Jordan Dingle -- who had Calipari connection -- commits to Rick Pitino

Dana Dingle was a member of John Calipari’s Final Four squad at UMass in 1995-96, averaging 10.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in 32.5 minutes per contest. Now, his son is joining Rick Pitino at St. John’s, announcing his commitment to the Red Storm after a wildly productive career at Penn.

Jordan Dingle, the Ivy League Player of the Year and college basketball’s No. 2 overall scorer at 23.4 points per game, became Pitino’s ninth transfer addition of the offseason on Friday.

“Really excited to have Jordan Dingle joining the (Red Storm),” Pitino announced. “His goals are plain and simple. As a loyal New Yorker – help bring back St. John’s to basketball royalty. Then become a first-round draft choice. I’m all in on making that happen.”

A finalist for the Lou Henson Award given annually to the nation’s most outstanding mid-major player, Dingle was rated as a consensus top-three transfer in all of college basketball. He averaged 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 34.4 percent from three over the course of three seasons with the Quakers.

Standing 6-foot-3, 195 pounds, Kentucky was linked early alongside the likes of St. John’s and Indiana as Dingle went through the NBA Draft process. The Wildcats never ramped things up from there, though. Instead, Arkansas, Oregon, Texas and UCLA were among the schools to express serious interest, with Zoom calls set up with Florida State and Oklahoma State, as well.

St. John’s was his only in-person visit.

“Really just the opportunity to play for a coach such as Rick Pitino and then going back home, being able to play in the Garden for a coach who’s had so much success at so many different places at so many different levels,” Dingle told the NY Post in a phone interview. “I’m really excited to learn from a mind who has been around the game of basketball as much as he has and understands it as much as he has.

“I knew that there could be some Blue Bloods that potentially could be interested in me, but the main thing was about finding the right place for me and the right fit, and I think St. John’s is that place.”

As Dingle wraps up the draft process and likely joins Pitino on campus with the Red Storm, Kentucky continues its recruiting efforts with Antonio Reeves, who is also testing the waters. He has been invited to the NBA G League Elite Camp, which is held May 13-14 in Chicago. Top performers in the camp will receive an invite to the NBA Draft Combine, set to begin May 16, also in Chicago.

There will not be two Jordan Dingles in Lexington this fall, unfortunately.