Luis, Pitino take home Big East awards for St. John's

RJ Luis Jr. is the Associated Press Big East player of the year and Rick Pitino is the unanimous choice for coach of the year after both helped St. John’s win its first outright conference title since 1985.

UConn freshman Liam McNeeley was selected as Big East newcomer of the year.

Luis came back from offseason surgery to his shins and has averaged 18.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals for the sixth-ranked Red Storm, who enter this week’s Big East Tournament on a six-game winning streak. Pitino has St. John’s (27-4) headed for its first NCAA Tournament since 2019 in his second year on the job.

Luis received six votes for player of the year from the 13-member voting panel of media members to edge Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner by a single vote. Villanova forward Eric Dixon received the other two votes.

“I’ve got to thank my teammates and coaches,” Luis said Saturday about the possibility of getting named player of the year. “They do a great job of putting me in position to be successful, especially Kadary (Richmond). He knows I’m a scorer, so he does a great job of finding me the ball. I think it would be a blessing to receive the award. It would be an honor.”

Luis, Kalkbrenner and Dixon all were unanimous first-team all-Big East selections. They’re joined on the first team by Creighton guard Steven Ashworth, St. John’s forward Zuby Ejiofor and Marquette guard Kam Jones. Ashworth and Ejiofor tied for fifth place in the voting.

The second team includes Richmond, UConn guard Solo Ball, Xavier forward Zach Freemantle, UConn forward Alex Karaban and Georgetown swingman Micah Peavy.

This is the third straight year in which Kalkbrenner has made the first team. Dixon and Richmond both made the second team last year, though Richmond was playing for Seton Hall at the time.

First team

t-Guard – Steven Ashworth, Creighton, 5th year, 6 feet, 175, Alpine, Utah

G – Kam Jones, Marquette, Sr., 6-5, 205, Memphis, Tennessee

u-G/F – RJ Luis Jr., St. John’s, Jr., 6-7, 215, Miami

u-F – Eric Dixon, Villanova, 6th year, 6-8, 265, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania

t-F – Zuby Ejiofor, St. John’s, Jr., 6-9, 240, Garland, Texas

u-C – Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton, 5th year, 7-1, 270, Florissant, Missouri

Second team

G - Solo Ball, UConn, Soph., 6-3, 190, Leesburg, Virginia

G – Kadary Richmond, St. John’s, 5th year, 6-6, 205, Brooklyn, New York

G/F – Micah Peavy, Georgetown, 5th year, 6-8, 220, Cibolo, Texas

F - Zach Freemantle, Xavier, 6th year, 6-9, 227, Teaneck, New Jersey

F – Alex Karaban, UConn, Jr., 6-8, 225, Southborough, Massachusetts

Individual honors

u-Coach of the year – Rick Pitino, St. John’s

Player of the year – RJ Luis Jr., St. John’s

Newcomer of the year - Liam McNeeley, UConn, Fr., 6-7, 210, Richardson, Texas

-“u” denotes unanimous selection

-“t” denotes tie

Voting panel

Joseph Arruda, Hartford (Connecticut) Courant; David Borges, CT Insider; John Fanta, Fox Sports; Kevin McNamara, WPRO, Providence, Rhode Island; Jeffrey Neiburg, The Philadelphia Inquirer; Steve Newhouse, WeAreDePaul, 247Sports; Dave Preston, WTOP, Washington; Roger Rubin, Newsday; Richard Skinner, WKRC, Cincinnati; Tim Van Vooren, Fox6, Milwaukee; Jon Walker, Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald; Chris Widlic, WTTV CBS4, Indianapolis; Adam Zagoria, NJ Advance Media

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