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Morning Rumble: St. John's recruiting UNLV transfer Dwayne Morgan, recruiting updates

A focus on transfers who will NOT be available next season?

By Norman Rose
Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports

Today, it's a roundup of St. John's related nuggets for the Rumble, featuring a look at new transfer target Dwayne Morgan, notes on Justin Simon and Marvin Clark and the third "Greek Freak", and notes on two of the incoming recruits. Jump to notes on other recruits; jump to notes on St. John's commits.

St. John's is looking at a transfer from UNLV named Dwayne Morgan, a former five-star recruit from Baltimore, Maryland.

Interesting. He is known to be an explosive athlete, but did not have explosive numbers at UNLV. He averaged 5 ppg/ 4 rpg, started 22 of 27 games for UNLV, though he played less than half of the minutes available behind talents like Patrick McCaw and Ike Nwamu.

His offensive rebounding numbers were decent (grabbed 9% of offensive boards), and his defensive rebounding (grabbed 16% of rebounds) improved. He had a very good block (3% of available shots) and steal (1.3% of opponent possessions) rate and shot 77% from the free throw line.

But Dwayne Morgan shot 44% on two-pointers and turned the ball over on 26% of his possessions, while also committing nearly 7 fouls per 40 minutes; he had four or more fouls in 16 of his 25 games, fouling out of three of those contests.

Defending TOO hard, perhaps?

UNLV went 18-15 on the season and went through a coaching change mid-season. The UNLV Runnin' Rebels have moved on from their interim coach to hire Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Beard.

Other recruiting notes

Kostas Antetokounmpo is a 6'10" senior who currently lives in Milwaukee, is from Greece, and is the younger brother to NBA players Giannis and Thanassis. He has interest from St. John's.

He also thinks he should play as a guard or a small forward. More on this to come.

Justin Simon, one of the transfer targets, is visiting Oklahoma State this weekend and new coach Brad Underwood, previously of Stephen F. Austin. Simon is a transfer from Arizona who would not be available next season, but will have three years of eligibility afterwards. He is a former top-50 recruit, a 6'5" wing.

Marvin Clark, a 6'6' forward, will visit Providence this weekend. He is a sophomore and will need to sit out a year, like Justin Simon, before becoming eligible in 2017-18.

And St. John's has an unofficial visit coming from a 2018 wing.

Incoming Players

Bashir Ahmed named to the Junior College All-American team for a second year in a row.

Shamorie Ponds poses with his Jordan Brand Classic poster.

Blessings & Accomplishments #BrooklynMade #7️⃣1️⃣8️⃣

A photo posted by @_slicck_ on

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