Rick Pitino's St. John's set to face another hurdle as transfer Joson Sanon makes NBA draft decision

Coach Rick Pitino and the St. John's Red Storm are in a complicated situation with incoming Arizona State transfer Joson Sanon. Sanon officially committed to the Red Storm through the transfer portal, but news came out on Saturday that Sanon has declared for the 2025 NBA draft. However, in a unique situation, Sanon still plans to play for Rick Pitino's squad next season.

Shortly after the initial report came out that Sanon plans to enter the 2025 NBA draft, a reporter from "The New York Post," Zach Braziller, posted on X and confirmed that Sanon will be back at St. John's next season. He will be going through the draft process with the intention of receiving feedback, but he intends to return to St. John's next season.

"Source confirms Joson Sanon is declaring for the draft with intent to play for St. John’s next year after getting a few NBA workouts and receiving feedback. Was the intention all along when he entered the portal."

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NCAA basketball players are free to declare for the draft and maintain their eligibility. However, to maintain their eligibility, they are not allowed to have an agent representing them.

The deadline for players with remaining eligibility to declare for the draft is April 27th, so Joson Sanon declared shortly before the deadline. However, any player with NCAA eligibility remaining is free to withdraw until the May 28th deadline. Any players who are still declared after that point will forfeit the rest of their eligibility.

Joson Sanon is one of six players joining Rick Pitino's St. John's through the transfer portal

Joson Sanon is part of a group of six players joining the squad, including Ian Jackson, Bryce Hopkins, Dillon Mitchell, Dylan Darling and Oziyah Sellers.. Coach Rick Pitino has done a good job of building a strong transfer portal class this season.

Shortly after committing to St. John's in March, Sanon spoke with "The Post" about why he chose Rick Pitino's squad.

"It wasn’t too hard of a decision to make. The thing that stands out is hard work. [Pitino] actually pushes you to word hard. I want to show him I’m the hardest-working player he’s ever coached.

Sanon averaged 11.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists last season for Arizona State.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by nagpaltusharn25