The St. John’s Red Storm have added Eli Wright out of Mississippi State to their recruiting class for 2019-20.
After adding David Caraher into the mix for 2019-2020 last weekend, the St. John’s Red Storm continued to bolster that recruiting class on Thursday night. According to Evan Daniels of 24/7 Sports, guard Eli Wright will be transferring from Mississippi State to St. John’s University. He will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season:
Eli Wright: “I feel like this is my next home.” https://t.co/T266MDuvib
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) April 20, 2018
In his two seasons at Mississippi State, Wright didn’t get a chance to play a lot of minutes. He averaged over 13 minutes per game in both seasons and never averaged more than 3.5 points per game.
Now, Wright was behind a few players in the guard rotation on Ben Howland’s squad, so this allows him a chance to get more playing time down the road. He was taking a visit to the Red Storm on Thursday according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and FanRag Sports.
Mississippi State transfer Eli Wright is currently on an official visit to St. John's, per a source. Talented scorer. Sit one, play two. #SJUBB
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 19, 2018
Before Wright got to the SEC, the 6-foot-4 guard ended up providing instant offense at 22 Feet Academy, where he averaged 23.6 points per game in his senior year. Now, there is some familiarity for Wright in Queens because current Red Storm transfer forward Sedee Keita was his teammate for his senior season in 2015-16.
Back when Wright was being recruited, he was ranked 65th by ESPN100 out of Owensboro, Kentucky, so there is some talent there if given the opportunity to play. He gets the chance to learn under Justin Simon, who had to sit out a year when transferring from Arizona.
While Wright’s playing time didn’t change too much in his first two seasons, his assist total went up from seven in 2016-17 to 30 this past season. Despite the assist total going up, his field goal percentage went down from 52.9 percent to 40.2 and his three-point percentage was down from 40.5 to 21.
At this moment, St. John’s is putting together a strong class for the 2019-20 season when you look at the additions of Caraher and Wright. They both can provide offense, which is what the Red Storm will need when Marvin Clark II graduates and if Shamorie Ponds comes back and decides to leave for the NBA after next season.
It is clear that Chris Mullin and his staff have put their attention into adding impact transfer players that they could teach their system for a year and then have them play well on the court when they are eligible.
There is still time for St. John’s to add another experienced player into the frontcourt for next year’s team via a graduate transfer. For now, Wright gives them another backcourt option for the future and you can never have too much depth at the guard spot.
