Less than a week after Rick Pitino shared his full thoughts on why he benched RJ Luis during the final five minutes of the St. John’s basketball loss to Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament, Luis has responded.
Pitino said on the season finale of the VICE TV series, Pitino: Red Storm Rising, that Luis’ shooting struggles were impacting other parts of his game and removing him was the best chance the team had at winning.
The Big East Player of the Year had just nine points on 3-of-17 shooting and took accountability in the episode for his struggles but expanded upon those thoughts on the most recent episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show.
“During the game I was kind of hurt not being able to be on the court with my team for the last five minutes to be able to win the game, but coach made a decision that he felt was best and I have to respect that decision,” he said.
“There was still five minutes left in the game, I think anything could have happened.”
Luis had made two free throws before he was subbed out that brought the Red Storm within two, 64-62, but saw the Razorbacks end the game on a 11-4 run to win 75-66.
“When I came out of the game, I shot the two free throws and I cut it down to one possession, so I was thinking, hopefully, I hit those two free throws I was going to be able to calm down a little bit,” Luis continued.
“Anything could’ve happened in the last five minutes of the game.”
The saga carried over to the next week as Luis declared for the NBA Draft and entered the transfer portal. His main focus, as he mentioned a handful of times in the interview, is to go pro and returning to college is his backup option.
Whatever his decision, he will not be returning to St. John’s, and he said a return to college would be a “burden” while “every school in the country” has contacted his agency, Roc Nation.
Still, the comments from Pitino and the benching impacted RJ Luis, although he made it clear that was not the reason why he is leaving the Red Storm.
“I’m just hurt,” he explained. “Obviously, like I said it wasn’t my best performance, but I think [I] could have done a better job picking my head up and [Rick Pitino could have] just doing a better job coaching me up, like how he’s done the whole year, and it just sucks.”
Luis has not appeared on many NBA mock drafts but will try and impress teams through pre-draft workouts as well as the NBA Combine.
Only RJ Luis and Brady Dunlap have announced their intentions to leave St. John’s while the Red Storm will return several key players including Zuby Ejiofor as well as the additions of Arizona State guard Joson Sannon and Providence forward Bryce Hopkins in the transfer portal.
Luis ended his appearance on the show by thanking Rick Pitino for how much he helped in get into the position he currently stands and commented that he thinks he can show NBA franchises that he is a lot better playmaker than he showed during his two seasons with St. John’s and the floor spacing at the next level will only improve his game.