What Chris Mullin and St. John’s must do to keep top NYC talent

It happened this week for Georgia. It happened in November for Memphis. It happened last year for Indiana and Vanderbilt.

It’s the big star staying home for college, eschewing the established national powerhouses for the local school — but it’s something that has eluded St. John’s for nearly two decades.

The decision by five-star forward Anthony Edwards to stay home and go to Georgia this week got me thinking: Where is the Edwards for St. John’s? Why has it been so long since the Johnnies were able to keep a five-star at home? And what has to change for that to happen?

“For the fans, it’s been the proverbial question for the last 20 years,” said Andrew Slater, a longtime recruiting expert from the area.

St. John’s recently has landed a few quality local recruits. Current star junior Shamorie Ponds, Chris Obekpa and Maurice Harkless were highly regarded four-star prospects, and junior verbal commit Nate Tabor of Queens is looked at in a similar vein.

But to find the last time St. John’s was able to secure the coveted city star, you have to go all the way back to Omar Cook in 2000. He was the last McDonald’s All-American from the city to go to St. John’s, which has come close since, losing out to Virginia for Sylven Landesberg in 2008 and Seton Hall for Isaiah Whitehead in 2014.

The Post spoke to a number of local power brokers, AAU and high school coaches familiar with the inner workers of the city’s convoluted grassroots scene. All had different opinions on what has been missing, and what needs to happen, for St. John’s to become a player for premier local players.

“New York City feels detached from St. John’s,” one grassroots source said. “There used to be a sense of pride for kids to stay home and go against the high-majors.”

The past few years have featured elite talent — players such as Mohamed Bamba and Hamidou Diallo, who are now in the NBA, and current senior five-star recruits Cole Anthony and Precious Achiuwa. Of the four, the uncommitted Achiuwa is the only player St. John’s has been seriously involved with.

The other three never considered Queens a potential option. Worth noting, only Anthony went to high school in New York City (Archbishop Molloy in Queens) for more than a year, which also is part of the issue for St. John’s. The city’s best prospects often leave for prep schools.

The current sophomore class features some highly ranked players, led by Long Island’s Jonathan Kuminga, a five-star wing and top-five recruit in his class, who is close to Tabor.

“They got Nate, so the goal is for them to play together,” the grassroots source said. “He sees them more than any other school. [St. John’s coach] Chris [Mullin] has been active recruiting him.”

There are similar complaints about Mullin’s coaching staff as there were about Steve Lavin’s: Not enough of a focus locally. Assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih does most of the recruiting, and as with most college assistants, there are those who are comfortable with him and those who aren’t.

St. John’s has built its current team mostly through the transfer market, an Abdelmassih strength.

“They really haven’t had the staff that has been connected locally,” Slater said. “They have had almost no buzz, I’d say, until last couple of years.”

Christ the King’s Joe Arbitello believes hiring someone from the grassroots scene, a person everyone trusts to be on the coaching staff, would help. St. John’s, in the past, has brought in former youth coaches such as Moe Hicks and Kimanio Young, but never as an actual assistant coach.

“I’m talking about somebody that’s well respected and you know has always done right by all the kids in the city,” Aribtello said.

The flip side to that would be alienating other AAU or high school programs that weren’t aligned with that person.

“You would have to get a unifier,” Andy Borman, director of the AAU powerhouse New York Rens, said.

A local AAU and high school coach, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a major reason the best local players don’t stay home is that, other than playing at the Garden and in the Big East, St. John’s can’t compete with big schools. The campus life in Queens isn’t comparable. Go to Lexington, Ky., or Durham, N.C., and it’s all about Kentucky or Duke. St. John’s only grabs the city’s attention every few years.

“The campus life has to be better,” the coach said. “A lot of kids want to experience a big college atmosphere and life. St. John’s doesn’t really have that.”

The most important aspect of this conundrum: On-court results. St. John’s hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000 and has reached the Big Dance just twice in the past 16 years. Mullin’s first three years were losing seasons. This year, it looks like a return to March Madness is inevitable. But it needs to be consistent.

It would help snap this drought. It also will take the right kid, who is willing to say “no,’’ to the blue bloods out there, the Kentuckys and Dukes of the world.

“It’s less about St. John’s identity, and I think it’s more about the kid’s identity,” Borman said. “The kid is going to have to have that DNA to say, ‘Man, I want to stay home and do this.’ ”

It has been almost two decades since that kid came along.