Rick Pitino chose not to play RJ Luis during the final four minutes and 56 seconds of an NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas on Saturday. The Big East Player of the Year sat on the bench.
Unfortunately, FanDuel and BetMGM decided to pour gasoline on the firestorm with a ludicrous post on social media.
Luis, a transfer from UMass, was the leading scorer for the Red Storm during the 2024-25 college basketball season. He went from averaging 10.9 points in 21.2 minutes per game as a sophomore to 18.2 points in 31.8 minutes per game as a junior. St. John’s would not have won the Big East regular season or the conference tournament without him.
The second round of March Madness did not go as well for Luis as the other 34 games. The 6-foot-7 guard made only three of 17 shot attempts and went 0-for-3 from beyond the arc. It was rough.
As a result, Pitino decided to take Luis out of the game during the last five minutes. He sat on the bench.
When asked about the decision to bench his leading scorer, Rick Pitino chose not to throw him under the bus. The 72-year-old Hall of Famer very carefully chose his words to explain that Luis just didn’t have it. Some people were offended by the answer but it was intentionally phrased to give him some grace.
"He played 30 minutes and I went with other people."
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 22, 2025
Rick Pitino explained why RJ Luis was on the bench in the second half. pic.twitter.com/6zdbcZXb8f
RJ Luis was distraught.
RJ Luis Jr. was asked how frustrating it was to be on the bench at the end of St. John's' loss to Arkansas:
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 22, 2025
"Let my teammates down." pic.twitter.com/9YZZ2rthly
Before social media, fans at home would have to deal with their frustration toward Luis on their own and get over it. The same goes for people who bet on the Red Storm. They used have to take their loss, deal with it internally and move on. Not anymore.
Luis received a large number of hateful messages to his inbox on Instagram. I would guess that a majority of the people who slid into his DMs lost a relatively small amount of money that they could not afford to bet on St. John’s. They blamed the guy who went 3-of-17 from the field.
It got so bad that Luis decided to delete his Instagram account all together to make the hate go away.
The account no longer exists.
Meanwhile, a pair of sportsbooks posted graphics to social media that asked whether RJ Luis should enter the transfer portal and leave the program. FanDuel did it first:
After winning Big East Player of the Year, Rick Pitino benched RJ Luis Jr. in the biggest game of the season…
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) March 22, 2025
Should he hit the transfer portal? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/isGAVCEXPX
BetMGM followed the lead of their direct competitor:
Should RJ Luis hit the transfer portal? 🤔
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) March 22, 2025
❤️ for YES
🔁 for NO pic.twitter.com/tSGmLKewk7
RJ Luis received so many hateful messages that he decided to get rid of social media all together. Meanwhile, the sportsbooks decided to encourage the hate with a ridiculous hypothetical.
This continues to be a problem in college sports. Fans and bettors at home are trashing the athletes that caused them to lose money with a poor performance without any sympathy for who they are as a person. For FanDuel and BetMGM to encourage that behavior by stoking the flames is disgusting.