Not often do you get to say that the miracle man, Rick Pitino, has fallen out with one of his players. But that’s exactly what happened when St. John’s was knocked out of the Big Dance by John Calipari’s Arkansas. One of the biggest talking points of the game was RJ Luis Jr. sitting on the bench for a long stretch toward the end. When Pitino was asked about it, he simply said, “He played 30 minutes” and refused to elaborate. If it wasn’t already clear tensions were building between the two, further updates hold a few more hints.

It took 25 years for St. John’s to win the Big East tournament again. At the forefront of it all was Rick Pitino and Big East MVP RJ Luis Jr. The Red Storm guard averaged nearly 18 points and 7 rebounds throughout the regular season and was a force in the tournament too. But March Madness turned into a big-time disappointment for him and St. John’s.

Against Arkansas, RJ Luis had one of his worst shooting nights, going 3-for-17 from the field. Naturally, Pitino benched him in the end. Fans weren’t happy. They flooded his social media with hate comments, frustrated with his performance in a do-or-die game. It got so bad that Luis deleted his Instagram account. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Reports now suggest that RJ Luis will indeed enter the transfer portal, becoming one of the best prospects. Rob Reinhart says, “I’m told the decision was made due to coaching issues and lack of support from the fanbase.” 

Losing your best player right after getting eliminated by a Cinderella team? This will definitely be a week to forget for Pitino!

St. John’s entered the season with a modest $4 million NIL budget, backed by billionaire donor Mark Repole. Pitino had often talked about how some of his players were massively underpaid. One of them was his best player. “Somebody asked me about Zuby and RJ. You don’t know what you are getting,” Pitino said. “Zuby didn’t even play at Kansas. RJ was a good freshman [at UMass], solid, but you didn’t know what you were getting. So here are two stars, very underpaid. I’m sure they’ll be at [general manager] Matt [Abdelmassih’s] window as soon as the season ends, but they’re not going anywhere.”

But turns out that wasn’t meant to be. Pitino ends up becoming the Lady Tremaine of St John’s Cinderella season. A season full of highs just ended is the worst possible way. Fans might be disappointed with RJ Luis, but credit to the young guard—he was one of the first to hold himself accountable for the loss.

RJ Luis holds himself accountable as Rick Pitino and co bow out

RJ Luis’s performance had shades of what New York Knicks legend John Starks did in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals. The guard went 2-for-18 from the field but Pat Riley did not pull the plug on him. He decided to keep him on the court.

Pitino obviously didn’t do that. He thought it was better if Luis had stayed on the bench as he clearly was having a bad day in the office. “You know he was 3-for-17. You know he was 0-for-3 [from 3]. So, you’re answering our own [question],” Pitino had said, defending his decision to keep the 22-year-old on the bench. “I’m not going to knock one of my players.”

RJ Luis knew how bad he was that fateful night. The night which changed the St John’s season from cheers to tears.“It feels like we didn’t do anything, really. It su-ks to lose the way we lost,” Luis said. “I let my teammates down.” It’s just sad to see the talented guard’s St John’s chapter come to an end like this. But wherever he goes next, he’ll be a difference-maker. Pitino’s loss will be someone else’s gain.