Hawks select St. John's star Zuby Ejiofor in first round of NBA Draft
St. John's Zuby Ejiofor reacts in the Big East men’s basketball tournament final against the UConn Huskies at Madison Square Garden on March 14, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Zuby Ejiofor’s sensational senior season got a perfect ending.
St. John’s star center ended his college career as a first-round pick in the NBA Draft after he was selected at No. 23 by Atlanta on Tuesday night at Barclays Center. When NBA commissioner Adam Silver called his name at 10:40 p.m., Ejiofor became the first Red Storm player to be taken in the first round since Maurice Harkless was chosen by Philadelphia at No. 15 in 2012.
Osni Saleh, the Hawks' president of basketball operations, indicated the club wanted something specific when they selected Houston guard Kingston Flemings at No. 8 and Ejiofor. “We brought in the two best competitors in the draft, guys that compete at a high level on both ends every day,” he said.
The 6-8 Ejiofor — the 18th first-round pick that Rick Pitino has coached — was nothing short of spectacular this past season in propelling St. John’s to its first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 since 1999. His averages of 16.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 blocked shots were all team highs and he was voted the Big East Player of the Year unanimously by conference coaches. He was the only high-major player in the country to lead his program in all four statistics.
Ejiofor was also voted the Big East Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and received from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation’s best center.
It’s almost hard to believe that these accomplishments came from a player who transferred from Kansas after averaging just 5.1 minutes for the Jayhawks as a freshman and arrived as a solid defender with few offensive skills. He’s not that player anymore.
“Zuby, the guy's a beast if you’ve seen him play at St. John's,” Saleh said. “This guy is somebody that you see in playoff basketball.
“You're talking about a guy that switches one-through-five: could guard point guards, guard bigs, could guard big wings. [It’s] like it doesn't really matter . . . With him, we like the high-level processing he has offensively. It’s just like he makes the right play every single time.”
As impressive as the list of Ejiofor’s individual accolades were, he was always most proud of team achievements and was especially thrilled when the Red Storm won the Big East regular-season and tournament championships for a second straight year, a conference first.
At the Selection Sunday event at Carnesecca Arena, Pitino announced that Ejiofor will be enshrined in a ring-of-honor style display with 10 other St. John’s greats, including Chris Mullin, Walter Berry and Malik Sealy.
Ejiofor is the first St. John’s player selected in the NBA Draft since 2015, when Sir’Dominic Pointer was chosen by Cleveland at No. 53.
St. John’s and its fans could be in for more good news Wednesday. The other two members of the sensational Red Storm front line – Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins – could hear their names called. The draft projection posted on Tuesday at ESPN.com had Mitchell as the 38th pick and Hopkins as the 56th pick. The one posted on the Yahoo! website had Mitchell at No. 37 and Hopkins at No. 44.
St. John’s hasn’t had two players taken in the same draft since 2000 and the last time it had more than two picked in the same draft was 1983, when it was a 10-round event.
The three Storm standouts had plenty of special moments in their one season together and are hoping this draft can be one more for them to share.
“I’ve definitely thought about it,” Hopkins said on a zoom interview Sunday from Chicago. “It [would] be crazy. [After] everything this year that we were able to do for St. John's [and] the Sweet 16 run we had. I think about the times and all the memories that we created with each other this year and this is going to be truly special if all of us hear our names called.
“I think we have a great chance of it happening.”
Asked in a zoom interview Sunday from Houston about the notion of all three of them getting selected. Mitchell replied: “You know, we battled the whole past year at St. John's together and it's a brotherhood, especially with those two other guys just being on the court . . . and fighting every day for each other, no matter what happened.
“It'll mean a lot to see all three of our names called and have [the] opportunity to play at the next level,” Mitchell added. “I know it'll mean a lot for St. John's fans, as well.”
Gimenez on board. St. John’s got a commitment from 6-6 swingman Gildas Gimenez. The 19-year-old from Spain played high school basketball this past season for Bella Vista College Prep School in Phoenix.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
