Pitino meets with two of top players in transfer portal
Rick Pitino’s first full week as St. John’s coach got off to a busy start.
The Hall of Famer had in-home visits with two of the top available transfers, Towson wing Nick Timberlake and Harvard forward Chris Ledlum, on Monday in the Boston area as the Johnnies continue in their push to remake their roster. Pitino was joined on the visits by assistant coach Steve Masiello.
The 6-foot-6 Ledlum, a Brooklyn native, averaged 18.5 points and 8.5 rebounds this past season for the Crimson.
Iowa and Indiana had visits with him over the weekend.
“He would be a home run [for St. John’s],” an Ivy League coach said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He’s the best physical specimen in the Ivy League. He’s too big and strong to put a small guy on, too fast to put a big guy on. He rebounds everything, he’s aggressive, he’s tough. … He finished second in scoring and rebounding in the Ivy League, and every team’s game plan was to stop Chris Ledlum.”
The coach believes that Ledlum and Joel Soriano, St. John’s standout center who is returning, would be “terrific together.”
Multiple sources said that coming home is something that appeals to Ledlum. He has a closeknit family which travels to most of his games at Harvard.
The 6-foot-4 Timberlake is one of the top shooters in the country, hitting on 41.6 percent of his 3-point attempts and averaging 17.9 points for Towson. He recently had an in-home visit with North Carolina and has set up an official visit to the ACC school. Timberlake also met with Indiana last weekend.
Meanwhile, another top transfer target, Iona University guard and MAAC Player of the Year Walter Clayton Jr. took an official visit to Florida over the weekend and plans to visit St. John’s after the Final Four dead period beginning April 6. Those are the only two schools the Lake Wales, Fla. native is considering right now, he told The Post.
Two St. John’s players, sophomores Rafael Pinzon and O’Mar Stanley, entered the transfer portal last week and more are expected to follow.
Pitino and his staff will be working out returning players starting on Tuesday. The coach has said he plans to add six-to-eight new players, but the composition of the roster remains fluid.