By KEN DAVIS
Tracking Zuby Ejiofor’s trajectory on the college basketball spectrum has become much easier as the 2025 NCAA Tournament kicks into high gear. The junior forward from St. John’s has played a key role in the revitalization of the Red Storm program this season. Fans in New York City, who have become energized by the historic winning progression engineered by coach Rick Pitino – as well as Big East Conference fans – have watched Ejiofor’s ascension to elite status.
Now Ejiofor has a chance to elevate his national reputation. St. John’s is the No. 2 seed in the NCAA West and the Red Storm opens play Thursday night against Omaha in Providence.
Ejiofor has toiled in relative obscurity on the stage beyond the Big East, despite being the second-leading scorer (14.6 ppg) and top rebounder (8.0 rpg) for St. John’s. But Pitino doesn’t miss any opportunity to praise his first-team All-Big East selection.
“Every coach wants to have a player like him: selfless, just cares about the team,” said Pitino, who has assembled a team that posted a 30-4 record and the school’s first Big East tournament title in 25 years. “You get blessed in coaching him. I’m coaching 50 years, and there are very few Zubys that come along that just think about the team. Whether he scores 33 or 3, it’s all about the team. Every time-out he’s saying something positive to the guys.”
The climb to the Big East regular season championship and then the conference tournament title has been made possible in large part by the play of RJ Luis Jr., Kadary Richmond and Ejiofor – all three transfers who contributed to the turnaround executed by Hall of Famer Pitino in his second season in charge at the school from Queens, N.Y.
Richmond and Luis arrived with much more fanfare than Ejiofor, for the simple reason that he did not create any expectations in his one season with the Kansas Jayhawks. When Hunter Dickinson, the top-rated center in the transfer portal in 2023 left Michigan for KU, big men Ejiofor and Ernest Udeh went searching for playing time elsewhere.
Making this week’s plot more fascinating is the presence of Kansas in the same NCAA bracket. Ejiofor began his college career with the Jayhawks in 2022-23 before transferring to St. John’s after an undistinguished freshman season. If Kansas and St. John’s both win Thursday they would be second-round opponents Saturday in Providence.
“Things didn’t go the way I planned and Hunter made the decision to commit to Kansas,” Ejiofor said Wednesday. “Me and my family made the decision that was best for me at that stage, so we decided to look elsewhere and, you know, I’m entirely grateful for my time at Kansas. So now I find myself in a better situation for myself, and over these past few years, I couldn’t have imagined going to a different program where I can develop, like you said, under Coach Pitino and all the standards that he put out for myself. So I’m grateful that I spent the last two years here at St. John’s.”
This week’s potential reunion on the court doesn’t seem awkward for any one.
“Oh, I think Zuby has done fantastic,” Kansas coach Bill Self said “They have done a great job with him. I followed St. John’s more than normal just because of Zuby. I think that Rick over time has done as good or a better job as anyone has done in developing guys. I thought he made a great choice.”
Self wasn’t always sure it was the right fit. But there’s no denying the marriage of Pitino and Ejiofor has resulted in a successful partnership.
“We did not want Zuby to leave,” Self said. “It was going to be kind of a crowded house, and maybe the immediate opportunities are not much, at least the way it looked at that moment, so we supported whatever he wanted to do. He was terrific in the time that he was with us. It was just too short.”
Ejiofor played in 25 games at Kansas but averaged just over five minutes a game and scored only 31 points. The Jayhawks have fallen short of expectations the past two seasons are have their lowest NCAA seed ever under Self with a No 7 spot. Ironically, the Jayhawks will play Arkansas and that was Ejiofor’s last appearance in a KU uniform wjem the Razorbacks ended the Jayhawks season with a 72-71 decision in the second round in 2023
When Pitino left Iona for St. John’s in the spring of that year, he cleaned house and brought in an entirely new cast of players. Pitino is demanding and known as a recruiter and rebuilder. Ejiofor impressed him as the type of player who could excel physically and had the talent and leadership quality to bring winning back to the Big Apple.
“When Zuby came in, I put him through a hard player development session.” Pitino said “First thing I noticed is he never complained about the drills. He went through it. Then he shot the ball really well.
“I said to his dad,’ I got myself a hell of a player here.’ He said, ‘I’ve been telling everybody Zuby can shoot.’ I said, ‘Well, Zuby can do a lot of things.’ “
Last summer, between Year One and Year Two at St. John’s, Pitino declared Ejiofor the most improved player on the team. Then he went out and won the most improved player award from the Big East.
That was fully exposed in the Big East semifinals last week when he scored 33 points, the most ever by a St. John’s player in conference tournament history, which includes household names like Chris Mullin and Walter Berry.
“It was just an amazing feeling, and I got it early,” he said. “I just want to thank my coaching staff and my teammates for putting me in the position to be successful.
“They told me, you know, to come out and be a lot more aggressive than I did last game, and that’s exactly what I did. So I just want to give all the props to them. Coach P does a great job of just challenging us to be better every single game.”
St..John’s endured the frustration of missing the NCAA field last season but Pitino picked up the pieces and now the Red Storm and Ejiofor are where they want to be. All eyes will be watching to see what the former Jayhawk does next.
It could be one of the best stories of the tournament.
“It doesn’t surprise me because he’s an athlete that’s very smart and he’s a sponge and he’s tough,” Self said,” Those seem to be good combinations in playing for Rick.”
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