There will be no St. John’s basketball for the rest of the 2025 NCAA Tournament after the No. 2 seed Red Storm got stopped on their tracks in this year’s edition of March Madness by John Calipari and his No. 10 seed Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday.
The Razorbacks scored a 75-66 upset victory over the Johnnies, who had been sent packing their bags earlier than how long most people expected the Big East program to last in the tourney.
St. John’s basketball struggled offensively against Arkansas, who led by as many as 13 points in the first half. Although the Red Storm managed to cut the lead down to only two points with a little over six minutes left in the second half, their offense went cold, missing all but one of their nine shots the rest of the contest.
Poor offense doomed St. John’s basketball in loss to Arkansas
Simply put, an awful shooting night and poor ball movement were huge reasons behind St. John’s downfall in the second round of March Madness.
“Offensively we just did no share the basketball enough, and that was our demise,” Pitino said during the postgame press conference (h/t CBS Sports College Basketball).
As a team, the Johnnies only shot 28.0 percent from the floor and were an atrocious 2-for-22 from behind the arc. St. John’s also only had five assists throughout the contest.
“We’re the type of team that needs a good amount of assists offensively to win a game,” Pitino shared, per Vin Paris of Fox Sports. “We did not move it & pass the ball enough today and that was the biggest factor offensively.”
Arkansas wasn’t spectacular either on the offensive side of the ball versus St. John’s, as the Razorbacks shot just 42.9 percent from the field and hit only two of 19 attempts from the 3-point area, but they were plus-6 in fast break points and plus-8 in points in the paint.
St. John’s basketball star RJ Luis, had an incredibly bad night offensively. He shot just 3-for-17 from the floor and was kept on the bench by Pitino for the final minutes of the contest. Meanwhile, Zuby Ejiofor paced the Red Storm in their final game of the 2024-25 college basketball season with 23 points on a 7-for-12 shooting to go with 12 boards in the loss to the Razorbacks.
The Red Storm finish their campaign with a 22-13 overall record while the Razorbacks now prepare for their next game in the Sweet 16 round, where they will face the winner of the matchup between the No. 11 Drake Bulldogs and the No. 3 Texas Tech Red Raiders.
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