David Jones had loads of choices within the switch portal.
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When David Jones entered the switch portal, his cellphone lit up like a Christmas tree, faculty coaches attempting to become involved with the gifted DePaul switch.
However beating all of them to the punch was a participant — St. John’s affable large man Joel Soriano. It was the primary name Jones fielded.
“He was like, you recognize what to do,” he recalled in a cellphone interview with The Put up, just a few days after verbally committing to St. John’s and coach Mike Anderson’s program, an addition that provides the Johnnies a go-to scorer and extremely expert and versatile star able to serving to them attain the NCAA Match. “Joel’s been attempting to persuade me to go to St. John’s since final yr.”
There have been a variety of causes Jones picked the Johnnies, from the connection he rapidly constructed with assistant coach Greg “Footwear” Vetrone to the chance to play in an uptempo system that matches his sport to becoming a member of two pass-first level guards in Posh Alexander and Illinois switch Andre Curbelo he was very conversant in. Curbelo, specifically, was encouraging him to come back to St. John’s, too, sending him textual content messages about how he thought they might assist one another as teammates.
“I’m a fan of his sport,” Jones, probably the most coveted transfers in the marketplace, mentioned of Curbelo. “I simply love the way in which he performs, how a lot he makes his teammates higher.”
Teaming with Soriano, his shut pal, was up there. The 2 performed collectively on the Dominican Republic nationwide crew, and Soriano has been in Jones’ ear for some time about coming to St. John’s, and the way he might change final yr’s star, Julian Champagnie, because the crew’s high perimeter scorer.
Jones, a rising junior and former four-star recruit who averaged 14.5 factors, 7.4 rebounds and a couple of.4 assists final yr, additionally favored the concept of calling New York Metropolis — and its giant Latin neighborhood — residence. He has household and pals within the space and spent a part of the weekend within the metropolis in Washington Heights, which made him really feel like he was again residence within the Dominican Republic.
Jones mentioned he did focus on potential identify, picture and likeness alternatives with the St. John’s teaching workers, but it surely was far down the checklist of causes he opted to come back to Queens. As a world pupil within the nation on a pupil visa, he has issues he has to work out earlier than earning money off NIL. He doesn’t have any offers in the mean time.
After visiting St. John’s, Jones was contemplating visiting Memphis. However he opted in opposition to it and dedicated to the Johnnies. He felt Queens was the appropriate place for him — specifically due to Soriano and Curbelo.
“We’re Latinos. We perceive one another. We communicate the identical language,” he mentioned. “It’s like household.”
Jones didn’t need to make any predictions of what this crew can do subsequent yr, with a trio of himself, Curbelo and Alexander who all have the potential to be all-league gamers. He prefers to do his speaking on the court docket. However he's excited.
“I believe we’re going to do one thing particular in New York,” Jones mentioned.
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