Recruiting: St. John’s offers 2017 forward Alex Yetna

According to Corey Evans of HoopSeen, St. John's has offered 2017 power forward Alexis Yetna, a 6'7" forward originally from France but currently playing for the Putnam Science Academy team.

St. John’s is known to have a need for big men, and it is believed that Chris Mullin and the staff is contacting immediately-eligible forwards to help rebound and defend in the paint, a major weakness for this year’s Red Storm team. And with Darien Williams transferring out (and Yankuba Sima gone from the middle of the season), the Red Storm have ample room for tough big men.

Where could Yetna fit?

Alex Yetna played AAU ball for Team Belief on the Adidas circuit last spring, participating in both the Adidas Gauntlet (eight games against other likely Division I recruits) and the Adidas Eurocamp.

The left-handed forward appears to be a strong rebounder. He averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds in the eight Adidas Gauntlet games, shooting 58% from the field on two-pointers and 33% on threes (along with 58% from the free throw line).

For those who want more detail - Alex Yetna used 20% of the team's possessions and grabbed 21% of available defensive rebounds, plus 11% of the offensive rebounds. he turned the ball over on 21% of his possessions - high for a forward, but that may be due to the style of play in summer basketball, where attacking is more important than ball protection.

Photo by Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images for Adidas

Translating from high school to college, it seems like Yetna is a good rebounder - perhaps not the kind of extreme rebounder players like Rico Gathers or Angel Delgado were on the AAU circuit, but Yetna has a strong chance to be very good, especially with some work in building muscle and size.

Fans will like this blurb:

Despite being a bit undersized in the post, the super hard playing and active power forward completed a double-double during his first contest without having a single play called for him. The French import display a go-to hook over his right shoulder and a major nose for the ball on the glass; expect a major increase in the attention for the Putnam forward in the coming weeks.

Iowa State had interest in Yetna (and likely still does, since Yetna has a tweet about the offer pinned to his Twitter account); Rhode Island, New Mexico, Georgia and others seem to have strong interest in Yetna as well.

Yetna is ranked #255 in the 247 Sports Composite score.

Video:

Alexis Yetna is number 21 in this highlight video from 2016.

From the Adidias Eurocamp - in other words, against better competition - is another video of Alex Yetna, this one of true game footage.

This handcam work made me more nauseous than the time I saw the movie Dancer in the dark in the theater, but starting at 9:51, Yetna comes in for Team USA. He's #12 and comes in for one of the starting bigs in a changeover at the free throw line.

Your thoughts? Excited about the possibility of adding Alex Yetna in the spring signing period?