St. John’s has received the best news of the early season, and it has nothing to do with what’s happening on the court.
Four-star and consensus top-100 forward Brandon Gardner will sign with the school on Wednesday after recently saying he would wait.
“They’ve been loyal to me. There’s not a lot of loyal people in this basketball business,” he told The Post. “I trust them in this process.”
A highly regarded 6-foot-8 forward who verbally committed to St. John’s in June, Gardner transferred to Christ the King in Queens for his senior season. He picked the Johnnies over Auburn, Georgetown, and LSU, among others. St. John’s missed on their other top targets, losing Brandon Williams to UCLA and Carl Cherenfant to Memphis, though they recently landed junior college All-American forward Yaxel Lendeborg. Gardner will become the second four-star recruit to sign with St. John’s in the Anderson era.
Brandon Gardner is one of the highest-rated prospects St. John’s has ever landed. Courtesy of Tameka Gordon “I wouldn’t say I was having second thoughts,” Gardner said. “We were having conversations, me and my mom and my people, the what-if conversations.”
But Gardner decided there was no reason to wait. He attended St. John’s win over Lafayette on Saturday and has become close to several current Johnnies, such as Posh Alexander, David Jones, and longtime friend AJ Storr.
“I talk to AJ probably every day,” he said. “He was talking to me about the decision. He was just saying, trust the process, don’t let the outsiders come in. It’s really family here, stuff like that.”
