St. John’s men’s basketball player Zuby Ejiofor has been named to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Midseason Watch List, an honor presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Ejiofor is one of 10 centers nationwide recognized for this award. Fan voting for the award begins today, and five finalists will be announced in mid-March before the winner is revealed ahead of the 2026 NCAA Tournament Final Four in Indianapolis.
He is one of two players from the BIG EAST Conference on this list, alongside Tarris Reed Jr. from UConn. Ejiofor is also the first St. John’s player to be a top-10 candidate for this award since Joel Soriano in 2024.
“After last year’s breakout campaign, where Ejiofor was tabbed the BIG EAST’s Most Improved Player, the big man has lived up to the billing during the senior campaign,” according to St. John’s University. The Garland, Texas native was selected as BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year—making him only the second St. John’s player to earn that recognition since 1992.
Through 22 games this season, Ejiofor leads his team in scoring with 15.7 points per game, rebounding with 7.5 per game, assists at 3.3 per game, and blocks at 2.0 per game.
He has achieved double-digit scoring in 17 games, scored over 20 points five times, and recorded four double-doubles so far this season. He set a career-high with 15 rebounds against Providence on January 3 and became the first NCAA Division I player since November 2021 to record eight blocks in back-to-back games.
On Tuesday night against DePaul, Ejiofor became just the 54th player in St. John’s men’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points after making a three-pointer during play. The former Kansas transfer now ranks tenth all-time at St. John’s for career blocks (129) and took 23 free throw attempts against Providence—the second-most ever by a Red Storm player in a single game.
Ejiofor has received several weekly honors throughout this season: he has twice been named BIG EAST Player of the Week and made four appearances on the league’s weekly honor roll. On January 29, he was added to the Naismith Trophy Defensive Player of the Year Midseason Watch List.
St. John’s Red Storm Men’s Basketball team operates out of Queens, New York and competes in the Big East Conference under its “Red Storm” nickname within St. John’s University athletics official website. The program has won six Big East Tournament titles and two NIT championships official website.
Ejiofor and his teammates will return to action tonight when No. 22/22 St. John’s faces No. 3/3 UConn at Madison Square Garden on FOX.
