It was an afternoon to forget for St. John’s basketball standout RJ Luis as the Red Storm’s season ended against Arkansas in the Round of 32 but he was missing from the court during the final five minutes.
There was no injury. There was no foul trouble for him. It was just a benching.
“He played 30 minutes,” Rick Pitino said after the 75-66 loss of Luis’ absence. “That’s a long time.”
The junior was 3-for-17 from the floor and missed all three of his 3-point attempts. His last field goal attempt was a forced jumper with the Red Storm trailing by two, 62-60, and 5:23 remaining. He did make a pair of free throws to bring the Johnnies within two, 64-62, with 4:56 left before he exited for the afternoon.
“I’m just very appreciative for Aaron Scott, he had a bad game, but he gave me his heart and soul with a broken finger,” Pitino added when asked about Luis saying he felt like he was a bad leader today for the Red Storm.
“I’m very appreciative of Kadary Richmond. He was a true pleasure to coach…I’m very, very appreciative of Deivon Smith, who has been hurt, and gave me everything he had.”
In the Round of 64, Luis had 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and connected on a season best five 3-pointers.
“I’m very appreciative. I’m very thankful to the guys that gave me every single thing they had,” Pitino continued.
“You know he was 3-for-17 [shooting], you know he was 0-for-3, so you’re answering [your own question]. I’m not going to knock one of my players.”
There’s an expectation that Luis will test the NBA Draft waters this offseason and determine if his best course of action would be heading to the pros or returning to St. John’s for another season.
He became the first Red Storm player since Walter Berry in 1986 to win the Big East Player of the Year Award while being named as a First Team All-Big East selection as well as a Second Team All-American.
Despite his struggles, it felt like the Red Storm would have been better off using the player that helped get them to this point in the season instead of seldom used freshman Ruben Prey.
St. John’s outscored Arkansas by five in the minutes that RJ Luis was on the court.