RJ Luis has insisted all along that he intended to remain in the NBA Draft.
On Wednesday, he made it official.
“There will be no change of heart,” Reggie Luis, RJ’s father, told The Field of 68. “RJ’s excited about the future. He’s appreciative of St. John’s, Coach Pitino and the fans. He wants to leave college as a Johnnie.”
ESPN reported North Carolina, Kansas, Ole Miss, Villanova and Georgetown were among the schools interested in the reigning Big East Player of the Year.
“We understand the situation, we were offered a lot of money to go back to college,” Reggie Luis said. “But we have a plan and we’re going to stick with the plan.”
Top-tier players in the portal are commanding $2-3 million, with an elite few making north of that.
The 6-foot-7 Luis hopes to hear his named called during the NBA Draft June 25-26 at Barclays Center.
“I’m fully into the draft right now,” Luis said last month before he was given the prestigious Haggerty Award as the Met Player of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers’ Association (MBWA).
“The transfer portal is really just kind of like a backup plan, just weighing my options in case if I don’t like anything that’s going on as far as the draft. But I’m definitely fully focused on the draft right now.”
At the Final Four in San Antonio, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said he believes Luis will shoot up draft boards after workouts.
“RJ is not thinking at all about going to college,” Pitino said. “Our goal from day one this year was for him to go to NBA. He’ll go to workouts, and he’ll move just like Donovan [Mitchell] did, and just like the other guys, he’ll move up the ladder. He’ll go from the second round, I think, into the late first round.”
Luis has been working out in his hometown of Miami.
“I’m back home working out with [Miami-based skills trainer] Ronnie Taylor and my strength and conditioning coaches, so 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,” Luis said. “So just really trying to be physically prepared, and also working out basketball 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.”
He said he’d love to get a first-round guarantee.
“I mean, of course, I feel like everybody’s dream is to go in the first round,” Luis said.
As for how his career ended at St. John’s, Luis said he’s put that in the past. Pitino did not play him over the final five minutes of the Arkansas game on a night when Luis shot 3-of-17 and struggled defensively.
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Luis said he was “hurt” and that " I think (Pitino) could...have did a better job... picking my head up."
“I’m kind of past that,” Luis said Thursday. “Now, obviously, I’m focused on the draft process. You can only control what you can control. I feel like everything is in the past.”
St. John’s long ago moved on from Luis and added the nation’s No. 1 portal class with Ian Jackson (UNC), Oziyah Sellers (Stanford), Dillon Mitchell (Cincinnati), Bryce Hopkins (Providence), Joson Sanon (Arizona State), Dylan Darling (Idaho State) and Handje Tamba. Austrian wingImran Suljanovic also joins as a freshman.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter and Basketball Insider for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoriaand check out his Website atZAGSBLOG.com.