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2015 shooting guard Malik Ellison commits to St. John’s

Chris Mullin

AP Photo

AP

St. John’s picked up another commitment in the Class of 2015 Friday afternoon, as New Jersey shooting guard Malik Ellison committed to the Big East program. The 6-foot-6 Ellison, who attends Life Center Academy in Burlington, New Jersey, held offers from programs such as Minnesota, Rutgers and South Carolina but ultimately decided that playing for Chris Mullin would be best for him.

Ellison, who held a press conference to announce his decision, is the son of former Louisville and NBA big man Pervis Ellison. He was on the St. John’s campus earlier this week, as was Durand Johnson who announced that he’ll join the program as a graduate student after spending four years at Pittsburgh.

A broken tibia suffered last summer impacted his recruitment, but Ellison’s back to full strength according to SNY.tv.

Ellison suffered a broken tibia last summer and did not return to action until December.

“But because of that, that slowed his recruiting,” Konchalski said. “Once he was healthy and he got his athleticism back, he’s a 100 percent now. And in fact his athleticism is a lot better than it was a year ago. He played well up at the Hoophall up in Springfield and people liked him up there.

“He’s young physically and he’s just getting better and better. Obviously, he has impeccable athletic DNA. ‘Never Nervous Pervis’ [Ellison] was the MVP of the 1986 Final Four for Louisville when they beat Duke in the final.”


Ellison is the sixth addition to the program since Mullin and his staff took over, with five of the players eligible to play in 2015-16. Tariq Owens, who transferred in from Tennessee, will have to sit per NCAA transfer rules. Ellison joins center Yankuba Sims as the lone freshmen in the 2015 class for the Red Storm, with Johnson and Ron Mvuioka being graduate students and junior college transfer Darien Williams being a sophomore.

They join a roster expected to be led by point guard Rysheed Jordan and center Chris Obekpa. Felix Balamou, Christian Jones and Amar Alibegovic also return from last season’s NCAA tournament team.