Takeaways from St. John's basketball thrilling exhibition win against No. 25 Rutgers

RJ Luis already reaping benefits of offseason

It was a tough first season in Queens for RJ Luis. A broken hand, shin splints, very little practice time, and expectations to shoulder a lot of the scoring burden.

Now, after an offseason in which he had double shin surgery and changed the form of his jump shot there has already been a noticeable difference from the junior.

Luis went for 22 points, six rebounds, and three assists. He drew seven Rutgers fouls and, more importantly, he was an efficient 6-for-9 shooting the ball from the field and 2-for-2 from 3-point range.

He said during the summer that he felt like he had new legs after the surgery and it showed. There is still room for Luis to grow and improve throughout the rest of the season but Rick Pitino did not try to diminish the effort of Thursday night saying that he is one of the most talented players that he's coached and should be a first round NBA Draft pick.

The Zuby Ejiofor hype will continue to grow

The promise and hype surrounding Zuby Ejiofor was already strong in Queens at the end of last season when the Kansas transfer started to push Joel Soriano for meaningful minutes, and that development continued during the summer.

Ejiofor has now filled Soriano's shoes as a captain and starting center and boasted 27 points and 13 rebounds against Rutgers, pulling down 10 offensive boards. It was an eye-opening of a performance that a player could have in the preseason.

However, not to discredit the numbers but those stats could be a little overinflated due to what seems to be a small and weak Rutgers frontcourt.

Ejiofor will certainly face better centers throughout the high profile non-conference games for St. John's as well as in Big East play. Nevertheless, it was a great jumping off point for Zuby Ejiofor who proved that the offseason hype was justified and is primed for a monster season.