Rick Pitino figured that if Bill Self had recruited Zuby Ejiofor to Kansas, the talent was there.While Pitino caught glimpses of Ejiofor’s ability last season after recruiting him to St. John’s as Joel Soriano’s backup, he is starting to see more breakout performances, including an impressive 28-point, 13-rebound showing against Kansas State.Four days after Ejiofor’s best game of his career, the Red Storm host Bryant on Wednesday night in New York.The Red Storm (7-2) are seeking their third straight win since returning from a 1-2 trip to the Bahamas. Ejiofor’s scoring average climbed from 11.8 to 13.6 after he scored 17 of his points in the second half against Kansas State to help St. John’s turn a four-point halftime deficit into an 88-71 win.It was Ejiofor’s third double-double and third 20-point game after he scored 22 points in losses to Baylor and Georgia, and he is emerging after averaging 4.3 points in Pitino’s first season and 1.2 points in his only season at Kansas.”If Zuby played for School X with his statistics and his analytics, I wouldn’t have recruited him,” Pitino said. “But because he played for Bill Self, one of the premier coaches in our game, I knew he’d be fundamentally sound (and) I knew he’d know how to work hard.”And that’s one of the keys to evaluating who they play for. That was a big factor in why I recruited him, because he played for Bill Self, because if you looked at his statistics, you wouldn’t recruit him.”
