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College basketball rankings: Rick Pitino lands ex-UNC signee Simeon Wilcher to put St. John's in Top 25 And 1 – CBS Sports
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The idea that Rick Pitino was more or less black-balled from the high-major level for six seasons despite the NCAA’s inability to ever directly tie any major rules violations to him never made much sense to me. It’s why I constantly floated the Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer’s name for basically any high-major opening I thought he might find appealing.
Finally, St. John’s pulled the trigger.
The Big East school hired Pitino in March. Unsurprisingly, less than three months later, Pitino has now remade the roster enough to get St. John’s into Version 17.0 of the 2023-24 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings.
St. John’s is the new No. 26.
The latest development, the one that pushed St. John’s into the Top 25 And 1, came Monday, when Simeon Wilcher committed to Pitino’s program. The 6-foot-4 guard is ranked 46th in the Class of 2023, according to 247Sports. He’s one of 11 newcomers set to enroll at St. John’s in advance of next season with Penn transfer Jordan Dingle, Oregon State transfer Glenn Taylor Jr., and Iona transfer Daniss Jenkins headlining the group as projected starters.
There have been other notable developments since Version 16.0 of the Top 25 And 1 published 11 days ago — most notably former Rutgers standout Cam Spencer announcing he’s transferring to UConn while former Toledo standout RayJ Dennis announced he’s transferring to Baylor. As a result, the Huskies and Bears have moved up in the Top 25 And 1 — specifically to No. 8 (UConn) and No. 18 (Baylor).
Alabama has also moved up (to No. 17) based on the expected addition of North Dakota State transfer Grant Nelson. And the school that was bounced out of the Top 25 And 1 because of the addition of St. John’s is … Kentucky, which is now expected to lose Antonio Reeves to the transfer portal, according to Jeff Goodman, and thus currently has zero players projected on the roster who averaged at least 2.5 points last season. Can UK make its way back into the Top 25 And 1? Sure, in time. But, again, the Wildcats currently have no notable veterans set to pair with their heralded recruiting class, and that reality has them just on the wrong side of the Top 25 And 1 for now.
In: St. John’s | Out: Kentucky
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