St. John’s currently has only one player from the Garden State on its roster in sophomore guard Malik Ellison.
But if Chris Mullin and his staff have their way, they will be adding more Jersey Boys in the years to come.
“We take New Jersey very seriously and our presence will be felt,” assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih said. “We view it as our backyard. We want our program to get to a point where all the local kids, New York and New Jersey, feel it’s their home school.”
St. John’s hasn’t always taken this approach.
Former St. John’s coach Steve Lavin hardly recruited New Jersey at all, with the notable exception of former Roselle Catholic point guard Isaiah Briscoe, who ultimately chose Kentucky over the Red Storm.
“Steve Lavin was a California guy,” legendary St. Anthony’s coach Bob Hurley told me last year. “I don’t think if you ask [Cardozo coach] Ron Naclerio or [Christ the King coach] Joe [Arbitello], the guys that are coaching over in the city, how often he was in their gyms, it would probably be similar.”
A year ago, St. John’s took some initial steps into Jersey when former associate head coach Barry “Slice” Rohrssen began to recruit Daniel Mading at St. Anthony’s. (Mading is not currently at St. Anthony’s and remains in his native Australia.)
But now, with the Garden State loaded with high-level prospect from the Classes of 2018 and ’19, St. John’s has taken its recruitment to another level.
On Friday, the first day college coaches could attend high school workouts and begin meeting with prospects, St. John’s went three deep at Jersey powers Roselle Catholic and St. Benedict’s Prep with Mullin, Abdelmassih and Dan Matic. Their primary target was 6-foot-9 2018 big man Naz Reid.
“I think Coach Mullin is very high on a couple of our guys,” RC coach Dave Boff said. “It was great to see him at our first workout and he said he’d be back soon. Our guys are excited to see him in the gym.”
On Monday, Mullin and Abdelmassih were at Hudson Catholic, which features three of Reid’s Sports U teammates in Luther Muhammad, Jahvon Quinerly and Louis King. (A slew of other schools were also represented, including Villanova, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Xavier and Cal).
St. John’s is particularly focused on the 6-4, 183-pound Muhammad, whom they see as a big guard who could be effective in the rough and tumble Big East.
Asked how hard St. John’s was recruiting him, Muhammad said, “Really hard. They want to develop me to get to the max of my potential.”
He also mentioned Xavier, Cincinnati and Seton Hall among schools recruiting him hard.
Mullin and Abdelmassih continue to recruit New York City hard, too. They planned to be at Archbishop Molloy on Tuesday for 2018 7-footer Moses Brown, who recently visited campus, and 2019 point guard Cole Anthony, the son of former NBA guard Greg Anthony. (Duke is also expected Tuesday.)
On Thursday, St. John’s is expected to hit both Iona Prep for 2019 guard Bryce Wills and the Ranney School in New Jersey for 2019 studs Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis, who in June visited the St. John’s Elite Camp and later in the summer had both Kentucky’s John Calipari and Kansas’ Bill Self watching them.
“Matt checks in all the time,” Team Rio director Brian Klatsky said earlier this summer of Abdelmassih. “They’ve been to a bunch of Ranney games. Those guys are touching base every couple days. They’re very interested in five or six kids from the team, similar to the Sports U group.”
Going forward, St. John’s will have to compete not only with Rutgers and Seton Hall, but with national powers, for many of these elite Jersey kids, but it’s clear Mullin and his staff have taken their recruiting efforts in the Garden State to another level.
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