St. John's Basketball has Turned into a Recruiting Powerhouse

After St. John's lost in this year's NCAA Tournament, they soon announced that they would be looking for a new coach.  Then, they announced they had hired ex-NBA legend Chris Mullin as their head coach.  Since then, their basketball program has been recruiting almost every player they could get their hands on.

Just about a week ago Chicago's Marcus LoVett committed to play basketball for the Red Storm.  The 6 foot guard is electric on the court and is known for his high motor and crazy passing ability. In addition to that, he also has some of the best handles high school basketball has seen in a long time.

Other notable offers he picked up included Kansas, Indiana, Michigan State, and San Diego State.  Many players would have gone to the big name schools, but instead it is St. John's he chose.  Why is this?

At the beginning of the month of May, Mullin also got another 4 star guard to commit to his program.  Malik Ellison, a 6 foot 6 combo guard out of Life Center Academy could not play until mid-December because of a broken tibia.  Once he got a chance to showcase his ability, his stock skyrocketed.  He scored 28 points at the Hoophall Classic and amazed the fans and scouts with his scoring ability.  Malik Ellison can flat out score the ball.

Since Mullin has taken over he has gotten 6 other players to either commit or transfer into his program.  Before that, they had been in contention for Isaiah Briscoe arguably the best senior guard in the country.  He ended up choosing Kentucky, but it's still impressive that St. John's was a contender in his recruitment.

Then, just the other day Maverick Rowan cut his list of schools down to 6.  Guess who was on the list.  Yes, St. John's.  Rowan is a 6-6 small forward going into his senior year of high school.  He's ranked 25th by ESPN in the class of 2016 and absolutely strokes the ball from deep.  In the Nike EYBL he averaged 19.2 points per game.  The deal gets even sweeter though, Rowan may decide soon to reclassify and become eligible to be a college freshman next season.  If Mullin can land another top talent, he will have a top team in college basketball next year.

So, how is Mullin pulling this off? No one really knows, but one thing is for sure.  He is turning the St. John's basketball program into a national contender.  After a few months, Chris Mullin has already built up his program into Big East contender.  If he continues to land recruits and improve at this same rate, St. John's is bound to land top recruits from all across the country.  It seems as though Chris Mullin is determined to make St. John's a household name in the college recruiting world, time will only tell if all his work will pay off on the hardwood this upcoming season.