PROVIDENCE, RI — There were three ultimate phases in the 2024-2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball campaign for the St. John’s Red Storm.
Phase One: getting the program officially back on the map of national relevance while instilling a New York styled-identity through toughness, and grit, which St. John’s successfully executed on as it brought an outright Big East Conference regular season title back to Queens — marking the Red Storm’s first since 1984-1985.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Phase Two: winning the 2025 Big East Conference Tournament at Madison Square Garden; the program’s most recent before then was in 2000. This mission was accomplished approximately eight days ago on Saturday, March 15th, with a BE Tourney championship game win over Creighton.
Phase Three: going as far as they could in the Madness of March — the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament — as a No. 2 seed in the West Region. Perhaps, even appearing in the Final Four or dare some say it, the National Championship — both set to be played next month in San Antonio, Texas.
The latter stage, ‘Phase Three,’ came to an abrupt ending Saturday afternoon with John Calipari and the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks defeating Rick Pitino and No. 2 St. John’s, 75-66, in the Round of 32 at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island.
An upset by all means, however; one that many should not be surprised of.
Image Credit: Arkansas Men’s Basketball
In the loss to Arkansas (22-13), St. John’s shot an abysmal 21/75 clip from the field (28% FG), included with a 2/22 showing from three-point land (9.1%). With that said, the most shocking factor was not the team’s poor shooting performance, but rather their mishaps and struggles of coming out on the defensive end as those Johnnies that New York got behind and fell in love with — surrendering 46 points in the point.
“They were a better team, they outplayed us,” said Pitino in the postgame as the Red Storm’s 2024-2025 season ends at 31-5 overall — tying for the most wins ever in program history in a given season (1984-1985 and 1985-1986, both teams were led by the late legend Lou Carnesecca).
Before Saturday’s nine-point loss to the Razorbacks, St. John’s four losses came by seven combined points.
“They deserve to move on and we don’t,” Pitino added. “That’s what March Madness is all about. No matter how good a regular season you have, you play this way you’re going to get beat.”
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
The 72-year-old Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, now two seasons into his coaching tenure in Queens, later went on to say, “We lost the game because we did not move the basketball enough. And that led to us shooting a very low percentage. We’re a team that has to have a high number of assists to win. We didn’t tonight.”
St. John’s recorded five assists as a team in Saturday’s Round of 32 loss compared to Arkansas’ 10.
A Questionable Coaching Move?
With the Red Storm’s leading scorer (averaging 18.5 points per game this season) and 2024-2025 Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr., struggling to find his rhythm vs. Arkansas, scoring nine points across 30 minutes (3-17 FG, 0-3 3PT, 3-4 FT), Pitino opted to have the junior combo-guard on the bench for the remaining 4:56 of regulation after he hit two free throws.
At that point, St. John’s was trailing by two, 64-62.
Less than two minutes prior to the decision, graduate guard Kadary Richmond fouled out of the game, leaving the Red Storm without one of their dynamic playmakers.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Then add in Luis Jr. of Dominican-Ecuadorian family heritage as well due to the questionable coaching move at the 4:56 mark. The Razorbacks kept on pushing their momentum for a 11-4 closing run with Richmond out and Luis Jr. on the bench, which sealed the deal, 75-66, as St. John’s missed their next eight-of-nine shots.
Pitino’s reasoning on the move in the postgame: “He (Luis Jr.) played 30 minutes. That’s a long time.”
Understandably so, though in various regular season and Big East Tournament affairs, Richmond, Luis Jr., junior forward Zuby Ejiofor, among others, logged 35+ minutes played each.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
When later asked by the media if there was a play or certain shot selection that made him lean towards benching Luis Jr., Pitino noted, “You know he was 3 for 17. You know he was 0 for 3 (from 3). So you’re answering your own question. I’m not going to knock one of my players.”
“For me to not be able to be on the court for the last couple of minutes to help my team win hurt me — I love these guys,” said Luis Jr. “We fought through a lot of adversity this year and we were able to bounce back a few different times.”
“We had a great year, we just fell short and it sucks to lose this way.”
Overall, this move may have not played an ultimate factor in the loss, but a student-athlete, recently named an AP Second Team All-American, carrying the team on consistent occasions this season at the end of the day should have been out there on the court.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
A common saying in sports, ‘go down with the guys who got you there.’
What A Ride It Was
Despite an early exit in the 2025 NCAA March Madness Tournament, mega-NIL booster Mike Repole, President and Rev. Brian J. Shanley, athletic director Ed Kull, head coach Rick Pitino, and all of St. John’s men’s basketball should still hold their heads high for what the program accomplished this year — setting historic marks while becoming one of the greatest Johnnies teams New York has ever laid their eyes on.
Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
“We had a special group of guys from the coaching staff down to the players and the managers and I’m thankful and appreciative they allowed me to come here and be the person I am and I will always be thankful to them for that,” said graduate guard Kadary Richmond.
“We put New York on our back,” followed senior guard Deivon Smith. “We made a lot of people proud. We still had an unforgettable season and made a lot of history…
It was a super fun ride.”
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Julio Pabón
March 23, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Good article, giving game details and also addressing the BIG question of Pitino pulling out his star player in the last 5 minutes. Made no sense? You addressed it well.