Rick Pitino knows there’s work to do.
St. John’s has already landed two coveted transfers in forward Bryce Hopkins and wing Joson Sanon, but the backcourt remains a work in progress, particularly at point guard.
Still, Pitino feels good about where his roster stands at this point of the offseason.
“The nucleus is there,” Pitino said Wednesday at Citi Field, where the Mets recognized the Red Storm’s Big East regular season and conference tournament championships.
“We’ll shore it up. We’ve got to get some backcourt players in, maybe one frontcourt player, but recruiting’s going well.”
Pitino has lauded Hopkins, a proven scorer and rebounder, as a “great replacement” for RJ Luis Jr., who declared for the NBA Draft and entered the transfer portal. Pitino has said Luis, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, will not be back with St. John’s.
But the Johnnies have not filled the voids left by point guards Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith, who were seniors last season.
The only experienced backcourt option returning to St. John’s is junior Simon Wilcher, whom Pitino views as more of a combo guard than a primary point guard. The Red Storm are also bringing back Lefteris Liotopoulos, a shooting guard who played only 4.8 minutes per game as a freshman.
“We can’t play with one guard,” Pitino said. “You’ve got to have four guards in your backcourt. Four to five. Sim’s a competitor. He’s a veteran. He knows the system. It’s going to be much more difficult for the people coming in than it will be for Sim.”
Transfer candidates who have been linked to St. John’s include North Carolina guard Ian Jackson, who hails from the Bronx and just averaged 11.9 points per game as a freshman.
St. John’s ranked last in the Big East in 3-point percentage (30.1%) and third-to-last in free throw percentage (69.1%). Those deficiencies loomed large in the second-seeded Red Storm’s loss to 10th-seeded Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament’s second round.
Pitino hopes the addition of Sanon, who shot 36.9% on 3-pointers as a freshman at Arizona State, will help.
“We need shooting as much as anything,” Pitino said.
“Houston and us, we were the two best defensive teams, but it’s the offensive teams that really go far in the [NCAA] Tournament. You have to have a great offense, and we were not a great offensive basketball team this year.”
Asked Wednesday if he is currently targeting offensive-first players, Pitino replied, “I’d probably say they’re offensive-first.”
Hopkins averaged at least 15.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in each of the past three seasons at Providence, though the last two were largely derailed by knee injuries.
He joins a frontcourt headlined by Zuby Ejiofor, the Big East’s Most Improved Player, who is returning after averaging 14.7 points and 8.1 rebounds as a junior.
“He’s a physical guy, a guy that can easily get downhill and create opportunities for himself and for others as well,” Ejiofor said of Hopkins. “I’m just really excited for what he brings to the table and for what we could all do as a team.”
Pitino has said he expects seven or eight players to return.
Sharp-shooting forward Brady Dunlap entered the transfer portal, but 7-1 center Vince Iwuchukwu and 6-10 forward Ruben Prey are expected back — likely in larger roles.
“Zuby’s got to get better at, when the center plays drop coverage, hitting the 3 and not thinking about it,” said Pitino, the 2024-25 Naismith Coach of the Year.
“Vince is going to get a lot better with ball-handling on the perimeter, a little bit with passing. Ruben’s got to get better with shooting the basketball. Sim is a terrific shooter but he’s got to get it off quicker.”
That group will look to build on a year in which St. John’s finished 31-5 and won its first NCAA Tournament game in 25 years.
“These guys are very bothered by losing in the second round,” Pitino said. “They’re very hungry to get back to it, but it starts with the summer work — getting stronger, getting quicker, getting better — and they’ll do it.”
