St. John’s recruiting: 2017 wing Sid Wilson commits to the Red Storm

In a bit of a surprise - since St. John’s wasn’t high on his recruitment list a few months ago - St. John’s landed a commitment from Sidney Wilson, a local wing who last played at Brewster Academy.

Wilson, 6’7” and a slim scorer at 185 pounds, had interest from Syracuse and Maryland a month ago. His final three choices were St. John’s, UConn and Texas.

A Bronx native, Wilson had played at St. Raymond’s School before transferring to prep power Brewster Academy last season. Initially, he planned to play a post-grad year and declare as a member of the class of 2018, but in recent months he moved up his timetable.

Wilson brings athleticism and potential to St. John’s. He’s known as a solid scorer with high level bounciness. His high school coach at Brewster, Jason Smith, evaluated him as follows (from Syracuse.com):

"Sid is ultra-athletic. He's best described as a hybrid forward.... When he arrived here, he was more of a four than a three, but he is trending as a three. He's the highest level athlete, a very good catch and shoot player from the perimeter. He needs to improve being able to take his man off the dribble."

According to the NY Post, the Bronx-born player was attracted to playing at home.

Wilson visited St. John’s last weekend following a visit to UConn, and was impressed by the coaching’s staff’s three-year plan for graduating and reaching the next level, a source said. The idea of playing close to home and creating a legacy as a homegrown player who helped bring St. John’s back to relevance was appealing,

A 6-foot-7 wing with a 7-foot wingspan, Wilson likely will see significant time as a freshman as an undersized power forward on St. John’s thin front line. A gifted athlete with sky-high leaping ability, Wilson averaged 17.2 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 60 percent from the field for Brewster, which went undefeated and won the NEPSAC Class AAA championship and National Prep Championship.

Playing behind Bashir Ahmed, he will give St. John’s an athletic and quick option on the wing - and the opportunity to play a quick lineup with Ahmed or Wilson as a power forward, potentially. The Johnnies now have two wing options for when Ahmed graduates - Wilson, and 2018 commit Boubacar Diakite, who is recovering from offseason knee surgery.

Wilson may be the sole freshman addition to the roster, but not the only newcomer. Transfer Mikey Dixon joined this offseason from Quinnipiac and will sit out a year.

The Johnnies return star guards Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett, shooter Federico Mussini, Ahmed, center Tariq Owens, forwards Kassoum Yakwe and Amir Alibegovic and add Justin Simon and Marvin Clark, highly-rated players who sat out last season as transfers from Arizona and Michigan State, respectively.

Sidney Wilson Highlights