Analysts make their feelings known on Rick Pitino's St. John's replacing RJ Luis Jr. with Ian Jackson

Rick Pitino's St. John's had an interesting spring transfer portal. The Red Storm lost RJ Luis Jr., who entered the transfer portal and declared for the NBA draft, but landed Ian Jackson, who transferred from Memphis.

While many have expressed their opinions on Pitino replacing Luis Jr. with Jackson, analysts Mark Zanetto and Casey Matthews offered their take on the situation at St. John's.

"I still think losing RJ Luis, and replacing him with Ian Jackson isn't an upgrade," Zanetto said on the Big East Energy podcast on Thursday (15:55). "I think it's a wash, as far as talent goes. And I don't know, man, like you lose the Big East Player of the Year, and you replace him with a guy who didn't have a great season at North Carolina. And what you're doing is you're trusting Rick Patino, which isn't a bad thing."

Matthews suggested that Jackson might be a better fit for Pitino's system at St. John's.

"I'd actually even say, you know, I don't think it's even a wash," Matthews said. "I think RJ is a better player. That's also in a vacuum, right? When you're looking at this from a team perspective, and what Ian Jackson's potential could be for this team, I certainly think that he might be able to have a bigger impact on winning for them than RJ.

"But if you're just talking to individual players, I think RJ is probably a better player, but we'll see. I mean, you know, you don't, you don't go to Carolina and then St John's as a bad basketball player, I can tell you that. So we're gonna, we're gonna find that out."

Luis Jr. began his college career at UMass in 2022. He played one season with the Minutemen before transferring to St. John's.

Last season, Luis Jr. averaged 18.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game for Rick Pitino's Red Storm. He was named a Consensus second-team All-American and won the Big East Player of the Year award,

It will be interesting to see if Jackson can fill the void left by Luis Jr. at St. John's next season.

Rick Pitino won the regular season title and Big East Conference tournament in 2025

NCAA Basketball: St. John's HC Rick Pitino - Source: Imagn

Rick Pitino led St. John's to the regular season title and the Big East Conference title in 2025. The Red Storm also earned a No. 2 seed in March Madness.

Pitino's St. John's got off to a strong start in the NCAA Tournament, beating Omaha 83-53 in the first round. However, the Red Storm crashed out of March Madness in the second round after losing 75-66 against No. 10 seed Arkansas.

St. John's hired Pitino in 2023 and has compiled a 51–18 record with the team in two seasons.