RJ Luis Jr. said St. John’s coach Rick Pitino could have done a “better job of coaching me up” during the March Madness loss when the Red Storm star struggled and was benched for the final five minutes — though he said the benching didn’t play a role in him leaving St. John’s.
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TRY IT NOWSpeaking on the “Stephen A. Smith Show” on Monday, Luis revealed his feelings about the surprise benching that drew national headlines for days.
Pitino defended his decision to sit his star player, who shot just 3-for-17 from the field in the Red Storm’s second round loss to Arkansas, after the game and more in depth on Vice TV’s “Pitino: Red Storm Rising,” calling it the “right move.”
Smith read Luis his former coach’s comments from the docuseries.
“I’m just hurt. Obviously, like I said, it wasn’t my best performance, but I think [he] could have done a better job of picking my head up,” Luis said in response. “Just doing a better job of coaching me up, like how he’s done the whole year, and it just sucks, it hurts. The way I played and the way we went out in the tournament, I’m gonna take that with me forever.
“I mean, that’s my first time participating in March Madness, but definitely just hurt. One of those you can only control what you can control and coach Pitino made a decision which he thought was best for the team and I have to respect that.”
Luis had been the Johnnies’ best player during their season, leading the Storm to the Big East regular-season title and the conference tournament championship.
However, the junior is setting his sights on the NBA after entering the transfer portal with plans to enter this year’s NBA draft.
Luis did shoot down any notion that he was leaving because of the benching in the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s not the reason [why I’m leaving St. John’s],” he said. “I feel like the season I had, I feel like my stock won’t be any higher than what it is. Thanks to my coaches and my teammates, they’ve been able to put me in a position to take the next step in my journey and that’s to play in the NBA. Really my decision is to go on and start the draft process and see what God has in store for me at the next level.”
