For the first time since 1986, two members of St. John’s have taken home the Big East’s most prestigious individual awards in the same year. RJ Luis Jr. earned the honor of Big East Player of the Year and Rick Pitino was unanimously chosen as Coach of the Year before the first slate of games in the Big East Tournament.
Beating out Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Villanova’s Eric Dixon, Luis secured the majority of votes from in-conference coaches to earn him the award.
As the first option on the Big East’s highest scoring team, Luis’ jump to 18.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game placed him in the top-six for both categories throughout the conference.
Luis’ prowess as a two-way player is one of his greatest strengths, ranking in the top-15 in steals, helping to propel the lockdown St. John’s defense as the best in the conference.
“This is a great honor, a very big blessing,” Luis tearfully accepted the award while humbly giving all the praise to his teammates.“It takes a whole unit to get to this point.”
Luis is the first Johnnie to be recognized as the best player in the conference since fellow forward Walter Berry.
As for Rick Pitino, the 11-time Coach of the Year winner across four different conferences, has earned the title of Big East Coach of the Year
In his signature second season leap, Pitino brought the Big East Regular Season Championship back to Queens with a program-best 27-4 record. Since being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament in his first season, Pitino improved the Red Storm’s record by seven wins.
Pitino instilled a defensive tenacity in the Johnnies that led them to an 18-2 in-conference record and to be ranked as high as No. 6 in the AP’s College Basketball Poll.
Pitino is the first St. John’s coach to be named the Big East’s Coach of the Year since Lou Carnesecca, whose memory Pitino has honored with one of the best seasons in program history.
“Anytime you get voted by your peers for an award, it’s extra special,” Pitino said when accepting the award. “It’s been an awesome regular season, capped off by such a nice award.”
The Big East Tournament tipped off shortly after the award ceremony and the No. 1 seeded Johnnies will face the winner of Providence vs. Butler on Mar. 13, beginning the postseason run of an already remarkable season.
