St. John's Rick Pitino named Big East coach of the year and RJ Luis Jr. the Big East player of the year

The final stanza of the Big East regular season came with the presentation of the conference’s major awards, just hours before the league’s postseason tournament tipped off. And just as it had for months, sixth-ranked St. John’s dominated.

RJ Luis Jr. was voted Big East Player of the Year and Rick Pitino was voted Big East Coach of the Year.

Luis is the third Red Storm player to win the award and the first since Walter Berry in 1986. Chris Mullin, who won it three times from 1983-85, is the other.

The last time the Red Storm took both awards in the same season was ’86, when Berry won, alongside Lou Carnesecca as the top coach.

Pitino has coached 12 seasons in the Big East at Providence, Louisville and St. John’s. And despite a litany of accomplishments — winning the regular season and tournament titles three times, taking the Friars and the Cardinals to a combined three Final Fours out of the Big East and wining a national championship in 2013 with the Cardinals — he’d never been voted Coach of the Year.

“I’ve coached against Looie, Rollie Massimino, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, John Thompson,” Pitino said “. . . So when somebody says ‘why, when you won National Coach of the Year, [have] you never won the Big East [award]? The Big East has had the greatest coaches in history.”

Luis was the Storm’s top returning scorer, though he labored through the 2023-24 season with shin splints in both legs. He had surgeries to repair the conditions in April and confessed that he had doubts about the player he would be this season.

“I didn’t think I was going to be as explosive or as athletic,” Luis said. “And the funny thing is, I’m probably jumping higher than I was last year.”

Luis became emotional at the awards ceremony when he looked at his mother in the crowd and saw tears running down her face.

Dubbed by Pitino as the team’s “most talented player,” Luis is averaging 18.1 points and 7.1 rebounds and has joined Kadary Richmond as one of the team’s go-to players during crunch time. He is going into St. John’s Big East quarterfinal against ninth-seeded Butler Thursday afternoon on a bit of tear, averaging 19.9 points and 7.8 rebounds, and making 37% of his three-point attempts, over his last 14 games.

“As the season played on, I kind of [saw] that I was capable of winning the award . . . [which] just goes [to show] that, with determination and success, you could get anything done,” he said. “I’ve got to give the credit to my teammates [because] without them, I wouldn’t be considered. This award is because of how great a season we’ve had as a whole.”

Pitino, who guided the Storm to a 27-4 record (18-2 in the conference) and their first outright Big East regular-season championship since 1985, is the fourth St. John’s coach to win the award and first since Mike Anderson in 2021.

Carnesecca won the award three times — 1983, 1985 and 1986. Brian Mahoney won it in 1993.

“There’s been a lot of great Big East coaches to win the award, so for him to be a part of history is absolutely amazing,” said Zuby Ejiofor, who along with Luis was named to the all-conference first team on Sunday. “He’s more than deserving of the award and we know exactly the passion that he brings . . . He pushes each and every one of us to our limits. I’m really proud of Coach P.”

“You’ve got Jim Calhoun, John Thompson, Rollie Massimino, so you’re not going to win,” Pitino said. “That year in Providence [in 1987], I won a National Coach of the Year and I don’t even think I was getting votes in the Big East . . . So it’s a special award today for me to be among some of those greats that have won this award previously. And I’m very thankful to my peers for voting for me.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.