For years, the St. John's Red Storm have focused most of their recruiting efforts on the transfer portal, seeking to bring in established men's college basketball talent to elevate the program.
However, as the landscape of collegiate sports continues to change, head coach Rick Pitino recognized that the team would have to adjust its recruiting strategy again. Seeing the writing on the wall, they have begun shifting more of their focus to high school recruits, and it is paying immediate dividends.
According to Joe Tipton of On3 and Rivals, the Red Storm have secured a commitment from Malachi Jordan, a four-star forward who was ranked as a top-20 recruit by the Rivals Industry Rankings with a 96.73 rating.
A product of Prolific Prep, Jordan's selection of St. John's is going to be viewed as a sizable upset. Rivals Predictions had the Red Storm as the No. 5 team in the rankings, behind the Vanderbilt Commodores, who were atop the rankings with a 20.1% chance based on predictions.
St. John's percentage of 12.2% was also behind the Tennessee Volunteers (17.6%), Kansas Jayhawks (15.1%) and USC Trojans (12.6%). However, it was the Red Storm, Commodores and Jayhawks who were reportedly in his final three before he made his decision.
Jordan had made visits to all five of those schools and the Washington Huskies, with St. John's being the school that he visited most recently . Pitino and his staff must have made a great impression on the four-star forward to secure a commitment from him, despite the deck seemingly being stacked against them.
Their strong push got them ahead of Vanderbilt, which was considered the favorite to land a commitment from the talented forward.
This is a huge win for the Red Storm on several fronts. It proves that Pitino still has it when it comes to recruiting high school players, something the program has not done much of at the start of his tenure, as he enters Year 4 at the helm.
St. John's is also starting to make up ground on their biggest rivals, the UConn Huskies, who secured two five-star commitments in the Class of 2027 from NaVorro Bowman Jr . and Jordan Page .
Continuity on the roster because of the players they were recruiting and retaining was giving UConn an edge when it came to roster building, but that is a gap the Red Storm is going to start to shrink with Pitino hitting the recruiting trail for high school players harder.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/st-johns as St. John's Basketball Secures Commitment From Malachi Jordan .
