Within the historic night Zuby Ejiofor on MSG: “Every coach wants a player like him”

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Zuby Ejiofor The change of destination is required after one year of college. A four -star -star look that went Kansas Playing under the Hall of Famer Bill Self, his first season in college basketball resulted in 1.2 points and 1.7 rebounds in 5.2 minutes per game.

Ejiofor knew he could do more in 2023, but he needed someone to get him out of him.

On Friday night, 6 feet junior and 9 started off the floor in Madison Square Garden to standing ovations singing their name. He made it St. John The history of the University. He made the history of the Big East.

Ejiofor scored a high 33 career points and added nine rebounds, while St. John’s ranked 79-63 over Marquette and a place in the first Big East Championship Championship, for the first time since 2000.

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Go over to Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Malik Sealy. Ejiofor’s Masterclass resulted in the highest results of St. John in the history of the tournament at BIG East and the highest results of any player in the semi-final match of the Big East Tournament from Kemba Walker back in 2011.

Zuby Ejiofor ends and 1 St.

Main coach St. John Rick Pitino described his team as a group that “goes against many numbers”, and in some ways, which corresponds to Ejiofor, whom he accidentally found in Aau -in by the man who became his mentor and called his other father, Dr. Andy Philachack.

Philachack was a coach in the Aau Circle who approached Ejiofor after the game and told him that if he played with his son on their team, he would help him transform his game.

So when Ejiofor sought a second destination in college, Philachack told him that he had been looking at Pitino for a long time. Philachack knew that the Hall of Famer was developing like Billy Donovan, Tony Delka, Peyton Gray, Donovan Mitchell and more. He wanted that for his second son.

“When Zuby came in, I went through a heavy player’s session,” Pitino said. “The first thing I noticed was that he never complained about the exercises. He went through it.

“Every coach wants to have a player like (Zuby): selfless, and he just cares about it. You are blessed in training. I train 50 years, and very little is Zubyss who comes to just think about the team.”

When Ejiofor made the decision to commit to Pitino and Red stormSelf told him that he was getting a diligent worker and a great child, but that a transgression needed a job. A few weeks later, Pitino began to send only the video of Ejiofor, who worked with him and released. It was a way to joke with him, but also show the evolution of his transfer portal.

Development in Ejiofor’s game was full on Friday night, when St. John’s Up 10 with 12:42 Other available from traffic. He sent Madison Square Garden in anger a few minutes later, throwing a shout at 5:26 left to put Johnnies 14. For Ejiofor, it was not just a master class, but also an answer after a game in which he scored only four points on recording 2 of 4.

“I just leave the past in the past,” Ejiofor said. “Obviously, I did not play at the level of my game and the standard that is a coach (Pitino) and everyone expected me from me. So today I just came out more aggressively and my teammates managed to find me in situations where I could be successful.

“When we play each other and when everyone is really locked in defense, we are a really scary team.”

Yes, Pitino Johnnies are really scary for the rest of the Big East and every other team during a fax basketball. They are an elite defensive group, which held Marquette at only 2 out of 24 from 3 points after Golden Eagles started a 4-off-5 game from the city center.

“We just hate to lose, and that’s really because a man who hates him more than anything in the world,” Ejiofor said in relation to Pitino.

That hatred of defeat and starving to rise to the top is what led to the New York City to fall in love with this team of St. John. This is also what the red storm is 40 minutes from winning another trophy.

John Fanta is national basketball television and a Fox Sports writer. It covers the sport in various capacities, from the invitation of the games to the FS1 to serving as the leading host on the Big East Digital Network to provide comments on the field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on @John_fant.

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