2016 five-star small forward Rawle Alkins recently decided to take his talents to North Carolina for his final season of high school basketball, but that doesn't mean the number one player in the state of New York will completely forget and set aside the city he grew up in.
On Wednesday, Alkins took an unofficial visit to St. John's and even posted what was a very positive picture on his Twitter account.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> ⚪️ <a href="http://t.co/pLChEUGjB0">pic.twitter.com/pLChEUGjB0</a></p>— Rawle Alkins (@Iam_RawleAlkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/Iam_RawleAlkins/status/641698823102963712">September 9, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Johnnies will have stiff competition for Alkins' services as he has offers from Kentucky, Arizona, Cincinnati, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Providence, Villanova and Texas, amongst others. St. John's, Kentucky and Indiana are currently working the hardest to land the top 15 prospect but anytime your staff is working against Calipari it will certainly be an uphill battle.
Alkins is a program changing type of player because of his unique combination of power and athleticism. He is strong when attacking the basket, continues to develop his jump shot and defense and is fearless no matter who he is playing against.
The Brooklyn native would be a perfect fit for Mullin's up-tempo style of play because of his ability in transition and his high level motor.
Alkins wasn't the only 2016 prospect on the St. John's campus on Wednesday as German forward Richard Freudenberg returned for a second look.
Mullin has had tremendous success internationally as he has added players from Italy (Federico Mussini), Spain (Yankuba Sima), France (Ron Mvouika) and Mali (Kassoum Yakwe). There is no doubt Freudenberg is intrigued by the possibly of playing with a program that has a unique, diverse group of players in terms of skill set and cultural background.
In addition to St. John's, the 6'8" forward has taken visits to Vanderbilt, Miami and Boston College.
Mullin finished up his day with an in-home visit with 2016 lefty guard from Brooklyn, Shamorie Ponds, who visited the Queens campus earlier in the month.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big day for Chris Mullin seeing Shamorie Ponds and Rawle Alkins <a href="http://t.co/mQoKOXipMV">pic.twitter.com/mQoKOXipMV</a></p>— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamZagoria/status/641712827053568000">September 9, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ponds is ranked 42nd in ESPN's top 100 recruiting list but his stock rapidly rose this summer due to his range, scoring ability, handles and passing.
Ponds has visited Creighton (in addition to the Johnnies) and plans to take two more visits later this month, Providence and Minnesota (who both will have their chances to talk with Ponds this week)
On Thursday, Mullin and his staff will meet with Bashir Ahmed, who is one of the top JUCO recruits in the country and a native of the Bronx.
According to Zach Braziller of the New York Post, the St. John's staff are traveling to Putnam Science Academy to see 2017 point guard Hamidou Diallo and 2018 shooting guard Eric Ayala.
Diallo played his summer basketball with the New York Jayhawks while Ayala plays for WE R1.