Daniss Jenkins was the leader for the St. John’s basketball team last season in every sense of the word and there are still questions as to who will fill his shoes this year for the Red Storm.
Many around the program are hoping that Seton Hall transfer Kadary Richmond will take the next step in his development as a player and show more leadership qualities, but the Brooklyn native is soft spoken by nature. However, that does not discredit the amount of respect he already has earned in the locker room.
“Everybody is tied into each other, and it’s all led by Kadary,” Rick Pitino said after the team held an intrasquad scrimmage at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
“Everybody has such a high, high respect for Kadary on the team.”
Richmond knows the ropes of the conference, earning a nod to the All-Big East First Team last season with the Pirates after averaging 15.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per contest. Those same skills were on display during the 32-minute exhibition with a quiet 10 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.
He was just one of three players that Pitino confirmed would be in the Johnnies’ starting lineup on opening night, along with Simeon Wilcher and Zuby Ejiofor.
“If you ask everybody on the team who do you respect the most, they’re all going to say Kadary,” Pitino continued.
The one criticism of Kadary Richmond was that he sometimes does not give a complete effort during practice but that could not be further from the truth during his time in Queens.
“He’s been awesome,” the Hall of Famer said about Richmond in practice. “I heard the same thing [about his poor practice habits]. He works his butt off.”
Pitino explained that he told Richmond he needs to show that he is a consistently working on his game if he wants to play professional basketball in the future.
“He’s one of the hardest workers on the team.”
Kadary Richmond will look to lead the Johnnies to its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2015 as its regular season gets underway on Monday, November 4 against Fordham (6:30 p.m. ET, FS1).
