St. John's basketball recruiting: Are Red Storm closer to landing Rysheed Jordan and Isaiah Whitehead?

The Syracuse Orange men's basketball program collected its fourth verbal commitment from the Class of 2013 Saturday landing guard Ron Patterson, and the latest development could help the St. John's Red Storm in the recruitment of two high-profiled players -- Rysheed Jordan and Isaiah Whitehead (a thought brought up by the New York Post's Zach Braziller).

With the addition of Patterson, the Orange now have one scholarship spot left and, from what I know, are expect to only use that spot on a top-tier recruit such as: Andrew Wiggins, who's expected to become the No. 1 prospect in the Class of '13; or a players like Jordan, the No. 28th-best recruiting according to Rivals, and possibly forward Tyler Roberson, the 31st-best recruiting according to Rivals.

Syracuse's ability to collect commitments so quickly has led to a log jam on its roster -- SU has four players coming in and possibly seven key players returning for the 2013-14 season. Playing time at SU will be tough to come by, and if a recruit wants to play right away a commitment to the Orange wouldn't be the best route.

With that said, St. John's is stacked with young talent. Yes, players like sophomore D'Angelo Harrison and freshman JaKarr Sampson could bolt to the NBA early, however, there's still a lot of others (14 to be exact) to try to beat out for playing time.

How much will all of this will play into the recruitment of Jordan, who's also being recruited by the Temple Owls and Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and Whitehead, who's being pursued by schools like Syracuse, Rutgers, Arizona Wildcats, Florida Gators and UCLA Bruins, is yet to be seen.