Simeon Wilcher might be understandably worried.
If he wanted to know where he stood. If the additions of standout point guards Kadary Richmond and Davon Smith in the spring caused the rising sophomore to question his standing at St. John’s.
His best friend and teammate, Brady Dunlap, knows how it would feel if that happened to him.
“Definitely, I was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'” Dunlap said Wednesday as summer training continued in Queens. “He’s never had that attitude. He’s just kind of attacking it … ‘All right, here come these two guys, I’m going to fight them like I fought them before.’ [Daniss Jenkins]”And have the mindset of, ‘I’m going to get better and better.'”
The 6-foot-4 Wilcher doesn’t think it will hurt him. Smith and Richmond will make the Johnnies, and Wilcher himself, better.
After all, they needed to fill their backcourt positions after losing Jenkins, Jordan Dingle and Nahim Allain.
Wilcher thrived last year working out daily with Jenkins, who is in the NBA on a two-way contract with the Pistons, so competing with Smith and Richmond, two of the top guards who have entered the transfer portal, can only be a positive for him.
Above all, he wanted to win.
“I didn’t have any bad feelings or bad thoughts about it,” Wilcher said. “The two guys we brought in are not selfish people. We [ball]It doesn’t matter what my role changes to. I’m just here to be myself, play my game and see how I can contribute to this team.”
Additionally, while he may not technically be St. John’s point guard next season, his role as the team’s third guard will be important.
Coach Rick Pitino assured Richmond and Smith when they verbally committed to join the Red Storm within 24 hours in early May, and the plan is to have all three play together.
They played against DePaul University in February. Robert Sabo, NY Post
Neither of the new recruits are known as shooters. Neither has averaged more than 2.5 3-point attempts in their four years in college. Wilcher, meanwhile, has improved in that department late last year and so far this offseason. He’s become comfortable with missing shots. Pitino joked that Wilcher used to act like the world was ending whenever he missed a jump shot.
“he, [backcourt]”He should be the guy on the team taking the most 3-pointers. He’s going to be a scorer,” Pitino said. “I think he’s going to have a great season, just like you would expect him to have as a sophomore.”
Wilcher knows making shots will be crucial this winter and has worked diligently on his jump shot. He and Dunlap frequently take part in evening shooting drills, and the two motivate each other as arguably the top two 3-point shooters on the team.
Dunlap and Wilcher became close friends.
Both were four-star players coming out of high school but had to wait their turn last year, and they have relied on each other not only on the court but off it as well.
“It’s literally been the best thing that’s happened to me,” Wilcher said. “Not only are there people going through the same thing as me, but even though they’re in a different position than me, we have the same commonality. We can lift each other up.”
He added: “He’ll always be my guy.”
Dunlap has seen Wilcher improve since last season ended — he’s become more confident and sure of himself, less thinking and more reacting.
The best example of that might be St. John’s transfer portal activity, as Wilcher felt confident enough in himself to not worry about who the Johns brothers would bring in.
“The way he talks this year versus last year, he’s a totally different person,” Dunlap said. “I know there are high expectations already, but I think he’s going to surprise even more people with how dynamic he is and his ability to do so many different things.”
Wilcher believes last year was a big year for him, even though he only averaged 9.1 minutes across 28 games.
He learned a lot by watching and practicing with his older teammates, and now he feels ready to make an impact on the court.
“We’re super excited,” Wilcher said. “That’s what we came to college for – to get a chance to go out there and play and show everybody what we can do.”
