over the past quarter centuryespecially since they had enough dope players, compelling coaches and high-profile Garden games to somehow seem more relevant than they were, anywayand will instead focus on the positive of this campaign: a well-coached crew of tough ballers who could probably blow your doors off with an offensive output if they werent so busy putting the clamps on you on defense to make the offense feel almost unnecessary.
I cant wave my magic wand and suddenly shoot the ball like Steph Curry, so you have to go with what you have, says the peripatetic Pitino, now in his second year with SJU and his ninth head coaching job. We wear these shirts that say PHD, which stands for Passionate, Hungry and Driven to succeed. Ive coached some great three-point shooting teams in my time, but if thats not your forte, you go with the areas where you can win.
The previous nights battle with Marquette encapsulated the season in many ways. The Garden wasnt quite sold out, but the 16,521 in the building made it sound more than packed. The Red Storm shot 3-16 from distance and 17-31 from the free-throw line. And still won by 6! The defense was fanatical, as evidenced in a viral clip of the Johnnies chasing Marquette all over the court so that the visitors could not even get a clean shot off, despite being down 7 with less than two minutes to play. After the game, Marquette coach Shaka Smart said SJU had played with incredible violence, and he meant it entirely as a compliment.
The offensive struggles were real, but as has typically been the case, the Red Storm got enough from Richmond (18 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists), Luis (17 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals while playing all 40 minutes) and Ejiofor (13 points, 13 rebounds) to grind out the win.
Its a trio that merges pedigree, experience and skills with visibly great chemistry and, paired with a supporting cast well get to in a minute, should be enough to freshen some of the banners. Ejiofor is a 6-9, 240-pound junior (he could be a stretch-4, but he the 5 for us, Luis says with a smile) who was heavily recruited out of the Dallas area in high school and spent one season at Kansas before transferring to St. Johns for Pitinos first year. His two most defining characteristics are probably his motor and his smile, both of which are on display even in this interview setting. Asked what his job on the team is, Ejiofor says, bringing the toughness to the group. One thing you could say about me is that I play with a high motor and a lot of passion. And I play for my teammates. This is who I do it formy teammates, my family, this whole communitythats why I go hard every single daygetting offensive rebounds, some nights its scoring, some nights its defendingevery night, actuallyis bringing the defense and doing whatever it takes to win.
Richmond, a 6-6, 205-pound combo guard out of Brooklyn, is the most famous player on the team, especially in this part of the country. He was the Big Apples Public School Player of the Year at South Shore in 2019, then spent a year at Brewster Academy before starting his college career at Syracuse. Richmond transferred to Seton Hall and led the Pirates for three seasons, earning all sorts of Big East honors along the way. A graduate student with one year of eligibility left, he was the prize of the transfer portal and chose to stay close to home, wrapping up his college career in the city that made him. Kooks, as hes known, is on the quiet side with reporters but is clearly the heartbeat of the team, especially on offense. Hes a silent killer, Luis says. A facilitator. Makes plays for others. Richmond is the de facto 1 on this team, but his size and versatility speak to an NBA future pretty much wherever a team might need him. Hes averaging 12.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 4.9 apg, 2 spg and 1 bpg playing a team-high 32.5 mpg and shooting 50 percent from the floor in the process. Get this guy on your fantasy team yesterday!
I try to be the best person I can be, on and off the court, Richmond says calmly. Getting the best shot available for us as a team. Moving the ball. Getting the other guys confidence. Be able to make plays. Score, pass it and just bring whatever I can to the game to get a win.
Luis is a 6-7, 215-pound swingman out of Miami who spent one season at UMass before arriving in Queens in 2023 alongside Ejiofor, who is now his roommate. Luis is the teams leading scorer at 17.4 ppg, defends to the tune of 1.5 spg and has taken the second-most threes on the team, though hes about as confused as everyone else about why more arent going in. I try to come out every night with the same energy, the same intensity and taking pride on defense, he says. I feel like were hitting every aspect of the game except for three-point shooting. The energys there, the hustles there, were playing defense as a whole, collectively. Its really just trying to work on getting better shots for everyone on the team, and when we get the shots, knock it down.
This big 3 is complemented primarily by guards Aaron Scott, Deivon Smith and Simeon Wilcher, with additional support from international big men Vince Iwuchukwu and Ruben Pray (one downer in a mostly charmed season was the season-ending injury suffered by sharp-shooting forward Brady Dunlap, who could have helped with the long-range shooting problem but is now just being counted on for more of his great sideline celebrations.) Having a team with talent and size does not always equal good results, though, especially when squads are built on a season-by-season basis. How did this particular group mesh so quickly?
Ejiofor explains: Our focal point this year was getting to know each other a lot sooner than we did last year, cause we got off to a slow start last year. So our main thing was try and get to know each other off the court a little bit and then on the court as wellwe went to the beach and did beach workouts together. We went to the field and did workouts there. Weve gone out to eat as a group. Just getting to know each other a lot more and a lot sooner than we did last year.
FWIW, the influx of transfers turning into key players, while a newish phenomenon at many programs who didnt traffic much in transfers in the pre-portal days, is actually a nod to St. Johns past as well. For every Malik, Mark or Mully who balled out here for four years, there was a Walter Berry, Michael Porter, Bootsy Thornton or Marcus Hatten who quickly won the hearts of SJU fans after transferring in mid-career from JuCo programs.
Whatever the mix or the reason, its working just like Pitino confidently predicted it would when he was hired less than two short years ago. When youre 72 years of age and youve coached for 50 years and youve coached the Celtics, the Knicks, Kentucky, Louisville, Providence, I think your confidence is established from the players you coach, Pitino explains. Coaches dont win games; players win games. We had confidence going in that we could recruit the players necessary to win and, also, history repeats itself. If you have the right culture, be it Kentucky, be it Louisville, be it Providence, youre gonna turn it around. Its not false confidence, its confidence youll bring in the right players to fill the culture you want to present.
One interested and excited observer to all this is Jackson, a native New Yorker who is St. Johns all-time assist leader and played for Pitino with the Knicks when they both entered the League for the first time. I love Coach Pitino!! Jackson tells us over text. Absolutely genius!! He calls me his Rookie of the Year. I call him My Coach.
Luis offers a lovely summary of where things stand right now for his team. We got a nice, talented group. Very athletic. We just got some dogs, we just trying to win, he says. I feel like were waking up the city of New York, and were gonna keep on doing it. Playing under Hall of Fame coach, Rick Pitino. Its pretty sweet.
Portraits by Royce Paris.
