St. John’s technically doesn’t have any scholarships free for the Class of 2017, but Chris Mullin and his staff are looking to go big in 2018 and beyond.
So it was a good sign for the program when a slew of young recruits turned out for “Red Storm Tip-Off” that featured Brooklyn-born hip-hop artist Desiigner on Friday night at Carnesecca Arena.
Among Class of 2018 players St. John’s hosted were commit Boubacar Diakite as well as Naz Reid, Luther Muhammad, Jahvon Quinerly, Moses Brown, Anthony Nelson, Mamadou Doucoure, Khalid Moore and Jared Rhoden.
Class of 2019 stars Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine of the Ranney (N.J.) School as well as Cole Anthony of Archbishop Molloy also came. All three attended the recent USA Basketball mini camp in Colorado Springs, Colo.
There will be plenty of competition for 2018 guys like Reid, Muhammad and Brown, to say nothing of 2019 stars like Lewis, Antoine and Anthony, who are being courted by the likes of Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and Louisville.
But St. John’s has established early relationships with those players and their coaches and are at least giving themselves a chance with these recruits.
“St. John’s had a fantastic show [Friday] night,” said Brian Klatsky, the Team Rio director whose program features Lewis and Antoine. “More importantly, the talent on the court was impressive and this team is going to surprise a lot of people this season. The future looks even brighter with the interest from so many talented recruits in the building.”
