Why would you remember RJs last game but not Berry and Mullin's Final Four performance when Georgetown effectively bottled up both of them.
There is no question that Berry and Mullin had more successful collegiate careers, but then it's also fair to categorize Berry's brief NBA career as a failure. But I digress.
The heart of this RJ discussion on here was NEVER about whether RJ was the equal to Berry or Mullin. It was mostly two groups, one which was highly critical of Luis's 2025 season, especially outside shooting, forced shots, and defensive shortcomings. One expert poster even claimed that RJ's best games came against lesser, unathletic teams and that he wilted against faster, athletic players.
I will remember that Luis' last moments on the court for us was making two huge free throws in a close game. One could make a very cogent argument that Pitino was the one who lost his cool by yanking RJ in a moment where he may have played like the 2nd team All American he was. Throw in the fact that Pitino stubbornly did not reinsert Lewis when Khadary fouled out and instead let our fate be decided by Prey and Scott, and again you can make the argument that it was Pitino who blew the game, not RJ.
But, damnit, whether we are comparing RJ to Mullin or Berry, or D'Angelo, Ponds, or David Russell, he is still pretty damned good and was ajoy to watch and root for this season.
Wishing him the best of everything in everything he does in life.
Great post , BOE! And , I thank you for stepping up , as you did and as Panther did and register a opinion on RJ’s next to last game vs Creighton , where he established a BET record for scoring 27 points in the 2 nd half .
As a matter of fact , for those who misread or misinterpreted my last paragraph in replying to Panther about RJ’s record , I mentioned ONLY that , neither Mullin , Berry or Ewing had achieved that individual game points total .
There is NO Mention of equating RJ to any of those Player’s Careers .
But , for that 1 game he did something that none of them had done .
BOE, you have again raised the point about Pitino seemingly making a very questionable Coaching decision to pull RJ from the final 4:54 minutes of a 4 point game vs Arkansas . Nearly , everyone in the BB fandom , outside of the usual posters here , think Pitino blew the game .
Calipari must have delighted in Rick pulling RJ with the game still in question . You can just imagine what he shared with his Staff after that game with that decision .
RJ had proven , time and again , that he was a Explosive Scorer , 27 points in a 1/2 is explosive by any standard . He could have scored 10 or more points in those last minutes as he had shown in several regular season games . Shooting 3-15 up to that point could have been 8-20 in the last minutes at the final horn . He had that kind of capability .
Who’s to say , he couldn’t have taken over those last minutes and won
the game , playing 2 man BB with Zuby?
Prey , Lefty , Smith , Scott and Zuby weren’t going to win that game and , didn’t .
No one seems to recall that Scott had a horrible game , shooting g 1-10 with a injured hand . Smith had a awful turnover at crunch time .
And , Pitino made a poor decision .
