Kadary Richmond, Zuby Ejiofor named St. John’s men’s basketball team captains

Rick Pitino named Richmond and Ejiofor as “co-captains” after an impressive offseason from the duo

St. John’s unquestionably has a very talented roster entering this season, but there was uncertainty surrounding who would lead the locker room. Gone are the hyper-competitive Daniss Jenkins and Joel Soriano, the latter of which was named last season’s team captain in Rick Pitino’s introductory press conference, along with four other seniors. Less than one month away from tip-off, we have our answer—two answers, at that.

On Thursday, Rick Pitino announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the Red Storm’s consensus was to name preseason All-American candidate Kadary Richmond and returning big man Zuby Ejiofor as captains of the 2024-25 men’s basketball team.

It’s not surprising to see why Pitino picked this pairing to be the stewards of the Storm. Richmond is one of the most game-changing players in college basketball. He earned a spot on the All-Big East first team after averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 2.2 steals per game for Seton Hall last season in their NIT championship season. Richmond transferred to St. John’s this spring and was regarded as one of, if not the top player in this year’s transfer class.

By some accounts, Richmond will be a captain who leads by example rather than a vocal, outgoing head of the locker room. After new athletic director Ed Kull’s introductory press conference in September, Rick Pitino alluded to a famous Theodore Roosevelt quote when describing Kadary Richmond’s reserved disposition.

“Kadary [Richmond], although he has a very good personality, he speaks softly but carries a big stick,” Pitino said last month.

Zuby Ejiofor only averaged 4.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks as a bench center in his first season at St. John’s, but there are strong indications that this could be a breakout season for the former top-50 high school recruit out of Garland, Texas.

Per 40 minutes of action, Ejiofor averaged 15.4 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 3.8 blocks last season. For comparison, Joel Soriano averaged 19.6 points, 13.4 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per 40 minutes. During a recent practice, Pitino mentioned that Ejiofor led the game with a plus-minus of +33.

Richmond and Ejiofor will be in action when St. John’s faces Rutgers in a charity exhibition game this Thursday, October 17 (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network). Tickets are still available here.