Yonkers Native To Seize Leadership Reins
A 6-foot-11 mountain man who has now made conditioning a livelihood, Yonkers native and Stepinac HS product Joel Soriano will relish a critical leadership role at St. John's this season. There is an abundance of high expectations, hype, and hearsay swirling around this St. John's program. Since legendary head coach Rick Pitino re-tooled the entire roster, St. John's has had lofty expectations to break an agonizing 24-year drought, as the program has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2000.
Pitino's new-look squad is still familiarizing themselves with each other, albeit SJU is rife with proven veteran transfer talent and considerable depth.
And while the program has significant expectations for hard slashing, bullish 6-foot-6 power forward Chris Ledlum (a grad transfer via Harvard) as well as prolific scoring guard and Penn transfer Jordan Dingle. Soriano has the pedigree and personally to inherit some ownership of this year's team. Coming off a career year in which he averaged 15.2 points and 11.9 rebounds and gathered 25 double-doubles as a stabilizing interior cog, Soriano is the lone returner from last season. The remainder of last year's roster was encouraged to pursue the transfer portal, as Pitino did not exactly receive glowing reports on them.
St. John's kick-started last season in promising fashion, only to falter during a listless overall season which included various in-house sideshows. Fans were aggressively calling for Mike Anderson's job during the stretch run. There was a collective desire to refresh the once national brand. That's when Pitino, who revitalized his Hall of Fame career at nearby Iona College, came into the picture and essentially shouldered the role of savior. Soriano initially said he would only return for his fifth year if Anderson is coaching him. If not, he was transfer portal bound.
One thorough conversation with Pitino, which took place over dinner the night prior to Pitino's introductory press conference, rapidly changed Soriano's outlook. Pitino sold Soriano on his vision for him and wound up naming him the team's captain for the much anticipated 2023-2024 campaign. Despite Soriano's status as one of the oldest guys on the team at 23, Pitino was quick to note that the veteran double-double threat has the most upside out of anyone on the roster. Soriano will expand on his role this season by diversifying his offensive portfolio, as he's incorporated an outside shooting touch to his repertoire. Soriano made it clear, from his first face to face encounter with Pitino at dinner, that he wants to be held to a high standard. Throughout his career at both Fordham and St. John's, Soriano has proven himself to be extremely coachable and receptive to criticism. He's cognizant that hard coaching is an essential recipe for him to ascend to the unparalleled career heights he reached last season as the focal point.
Soriano was an absolute bulldozer on the glass and played with a sustained relentlessness, even while the team seemed disengaged and lackluster at times. Pitino has stayed true to his word to coach up Soriano and give him nary a slither of entitlement or breathing room. Pitino recently stated that Iona transfer Daniss Jenkins and Chris Ledlum are the only guaranteed starters thus far. Every other spot is still up for grabs. Pitino recently said that Soriano didn't make a sizable pre-season impression until recently. Conditioning has always been a main priority for Soriano, who dropped 20+ pounds from his junior season to his senior season and kicked the habit of late-night snacks.
This season, however, as Pitino explained, he has transformed his body while reaching the best shape of his life. Pitino explained that Soriano had been getting beat out by high motored and full throttle 6-foot-9 Kansas transfer Zuby Efiojor. Soriano has since upped the ante, he's beating guys on runouts. He's lighter on his feet and more vertically explosive. And he is bolstered by a maniacal rebounding presence which should again catapult him to one of the best in the country in that category.