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Agreed Floyd, I don’t criticize Pitino for sitting him. He was actively hurting the team. Lappas called him out a couple time for the lapses.

inthescoop wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 11:12 pm

WillHerndonFan wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 9:28 pm After watching RJ completely disappear against Arkansas and benched, let’s not get to emotional over losing RJ Luis. RJ is a good player but he was never really as good as the hype! Yes he won Big East Player of the Year but his legacy at St. John’s will be based on this loss. Hate to be a St. John’s fan right now!

What a silly post. Yeah he was never really that good.. he was only a second team all American and Big East POY. Let’s judge his entire season after one poor performance. This was a special season for the Johnnies, I guarantee you they will not remember RJ for one bad game

Meaningless awards when you can’t perform in the biggest game of your career. How many all Americans get benched in a tight NCAA tournament game in the final minutes of a game?! Didn’t we see some of that when he played at UMass as I remember Frank benched him a few times in key moments as I watched him play every game at UMass. Let’s admit that RJs NBA draft value went down considerably as he appears to get case of the yips from time to time!

eldonabe wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 7:44 am

LS71 wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:04 pm Why can’t we get, ummm I mean KEEP. guys like this….

It is too bad, he should have been here for 3 years before he jumped. Transfer rules made this too easy, and Frank treated the kid like shit.

in a few years basketball and football players will be signing 3 year contracts coming out of high school. They will need to sit out a year if they want to break the contract

Real tough spot to have a very poor game. Oh well.

stevemaz wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 6:32 am

eldonabe wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 7:44 am

LS71 wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:04 pm Why can’t we get, ummm I mean KEEP. guys like this….

It is too bad, he should have been here for 3 years before he jumped. Transfer rules made this too easy, and Frank treated the kid like shit.

in a few years basketball and football players will be signing 3 year contracts coming out of high school. They will need to sit out a year if they want to break the contract

Hopefully. Fingers crossed because the current product is awful. No midmajors in the sweet 16

Quann wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 10:05 am

stevemaz wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 6:32 am

eldonabe wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 7:44 am

It is too bad, he should have been here for 3 years before he jumped. Transfer rules made this too easy, and Frank treated the kid like shit.

in a few years basketball and football players will be signing 3 year contracts coming out of high school. They will need to sit out a year if they want to break the contract

Hopefully. Fingers crossed because the current product is awful. No midmajors in the sweet 16

NIL is the death of mid-major Cinderella runs

I think it's the transfer portal and lack of sit-out rule. Guys are going to transfer, and they should be able to if they want to, they're also making millions of dollars for the school and coach, so they should be able to get paid too. But nothing disincentivizes transferring like having to sit out for an entire year.

Juice Stand wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 10:18 am I think it's the transfer portal and lack of sit-out rule. Guys are going to transfer, and they should be able to if they want to, they're also making millions of dollars for the school and coach, so they should be able to get paid too. But nothing disincentivizes transferring like having to sit out for an entire year.

Bingo - it's 100% the transfer rule, or lack thereof. It's a really simple solution that no one (the NCAA or the major conferences) wants to solve.

^ yeah, really frigging sad. I do think there will be mid-majors in there occasionally, Florida Gulf Coasts will still happen, but it's clear the divide between the haves and have nots has increased.

I saw a commenter on barstool with a good take ( haha). Like SteveMaz said have them sign contracts as high school seniors. If they want to break that contract and transfer to a fellow d1 school (fbs for football) they sit out for the next year. If a coach is fired or leaves for another school, then all players have the option to transfer without penalty. Levels the playing field for players, coaches and the schools.

^ I like it. Sounds totally fair.

The transfer sit out rule was challenged in court and the NCAA knew they had not shot to validate it so they dropped the rule before if even made it to a court appearance. I don't see it coming back any time soon. I think they only thing that could maybe slow things down is, as other have already said, multi year contracts. I'm not even sure how enforceable that would be either.

Juice Stand wrote: Mon Mar 24, 2025 10:18 am I think it's the transfer portal and lack of sit-out rule. Guys are going to transfer, and they should be able to if they want to, they're also making millions of dollars for the school and coach, so they should be able to get paid too. But nothing disincentivizes transferring like having to sit out for an entire year.

Transfer portal has a play in it, but I think NIL is the deciding factor. It has caused a lack of competition in the playing field. Now, a player would rather get paid $250k and be a bench player at a P5 school in the SEC than be paid $25k and be the #1 option on a team like Wofford and showcase their talent. And I mean I get it, take the money, but this has caused a lack of competition and a lack of upsets in the NCAA tournament - the money is more important than the playing time.

In regard to the transfer rule, the first transfer should be free however after that if you want to transfer again, you will need to sit out a year.

They go hand in hand, no doubt. And you're right that playing time has been devalued. Examples like Josh Cohen and Wildens Levesque at least had the opportunity to compete for playing time, but knowing 100% that you have to sit out would deter a lot of transfers, in my opinion.

Floyd wrote: Sun Mar 23, 2025 9:05 am I watched that whole game and RJ just looked off from the jump. Besides a tough shooting day, there were a few times he jogged back on D and got beat for layups. Pitino didn't seem happy with him all day. Wonder if there was something else going on or he wasn't feeling well or something. He just had no energy

Yup. Then he went hero ball by chucking up a brick while being triple teamed. That was the final straw. Got yanked right after that.