1 day Ago By Payton Shanks
St. John’s was one of the biggest and hottest stories throughout the 2024-25 college basketball season. People were raving about head coach Rick Pitino and his squad that was led by the Big East Player of the Year, RJ Luis Jr.
, but that all came to a halt in the Round of 32 when the Arkansas Razorbacks handed the two-seeded Red Storm an upset loss. In that loss, Luis had the worst game of his career, shooting 3-of-17 from the field and finishing with just nine points. Luis played so badly that Pitino made the controversial decision to bench Luis for the final five or so minutes of that win-or-go-home contest.
That decision was one that many disagreed with. Also, let’s not pretend Luis was the only player on St. John’s to play terribly in that loss.
Aaron Scott finished the game 1-of-10 from the field with seven points. Kadary Richmond shot 2-of-7 from the field for a whopping five points. Simeon Wilcher went just 1-of-5 for a total of two points.
All of those guys were starters. Off the bench, Lefteris Liotopoulos went 1-of-8 from the floor for just three points. And don’t forget that the St.
John’s defense that allowed 65.8 opponent PPG this season ceded 75 to Arkansas in the loss. That was, in part, because guys like Karter Knox had career nights that included going 9-of-11 from the free-throw line.
St. John’s, as a team, also shot an embarrassing 9.1% from three-point range in that loss.
RJ Luis deserves a ton of blame. He was the best player. The best player can’t have a night that bad in a game that important.
For Pitino to single out Luis and pretend like he was the whole reason St. John’s lost that game was blasphemous, though. The Red Storm had a lot of problems that night, and those problems were things that many people noticed throughout the season, like a lack of success in the half-court offense and with shooting threes.
Those problems were bound to be exploited eventually, it just sucks that seemingly only Luis is being credited with the blame for that loss. After the loss, Pitino said of Kadary Richmond that “he didn’t play well because he was in foul trouble." But, when Luis was brought up, he didn’t give him an excuse for not playing well, he simply blasted him for being 3-of-17 -- and said that reporters knew “why he didn’t play” down the stretch.
That press conference was seemingly a massive part of the reason that Luis decided to enter the transfer portal just a few days later . On Monday, it was announced that Providence's Bryce Hopkins would be committing to St. John’s through the transfer portal , and while this is a huge pickup, fans should still be upset about the way the relationship with Luis ended.
It sort of reminds me of the Ben Simmons game seven situation with Philly against Atlanta a few years ago in the NBA. Everyone remembers how Simmons was so scared of being fouled that he passed up on a wide-open layup, and while that was unacceptable, him being called out by teammate and superstar Joel Embiid and head coach Doc Rivers by name in post-game pressers was also unacceptable. What Luis did wasn’t nearly as bad as what Simmons did, yet it still seems like this guy, who was the best player for the Red Storm all year, is being made the fall guy when, in reality, St.
John’s would have finished sixth, at best, in the Big East without him..
