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Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith criticized Rick Pitino for benching RJ Luis Jr. in St. John's season-ending loss to Arkansas in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Luis Jr. had a tough shooting night in Saturday's loss. He had nine points and seven rebounds but shot 3-of-17 from the field, hurting the Red Storm in the 75-66 defeat.
Pitino said he won’t ‘knock one of his players’ but that was knocking Luis Jr. It was a bad look to bench the Big East Player of the Year as Stephen A. Smith pointed out the whole team struggled to shoot on Monday's episode of First Take.
“I understand he was struggling, but the whole team was struggling. He didn’t shoot all 22 of those 3-point shots that were 9%. He didn’t shoot all of those shots that ended up being 28% from the field. Everybody was missing shots. If the brother is Big East Player of the Year and it’s the NCAA Tournament, you’ve got to go down with the ship. Go down with the brother that brought you there,” Smith said at the 6:31 mark.
What's next for Rick Pitino, St. John's after NCAA Tourney exit
It was a disappointing end to the 2024-25 season for Rick Pitino and the St. John's Red Storm, having been a 2-seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Regardless, it still marks the best season the program had since 2000.
St. John's finished with a 31-5 overall record, going 18-2 in Big East Play. They averaged 78.5 points on 44.5% shooting from the field and 30.1% from beyond the arc. As a result, they beat opponents by a margin of 12.7 points per game.
RJ Luis Jr. led the way with numbers of 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds. He had shooting splits of 43.9% overall and 33.6% from downtown. Zuby Ejiofor came next with 14.7 points and 8.1 rebounds while Kadary Richmond put up 12.4 points and 5.3 assists.
They will look to retool in the offseason, hoping to continue their momentum from this past campaign.
