David Caraher
Photo courtesy of HBUHuskies

With Houston Baptist forward David Caraher set to visit St. John’s this month, how would he fit it into the program if he chose the Red Storm?

Throughout the next couple of months, you will hear St. John’s being linked to numerous transfer players. They have done a good job finding fits for the program recently when you consider Tariq Owens, Justin Simon, and Marvin Clark II were all transfers.

One name that stands out this year, in particular, is Houston Baptist forward David Caraher. On Tuesday, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and FanRag Sports tweeted that the freshman will be visiting Queens next Friday, just one of his many stops.

Zach Braziller of the New York Post identified some of the other schools that St. John’s could be competing with for his services.

While Caraher isn’t a name that most people know because he played in the Southland Conference, he did have a terrific first season with Houston Baptist. The 6-foot-6 forward averaged 16.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game with the Huskies en route to being named the conference’s Freshman of the Year.

This past season, Houston Baptist had a dismal record of 6-25, but Caraher still found a way to stand out. He was fifth in the conference in points per game, shot over 45 percent from the floor (45.2), and was a top-20 three-point shooter (36.4 percent).

When you look at the direction college basketball is going, you need players that can hit shots from the perimeter at nearly every position. We saw that throughout the NCAA Tournament when Villanova had all five players on the floor being able to hit shots from long range. Caraher can do that as he hit three or more trifectas in 12 games.

If Caraher were to choose St. John’s, he would have to sit out the 2018-19 season due to NCAA transfer rules. With Clark II leaving after next season, that would allow Caraher to get some practice time with the team and then potentially compete for a starting position for 2019-20.

Caraher didn’t get a chance to play elite competition within the conference, but Houston Baptist did get to play some power conference teams this season. In the season opener against Providence, he had 19 points and seven rebounds and he was 3-for-7 from downtown against Oklahoma State on November 26.

However, Caraher did struggle as well against the big schools. If you look at the back-to-back games against Michigan State and Vanderbilt (December 18 and 20), He had a combined 13 points on 5-for-22 shooting and did not make a single three-pointer (0-for-6).

Right now, St. John’s does have to keep their focus on adding some frontcourt players into the mix for next season with Owens leaving and Kassoum Yakwe officially transferring on Thursday. They do have center Josh Roberts and forward Marcellus Earlington coming to Queens next season, but you can never have enough depth down low.

So, while the 2018 roster still has a couple of tweaks to be made over the next few months, keep an eye on how Caraher’s visit as his ability to be a stretch forward that can hit the perimeter shot could be valuable to St. John’s down the road if he decides to transfer to the Red Storm.

I graduated from St. John's University with a degree in sports management. I previously wrote about the Johnnies at Rumble In the Garden.