The vibes in New York City were high heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, as Queens’ own St. John’s Red Storm was a No. 2 seed after winning the Big East Tournament Championship. It was an incredible job done by head coach Rick Pitino, who turned the team around in just his second season. With the regular season in the books, the Red Storm were considered one of the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament, something they’ve never done.
On Saturday, St. John’s took on No. 10 Arkansas in a battle between legendary college basketball coaches in Pitino and John Calipari. Unfortunately for the Red Storm, their magic ran out early. The Razorbacks defeated the Red Storm 75-66 in the Round of 32 matchup to advance to the Sweet 16.
With the Red Storm trailing by as much as six points in the closing minutes of the game, Pitino made a head-scratching decision. As the season ticked away for St. John’s, star player RJ Luis Jr. was sitting on the bench. Yes, he had a rough game, but with the season on the line, you’d expect to put your best players on the court, no matter how they played earlier.
Rick Pitino’s decision to keep RJ Luis Jr. on bench could come back to haunt St. John’s
As mentioned earlier, Luis had a rough game. The junior guard scored just nine points while shooting an abysmal 3-for-17 from the field. Seriously, it doesn’t get worse than that.
But, as is the case in any sport, you want the ball in the hand of your best player during crunch time. Not having Luis on the court with the season on the line was a puzzling decision by Pitino.
This season, Luis was the Red Storm’s leading scorer, as he averaged 18.5 points per game while shooting 44.7 percent from the field. Luis also averaged 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game this season. Oh, and Luis won the Big East Player of the Year Award.
This is by no means the end of St. John’s. Pitino changed the team’s trajectory in just two years. They will be contenders heading into next season. But their NCAA Tournament run ends after a win over No. 15 Omaha and a Round of 32 loss to Arkansas. This game will be one that St. John’s fans will look back on for some time, and wonder if the result could have been different if Luis was on the court in the closing seconds.
