St. John's Zuby Ejiofor named Big East Defensive Player of the Year
St. John's Red Storm forward Zuby Ejiofor defends a shot attempt by Georgetown Hoyas forward Jayden Fort at Madison Square Garden on March 3, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Zuby Ejiofor continues to accrue postseason hardware.
On Monday morning, the St. John’s center was tabbed as the Big East’s Defensive Player of the Year as the conference gave out several individual awards voted on by the coaches. This comes a day after he was the only player to be selected unanimously to the All-Big East first team.
Ejiofor is the fifth St. John’s player to win the award, joining Mark Jackson, Sir’Dominic Pointer, Justin Simon and Posh Alexander.
Ejiofor showed that he not only had the strength to battle on the interior with big men but also the quickness to switch out and cover a guard. He leads the Red Storm (25-6), who won the Big East regular-season title this past weekend, with 61 blocked shots and 36 steals. He is one of only two high-major players to have 60 blocks and 30 steals this season.
The top-seeded Storm will play in a Big East Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday at noon against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between No. 8 Butler and No. 9 Providence.
Devin Askew of Villanova was voted the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year, Tyler Perkins of Villanova was the Most Improved Player and Creighton’s Josh Dix received the Sportsmanship Award.
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.
