St. John's basketball has two players on Big East First Team, Kadary Richmond snubbed

The St. John’s basketball team should have mixed feelings about the All-Big East Teams that were announced on Sunday afternoon as RJ Luis and Zuby Ejiofor was tabbed to the conference’s First Team, but there was a glaring omission.

It’s the first time since Walter Berry and Mark Jackson in 1986 that the Johnnies had two players on the First Team and Luis, a favorite to win the Big East Player of the Year, was a unanimous selection.

Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, Marquette’s Kam Jones, and Villanova’s Eric Dixon were also unanimous selections while Georgetown guard Micah Peavy stunned by landing a spot with the league’s elite.

That is precisely where the other emotion enters for the Red Storm due to the absence of Kadary Richmond, who was the biggest snub from the All-Big East First Team after being awarded a spot on the All-Big East Second Team in his first season with St. John’s.

In conference games, Richmond averaged 14.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 2.5 steals per game on 49.0-percent shooting from the field. He posted the second triple-double of any player in the conference this season on Saturday in St. John’s victory over Marquette with ten points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists.

Connecticut duo Solo Ball and Alex Karaban – which is also an interesting decision – were named to the Second Team alongside Creighton’s Steven Ashworth and Xavier’s Zach Freemantle.

The Big East will announce its individual awards later in the week which includes the Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man Award and Sportsmanship Award on Monday morning while the Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be unveiled hours before tipoff of the Big East Tournament on Wednesday afternoon.

St. John’s will begin its run in the conference tournament on Thursday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) against either Providence or Butler.