NEW YORK, NY — The Rise of RJ Luis Jr. continued this week as the St. John’s Red Storm junior combo-guard was named a finalist for the 2025 Julius Erving Award, which recognizes the top small forward in the nation.
With the announcement coming from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, the Miami, Florida native Luis Jr., of Dominican-Ecuadorian descent — one of five finalists — joined Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Kentucky’s Jaxson Robinson and Rutgers’ Ace Bailey on the prestigious list.
While leading the Red Storm to its first outright Big East Conference regular season crown since 1984-1985, Luis Jr., continuing on his remarkable year, has scored in double-figures in 28 out of his 29 games, including 10 20-plus point performances.
St. John’s celebrated the clinching of the 2024-2025 Big East Conference regular season title at Madison Square Garden this past Saturday afternoon – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
The six-seven two-way star is averaging 17.8 points per game this season (4th in Big East), to go along with 6.9 rebounds (6th in BE), 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals (12th in BE).
“This season has been amazing, it’s just a big blessing,” Luis Jr. said as No. 6 St. John’s currently stands 26-4 overall, 17-2 in BE Play.
“I gotta give all the glory to God. I feel like without him, I wouldn’t be here.”
During Luis Jr.’s sophomore year (2023-2024), where he dealt with shin splints and a hand injury — forcing him to sit out of practices at times — he averaged 10.9 points each contest (23 games total), with 4.6 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and only recorded one 20 point game.
RJ Luis Jr. dealt with multiple injuries last season and came out a better athlete ever since due to countless hours of work put in the gym – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
As a result of successful offseason surgery on both shins and hard work put in during the spring/summer, the progression from his sophomore to junior year, an impressive leap, shows in his overall numbers.
However with that said, St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino believes Luis Jr. “is just scratching the surface.”
During this past Sunday’s episode of CBS’s “Inside College Basketball,” featuring a live in studio interview with Pitino and Luis Jr., the 72-year-old longtime-winning coach compared the finalist for the 2025 Julius Erving Award to a former superstar player of his, NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell, who Pitino coached at Louisville from 2015-2017.
In order from left to right: Adam Zucker, Jay Wright, Rick Pitino, RJ Luis Jr. and Clark Kellogg in CBS’ studio this past Sunday afternoon – Image Credit: CBS Inside College Basketball
“I don’t want to rush him out (to the NBA) but I’ve said this about two players — Donovan Mitchell and RJ — ‘they are going to be better pros than they will be college players,’” Pitino explained to CBS hosts Adam Zucker, Jay Wright and Clark Kellogg.
“Donovan was great in the open court, great, but college is so packed in. Same thing with RJ. RJ is a good shooter, he’ll become a great shooter. As you know all NBA guys, (they) become great shooters, but he does everything else…
A great passer, great on the ball defender. He handles it, he jumps out of the gym. He has a great attitude.”
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