A dream season for St. John’s ended with the Huge East Participant of the Yr on the bench.
RJ Luis Jr. didn’t play the ultimate 4:56 of Saturday afternoon’s 75-66 loss to Arkansas within the second spherical of the NCAA Match after he shot 3-of-17 from the sphere, together with 0-of-3 on 3-point makes an attempt.
“You know he was 3-for-17,” Pitino mentioned when requested about sitting Luis. “You know he was 0-for-3, so you’re answering your own . I’m not going to knock one of my players.”
The junior guard completed with 9 factors in half-hour.
“I let my teammates down,” Luis mentioned.
Second-seeded St. John’s trailed, 66-64, when Pitino eliminated Luis for good in favor of freshman ahead Ruben Prey.
The Johnnies went with a lineup of Prey, Deivon Smith, Simeon Wilcher, Aaron Scott and Zuby Ejiofor for the following 4 minutes and 27 seconds. Senior guard Kadary Richmond had already fouled out at that time.
Freshman guard Lefteris Liotopoulos then subbed in for Prey with 29 seconds remaining and St. John’s down, 70-64.
“He played 30 minutes and I went with other people,” Pitino mentioned of Luis. “… You already know why he didn’t play.”
Luis entered Saturday averaging a team-high 18.5 factors and seven.2 rebounds per recreation.
That breakout season led to Luis being named the Huge East Participant of the Yr and as considered one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Faculty Participant of the Yr.
Luis was additionally named the Huge East Match’s Most Excellent Participant after he averaged 20.7 factors and eight.0 rebounds per recreation and scored 29 factors in a 82-66 win over Creighton within the championship recreation.
He scored at the least 20 factors in six of his final seven video games earlier than Saturday’s, together with a 22-point efficiency in opposition to Omaha on Thursday in his NCAA Match debut.
Luis was considered one of a number of Crimson Storm gamers to wrestle in Saturday’s loss to No. 10 Arkansas, throughout which St. John’s shot simply 28% from the sphere and went 2-of-22 from 3-point vary.
Scott completed 1-of-10 for seven factors, whereas Liotopoulos went 1-of-8 for 3 factors. Richmond shot 2-of-7 for 5 factors in his 16 minutes earlier than he fouled out.
“I hate to see them go out this way,” Pitino mentioned. “We thought we were championship-driven in our minds, but I have been disappointed before with this. You hate to see us play like that. I don’t mind going out with a loss, I just hate to see us play that way offensively. You gotta live with it.”
With the loss, St. John’s completed 31-5 however fell in need of a visit to the Candy 16.
“It feels like we didn’t do anything, really, after today,” Luis mentioned. “It just sucks to lose the way we lost and the way we went out.”
