Zuby Ejiofor, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound transfer from Kansas, arrived for his visit at St. John’s in the spring of 2023 and met with new Red Storm coach Rick Pitino.

“It’s kind of a funny story,” Pitino said Saturday afternoon. “He said, ‘These are my parents,’ and the parents were 5-foot-4. And they didn’t look anything like Zuby.”

They were Andy and Sheena Philachack, Loatian refugees who served as surrogate parents for Ejiofor in Dallas, where his Nigerian-born mother lived while his father was mostly based in Africa. Andy, a chiropractor and professional poker player, was his AAU coach.

He also was the guy who pried Ejiofor away from one Hall of Fame coach and deposited him with another.

The circle connects Sunday afternoon at Viejas Arena, where Ejiofor — with Pitino as his coach — faces his former team and Bill Self in a 4-5 matchup for a spot in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. CBS has deemed it worthy of a national telecast at 2:15 p.m.

Everyone has said all the right things this week about the break-up following an unproductive freshman season at Kansas.

Ejiofor: “I had a fun time at Kansas, I wouldn’t lie. I didn’t really want to leave.”

Jayhawks coach Bill Self said: “We love Zuby. We didn’t want him to leave. We’re really happy for his success.”

Pitino said: “I don’t think Zuby cares about playing Kansas. I think he’s concerned about this is a chance to get to the Sweet 16.”

Everyone, except Andy Philachack.

“I’m his dad, and I know how he thinks,” Philachack told The Athletic. “One hundred percent, he wants to show Coach Self that he can play and prove to him that he made a mistake.”

Ejiofor was a four-star recruit from the class of 2022 who came to a Kansas team that had just won the national championship and was loaded with bigs. He averaged 1.2 points and 1.7 rebounds in 5.1 minutes, splitting minutes off the bench with fellow freshman big Ernest Udeh, a five-star prospect from Orlando.

“Neither one,” Self admitted, “really had a chance to flourish.”

Then 7-1 all-American Hunter Dickinson committed to Kansas from Michigan.

Philachack rented a U-Haul truck, drove the 519 miles from Dallas to Lawrence, Kan., and began cleaning out Ejiofor’s apartment while he was taking a final exam.

That was May 4. By May 5, they were on the road and Ejiofor was in the transfer portal.

Philachack admits it: He made a unilateral decision.

“I came in with high expectations of how my season was going to go my freshman year,” Ejiofor said. “Obviously, things didn’t turn out exactly as planned. But that’s how life goes. I knew in order for my future to keep progressing the way I wanted to go, I had to probably look elsewhere for a bigger opportunity and I was able to find myself here.

“My Pops came down and we had the talk (with Self) and it was a good conversation, but we were able to find ourselves in the portal.”

The first stop was Villanova, which lost to Utah State in Friday’s first round, also at Viejas Arena. The next stop was St. John’s, where Pitino, as he always does with recruits, personally put him through “an extra hard workout to see if he could hold up.”

He did. They were scheduled to go to Providence next, but the head coach was out of town and they cancelled the visit. They went to dinner with Pitino instead, and by desert they were shaking hands.

“Kind of fell in our lap a little bit,” Pitino said.

Ejiofor averaged only 4.3 points in 11.2 minutes per game off the bench as a sophomore on a 20-13 team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t until last season that he blossomed into the four-tool force that has dominated the Big East.

As a senior, he leads the Johnnies in points (16.3), rebounds (7.3), assists (3.5) and blocks (2.2). He joined UConn’s Emeka Okafor as the only recipients of Big East Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in the same season.

Somehow, he wasn’t named first, second or third team All-American by the Associated Press.

“The AP writers don’t always get it right,” Pitino said. “But he’s one of the top players, you all know it. I don’t have to tell you that. There’s nobody going to replace him in my mind as a head coach. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed coaching a player as much since 1987 when I coached Billy Donovan (at Providence).

“I’m going to miss him terribly. I’m just going to appreciate him while I have him.”

A year ago, St. John’s and Kansas were on a collision course to meet in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Didn’t materialize when Kansas was upset by Arkansas.

Both teams were in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas last November. Didn’t play.

Sunday at Viejas Arena, they’ll play.

The crazy part? His only Kansas teammate still there is walk-on guard Wilder Evers.

“It’s weird, it’s different,” Evers said. “That whole, entire group that I came in with, it was five of us, the next year I was the only one there from that freshman class. It’s just a different day, a different age in basketball.

“It’s just everyone’s journey. It worked out well for him. He’s doing well. I’m proud of him.”