Rick Pitino: St. John's HC Rick Pitino "excited" as team lands Big Sky MVP through transfer portal

Idaho State point guard Dylan Darling has committed to Rick Pitino's St. John's after entering the transfer portal. The 6-foot-1 guard had a fantastic season with the Bengals and could be a crucial addition to St. John's.

Pitino was ecstatic with the signing. He expressed his joy via an X (formerly Twitter) post on Saturday highlighting Darling's phenomenal season for Idaho State.

"Loved Dylan Darling's workout at SJU. Hard worker and talented point guard. Love his PHD! Exactly what our culture is all about. Excited!" Rick Pitino tweeted.

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The St. John's Red Storm are planning for a big offseason with multiple incoming players after they lost to Arkansas and crashed out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Rick Pitino's Red Storm will hugely benefit from Dylan Darling's arrival

Dylan Darling, who was named the Most Valuable Player in the Big Sky Conference, will add great value to the Red Storm roster, especially with his superlative shooting. He averaged 19.8 points, 5.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 44.1% from the field and 35.6% from the 3-point line.

NCAA Basketball: Oregon State at Washington State - Source: Imagn

Despite his heroics, the Idaho State Bengals finished fourth in the Big Sky Conference with a middling 8-10 record. In the Big Sky Tournament, the Bengals defeated Portland State in the quarterfinals before losing to Montana State in the semifinals.

Before making it big at Idaho State, he was with Washington State in 2022 but joined the Bengals with the hope of getting more game time. It worked wonders for the sophomore guard as he was one of the best offensive players in college basketball last season.

St. John's did well last season, winning the conference and the tournament in the Big East after finishing with an 18-2 record. The Red Storm defeated Creighton in the Big East tournament final but crashed out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Dyland Darling's arrival will surely boost their offensive game and will help Rick Pitino's men make a deep postseason run.

About the author

Atrayo Bhattacharya is a college sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over seven years of experience in the field. He holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and has worked for Khel Now, Sportz Interactive, Sports Rush and Newsbytes.

Atrayo follows Football, Cricket, NBA, Tennis, F1 and World Athletics and is a big fan of Bayern Munich and the Boston Celtics. He also supports the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.

On the college scene, the Duke Blue Devils are Atrayo's favorite college team. They have an incredible legacy in the NCAA and Atrayo's favorite player, Jayson Tatum, came out of Duke.

Atrayo has interviewed quite a few international footballers like Roman Weidenfeller, Lothar Matthaus, Jens Lehmann, and Sarpreet Singh other than interviewing several personalities from the Indian Football Ecosystem.

When he is not watching or writing sports, Atrayo is either playing games or binge-watching a new TV series.

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Edited by Debasish