St. John's RJ Luis Jr. chosen as Haggerty Award winner
St. John's guard RJ Luis Jr. dribbles the ball against the Butler Bulldogs in the first half of a Big East Tournament quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
TARRYTOWN — RJ Luis Jr. was back in New York on Thursday night to collect the last in a collection of illustrious awards earned for leading St. John’s through a spectacular season where it returned to the national spotlight.
Luis has been training hard for the upcoming NBA Draft in Miami but wanted to be on-hand to receive the Frank J. Haggerty Award as the New York metropolitan area’s Player of the Year as voted by the Met Basketball Writers Association.
The Haggerty Award is one of the area’s oldest and most prestigious accolades and has been given to the area’s top player since 1936. The hardware will join the ones he earned as an AP All-American second-teamer and 2025 Big East Player of the Year for helping the Red Storm (31-5) to their first outright conference title in 40 years and first conference tournament championship in 25.
“God keeps blessing me in so many ways and it’s just a great honor to receive this award,” he said.
Luis is the 24th St. John’s player to win it and first since Shamorie Ponds in 2018.
Shortly after the NCAA Tournament second-round loss to Arkansas, Luis declared for the NBA Draft and headed to Florida to train. The disappointing defeat to the Razorbacks, in which Pitino benched him for final 4:56 after he’d gone 3-for-17 and missed several defensive assignments, no longer looms large for him.
“I’m kind of past that now,” Luis said. “I’m focused on the draft process. You can only control what you control. I feel like everything is in the past [and] I have a great relationship with the coaches still.”
Luis also put his name into the NCAA transfer portal, leaving a door open for him to return to college, though not at St. John’s.
“I’m fully into the draft right now,” Luis said. “The [portal] is really just kind of like a backup plan if . . . I don’t like anything that’s going on as far as the draft. But I’m definitely just fully focused on the draft.”
He said he hasn’t planned any college visits.
These days are all about building toward the NBA combine and workouts for teams, big opportunities to build his draft stock. Luis isn’t in many of the mock drafts that some organizations do, but Pitino said during the season that he’d be a potential first-round pick because of his talent, versatility and potential.
Luis said he goes through two basketball workouts a day and spends a lot of time in the weight room.
“We’ve been getting some good work in, just trying to work on my body because, at the next level, guys are a lot stronger, a lot bigger, so I’m trying to be physically prepared,” Luis said. “And also working out twice a day just . . . trying to get my jump shot right from the three-point line, which is a big aspect of the NBA game today.
"Going into the combine, [I] want to perform at a high level” he added when asked about improving his draft position. “. And when I go to the team workouts, I want to show teams what I’m capable of and what type of person I am ... Anytime you step into that type of realm, the only thing you want to do is perform. I think those are going to help a lot.”
He was reunited Thursday with Zuby Ejiofor, who was his roommate this season and attended the awards dinner.
“It’s one of many awards that RJ Lewis has gotten this season [and] he’s more than deserving of this award,” said Ejiofor, who was recognized as a member of the All-Met first-team along with Luis and Kadary Richmond. “He put in a lot of work . . . We wouldn’t have had the season we had without RJ Luis.”
Storm is On-Point
St. John’s got an important part of its rebuild Thursday night when it got a commitment from Idaho State transfer Dylan Darling. The 6-2 Darling is a prototype point guard who averaged 19.8 points and 5.7 rebounds for the Vandals this season and was named Big Sky Conference Player of the Year.
North Carolina transfer Ian Jackson is envisioned as the Storm’s starting point guard after one college season playing off the ball, but Darling figures to be part of Rick Pitino’s rotation. Darling and Florida Atlantic point guard Leland Walker were both visited the program Wednesday and worked out for the Storm coaching staff.
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.
