Zuby Ejiofor’s big senior season now includes the Big East Defensive Player of the Year award.
The St. John’s star was announced as the league’s winner on Monday, a day after he was a unanimous selection to the Big East’s first team.
He beat out teammate Dillon Mitchell and Connecticut guard Silas Demary Jr., among others, for the honor.
Ejiofor becomes the fifth St. John’s player to win the award, joining Posh Alexander (2021), Justin Simon (2019), Sir’Dominic Pointer (2015) and Mark Jackson (1987).
He was the backbone of the Johnnies’ 14th-ranked defense in terms of efficiency. They also led the Big East in defense in league play.
In December, in wins over Ole Miss and Iona, Ejiofor was the first Division I player to record eight blocks in back-to-back games since Obinna Anochili-Killen of Marshall in November 2021.
On Wednesday, the 6-foot-9 Ejiofor could be named the Big East’s Player of the Year. He would become the first Johnnie to be named the Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Only seven players have done that before in conference history. Villanova’s Josh Hart was the last one, in 2017.
It was a remarkable year for Ejiofor, who led St. John’s to back-to-back outright Big East regular-season crowns and the No. 1 seed in this week’s Big East Tournament. Ejiofor is averaging team highs of 16.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks.
Coach Rick Pitino recently compared Ejiofor’s impact to that of one of his all-time great players, Jamal Mashburn.
“He turned around the building [at Kentucky] from four years to two years. The same thing is true of Zuby,” Pitino said of Ejiofor. “This place was dead. Zuby played behind Joel [Soriano] for one year, and like Mashburn helped turn around Kentucky, Zuby helped the turnaround here [at] St. John’s. Culture-wise, as well as on-the-court play.”
A top 50 high school recruit out of Garland, Texas, Ejiofor spent one year at Kansas before transferring to St. John’s. He was a backup as a sophomore before becoming one of the premier forwards in the country the past two years.
He helped the Red Storm win their first Big East Tournament title since 2000 last March, and is hoping to lead them to a repeat this week. St. John’s meets the winner between No. 8 seed Butler and No. 9 seed Providence in the quarterfinals Thursday at noon at the Garden.
