St. John's lands 2015 guard Samir Doughty from Philadelphia

St. John's, with up to nine scholarships to fill next year, got a start on their 2015 class with Philadelphia guard Samir Doughty, a 6'4" guard from Math Civics and Science Charter school.

Doughty chose St. John's over Penn State, George Mason, Seton Hall, Lasalle, UNC-Wilmington, Western KY, Bowling Green and James Madison. He will sign a National Letter of Intent tomorrow at the school, binding him to St. John's (unless the school allows him out of his letter by request).

Doughty visited last weekend for the NJIT game.

Doughty, a three-star guard by most recruiting services, is a physical guard, powering into lanes to get his buckets. According to his coach, Lonnie Diggs, Samir is a "multi-skilled combo guard... [who] has matured greatly over the past year; [he is] very underrated."

Samir Doughty and his school (MC&S) will play Lincoln High School in December in the Jordan Brand Tri-State Classic and will take on St. Benedict's Prep at the SFIC Basketball Festival at Kean College.

From Scout.com's basketball recruiting analyst, Brian Snow:

Samir Doughty is a solid pledge for St. John's. Can get to the rim and a pretty good athlete

— Brian Snow (@BSnowScout) November 18, 2014

Next year's Red Storm squad is expected to return Christian Jones, Felix Balamou and Amar Alibegovic, along with Adonis De La Rosa, so Steve Lavin and the Johnnies have a start, but have a lot of work to go in recruiting.

The Red Storm hope Baton Rouge guard Brandon Sampson and Our Savior New American forward Cheick Diallo choose St. John's, but prospects of landing those players became much more murky after Isaiah Briscoe committed to Kentucky.

Steve Lavin has also been pursuing Italian scoring guard Federico Mussini.

Highlight video of Samir Doughty