St. John’s misses cut for 2018 five-star Nassir Little

The St. John’s Red Storm’s pursuit of 2018 five-star Nassir Little concluded Wednesday night.

Little, a native of Orlando, Florida, announced his top five choices on Twitter. North Carolina, Arizona, Miami, Duke and Georgia Tech are now the programs that he will be deciding between:

St. John’s had been in pursuit of the Orlando Christian Prep small forward for some time now. They were not the only ones who’d been recruiting him for a while to be left on the outside looking in, either. Florida was originally one of the hardest pursuers for Little. That all seemed to change for both the Gators and the Johnnies this summer. Little had blown up quite a bit on the summer circuit and a much wider net was cast on him as a result.

Missing out on a player of Nassir Little’s caliber is certainly a blow. Little is ranked in the Top 25 in 2018, listed 22nd among all recruits. He finds himself fifth among both small forwards and in the state of Florida as well.

Had Chris Mullin and his staff gotten him to commit down the road, he would’ve ranked as St. John’s best commit since 247Sports started ranking recruits. His 0.9919 rating is higher than that of JaKarr Sampson, Shamorie Ponds, D’Angelo Harrison and Mo Harkless among other Red Storm luminaries.

Kelly Kline / Under Armour

With Little out of the equation, St. John’s must now turn to other alternatives. There are plenty of 2018 players they’re targeting who can join Boubacar Diakite in their class.

Luther Muhammad, for one, remains a solid target for the Johnnies. The Hudson Catholic shooting guard had picked up traction from St. John’s in late June but his status for now is unknown. He did include the Red Storm in a recent cutdown, so they at least remain in the chase. They also are still pursuing Texas’ Morris Udeze. Udeze is a power forward who named the Johnnies in his Top 10 recently and has been gaining lots of traction lately.