The biggest stars on the floor at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island for St. John’s second-round NCAA Tournament matchup with Arkansas on Saturday afternoon were the two head coaches. Though after Rick Pitino, John Calipari, and maybe Spike Lee, the next biggest star was Big East Player of the Year and second-team All-American RJ Luis Jr. Yet, in the biggest moment, Luis didn’t get a chance to shine.
RJ Luis has been on the bench since there was 4:56 left. #sjubb
— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) March 22, 2025
The junior wing finished just 3-17 from the field for nine points and seven rebounds. As a team, the Johnnies went 2-22 from three and shot just 28% from the field in the 75-66 loss to the 10th-seeded Razorbacks. Pitino’s resurgent season in New York City came to a disappointing end against his longtime coaching rival, and he didn’t give his best player a chance to decide his fate.
Luis was off from the very start, missing his first seven field goal attempts before finally getting in the scorebook with an offensive rebound putback with 7:37 remaining in the first half. At that point, St. John’s trailed 22-16, and only briefly took the lead in the first half before trailing from halftime on.
To make matters worse, St. John’s third-leading scoring and primary offensive playmaker Kadary Richmond fouled out in just 16 minutes of playing time. Richmond went 2-7 from the field for five points and added two assists. His impact was limited and the final minutes ticked away with both Richmond and Luis on the bench, arguably Pitino’s two biggest stars en route to the program’s first outright regular season Big East Title since 1985 and first Big East Tournament title since 2000.
Instead, Pitino closed with Lefteris Liotopoulos, a freshman guard from Greece who averaged 4.3 minutes a game this season, and Ruben Prey, a freshman forward from Portugal who played 7.5 minutes a game this season. Liotopoulos went 1-8 from three points and Prey finished with just four.
Richmond’s foul trouble forced Pitino, the 72-year-old national championship-winning head coach, to go to his bench early and often, but there was his decision to ice out Luis remains dumbfounding. Luis had proven himself to be a big-game player, not just winning Big East Player of the Year, but dominating the Big East Championship Game with 29 points, and a 3-for-3 performance from beyond the arc.
All season long and heading into the tournament, the Johnnies' fatal flaw was their lack of outside shooting. St. John’s ranked 329th in the country at 30.8% from deep, and that made it difficult for Pitino’s group to mount a second-half comeback against an athletically superior team from the SEC.
With physical guards like Richmond and Luis, St. John’s bullied the Big East into submission. In the 80s when Lou Carnesseca had the program rolling, that reputation would have positioned you as the National Championship favorites. In 2025 when the league sends just five teams to the NCAA Tournament and its champion merely warrants a spot in the two-line, it’s a different story.
St. John’s guards looked uncomfortable with the length and physicality of Calipari’s Razorbacks, and that contributed to the early foul trouble. Despite Zuby Ejiofor’s dominance on the interior, Pitino just didn’t have any answers, which is precisely why he should’ve lived and died with his best player. Luis was showing no signs of getting into a rhythm, but he’s been so good this season that he deserved more of a chance to get into one.