Dylan Darling, the NCAA tournament hero for St. John’s, entered the transfer portal Tuesday, sources told ESPN, hours after the Red Storm landed highly touted European point guard Quinn Ellis.
Darling, who started the final nine games of the season and made the game-winning layup to beat Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament, played under Rick Pitino for one season at St. John’s. He started his career at Washington State and then played one season at Idaho State.
A 6-foot-1 point guard, Darling averaged 19.8 points and 5.7 assists at Idaho State in 2024-25, then committed to St. John’s last spring with the expectation of a backup role. But the Red Storm had point guard issues for much of the season, forcing Pitino to lean on Darling to start 15 games and average more than 21 minutes. He had huge games in Big East play against Providence (23 points), Xavier (16 points) and Creighton (17 points), while also hitting big shots throughout league play.
The junior averaged 6.9 points and 2.6 assists on the season.
St. John’s already has Darling’s replacement, landing a commitment earlier Tuesday from Ellis. The English star had a long list of high-level programs in pursuit at various times over the last few weeks, including Louisville and Duke.
Ellis, a 6-5 point guard, has played 141 games of top-division professional basketball in Italy, including 35 games this season in the EuroLeague and 24 in the Lega Basket Serie A. For Olimpia Milano this season, Ellis averaged 8.4 points and 4.4 assists in the EuroLeague, shooting 37.7% from 3-point range. He has won back-to-back Italian Cups, first with Aquila Trento — when he was named Finals MVP — and then with Olimpia Milano.
Ellis has also represented Great Britain internationally, starting as a member of the under-16 team in 2019 and as a member of the senior national team in the last two European qualifiers and in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers.
Along with Darling, St. John’s is set to lose starters Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins and Oziyah Sellers. High-ceiling scoring guards Ian Jackson and Joson Sanon are expected to return, as is reserve big man Ruben Prey.
Pitino still has plenty of work to do in the transfer portal, however.
