The transfer portal for men’s college basketball is essential to the game and each team’s success. In four of the past five seasons, the national champion had added at least one player ranked from the top-20 transfers list from the prior offseason, and the St. John's Red Storm is looking to replicate that.

ESPN takes into account the transfer talent lost and gained by creating a balance sheet, which is tracked on a specific scale. This is based on each player’s ranking in the 2026-27 transfer rankings, with the point system as follows:

Nos. 1-10: 5 points

Nos. 11-25: 4

Nos. 26-45: 3

Nos. 46-70: 2

Nos. 71-100: 1

When it comes to St. John’s, they used the transfer portal to their advantage in a major way. It is a huge part of how their roster is constructed. The Red Storm is ranked No. 5 on the list of most transfer talent added for the 2026-27 season.

St. John’s garnered eight points overall on this list. Their two transfer additions include No. 4-ranked transfer Tounde Yessoufou, whom they received from Baylor (+5), as well as No. 14 Donnie Freeman, whom they received from Syracuse (+4).

St. John's added impact talent in transfer portal

The Red Storm lost a pair of players via the transfer portal: Dylan Darling to Grand Canyon and Joson Sanon to West Virginia. Neither of these players was ranked in the 2026-27 transfer rankings list.

Coming in at No. 5 on this list of the most transfer talent added, St. John’s only trails the Tennessee Volunteers, Texas Longhorns, Indiana Hoosiers and the Louisville Cardinals.

This season, the Red Storm acquired two of the top 15 players available in the transfer portal with the additions of Yessoufou and Freeman.

Yessoufou is considered a potential NBA prospect who played at Baylor last season in his freshman year. He averaged 17.8 points per game for the Bears, with 5.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and a 46.5% field goal percentage.

Tounde. Yessoufou. 🔨

→ 16 PTS, 3 AST, 5-6 FG pic.twitter.com/DGRJ5FeNlp

— St. John's Men’s Basketball (@StJohnsBBall) October 25, 2026

In his most recent exhibition game for St. John’s, facing No. 7 Texas, he scored 23 points on 8-for-14 shooting, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, adding four rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Freeman is out for the season with a torn Achilles, so he won’t have an impact this season. He played the past two seasons at Syracuse, averaging 16.5 points per game last season, while averaging 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists, with a 47.4% field goal percentage.

Last season, Rick Pitino’s Red Storm added 14 points in transfer talent and then nine points two seasons ago. This is the most transfer portal talent added over the past three seasons. Since the offseason after the 2023-24 season, St. John’s has added +31 points of value in transfer talent.

For three consecutive years, Pitino has built a roster with key talent from the transfer portal. The Red Storm’s top-five ranking among teams with the most transfer talent added proves that they’ve been successful in adding transfer talent to improve their roster.