Saint John’s is coming off a 20-win season with its most Big East victories in 14 years under legendary head coach Rick Pitino. They are looking to build off that success. Adding former USC big man Vincent Iwuchukwu should help their cause.
Iwuchukwu spent the past two seasons with the Trojans. He appeared in 45 games including 16 starts. In those games, Iwuchukwu averaged 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 50.6% from the field.
Iwuchukwu went into cardiac arrest two seasons ago during a summer basketball workout. He also had a back injury in that same season. These health problems limited the 7-1 center to 193 minutes of play in 14 games in 2023-24.
Prior to USC, Iwuchukwu was rated as the No. 16 overall recruit in the Class of 2022 according to Rivals.com. He helped lead Southern California Academy to a 24-4 overall record and a No. 10 national ranking by the end of the season as a senior.
The former five-star standout also starred on the Nike EYBL circuit playing for Drive Nation and averaged 19.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in 2021.
“After putting Vince Iwuchukwu through a player development session, I knew we had to have him in a Johnnies uniform,” said St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino. “Awesome attitude and work ethic. [Vince is] agile, mobile and shoots the heck out of it. Excited to have him [join our program] with so much upside and potential.”
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