St. John’s In The Spotlight

 

RJ Luis Jr. started the scoring for St. John's Saturday with this slam. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm clinched the Big East regular season championship on Saturday, and the attention keeps building.

St. John's is also ranked No. 6 in the nation, their highest mark in 34 years, and they finish off the regular season at Marquette this upcoming Saturday. The Big East Tournament commences Wednesday, March 12, but St. John's has a bye and will play the next afternoon.

RJ Luis Jr.: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday that he was named one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Small Forward of The Year award. 

The junior was named alongside Chad Baker-Mazara (Auburn), Cooper Flagg (Duke), Jaxon Robinson (Kentucky) and Ace Bailey (Rutgers) as contenders for the honor, which was established in 2015 and presented to the top small forward in NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball annually.

Fan voting will begin on the Naismith Hall of Fame website on Friday, March 7 and the winner will be announced ahead of the Final Four. 

Luis Jr. has started in 26 of his 29 appearances and logged 31.6 minutes per contest, as he leads the team with 17.8 points per game, which ranks fourth in the Big East. Luis has scored in double-figures in 28 out of his 29 games this season, including in 16 consecutive games. He has also notched 10 20-plus point performances, and became the first Red Storm player to reach the 30-point threshold since Julian Champagnie on Feb. 18, 2022, when he put up 30 points in their win over Villanova on January 11 at Madison Square Garden. 

In addition to his scoring prowess, Luis has provided a boost on the glass, ranking sixth in the conference in rebounding averaging 6.9 boards per game. He is one of two players in the BIG EAST to rank top six in scoring and rebounding joining Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner. The Johnnie has tallied eight double-doubles this season, which ranks second most in the league. 

Luis Jr. has played an integral part in a St. John’s defense that, according to the advance metrics of KenPom.com, ranks second in the country in defensive efficiency. Additionally, he ranks 12^th in the conference logging 1.5 steals per game.

In addition to this honor, Luis has also been named to the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year Midseason Team, March Madness Player of the Week, USBWA National Team of the Week, two-time Big East Player of the Week and two-time MET Player of the Week.

THE TONIGHT SHOW: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino and the St. John’s men’s basketball team will appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC this Thursday night at 11:35 p.m.  and will stream on Peacock the next day.  

Pitino, who has led five teams to regular season conference championships, will sit down with Fallon to talk about their impressive season, while the team will be in the famous studio 6B.

The other guests include Parker Posey, Alan Cumming, and musical guest Julia Michaels & Maren Morris. Perhaps one of them will opine on the Red Storm as well.