Ex-St. John’s star RJ Luis Jr. scores key victory in LSU eligibility battle

Former St. John’s star RJ Luis Jr. was granted an injunction by a Baton Rouge, La., court Wednesday, making him temporarily eligible to play for LSU. 

The injunction stops the SEC from being able to impose penalties on the LSU basketball program for having Luis on its roster, The Advocate reported. 

A preliminary injunction hearing is set for Nov. 13, for which representatives for LSU and the SEC will be present, but until then Luis is able to practice and play games for the Will Wade-led program. 

During that time frame, Luis would be able to play in three of LSU’s games, including the season opener against LSU New Orleans on Nov. 3, a Nov. 6 game against Texas Southern and a Nov. 9 matchup against Louisiana Tech. 

Luis’ attorney, Tony Clayton, told The Advocate that “he can practice, he can play games, whatever, until the 13th.” 

The ex-Red Storm star was named Big East Player of the Year in 2025 as part of the conference regular-season and tournament-winning squad. Luis made the decision to forgo his remaining eligibility and enter the NBA draft in 2025, but went undrafted before eventually signing a two-way deal with the Jazz. 

He later signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Celtics. 

Luis committed to playing at LSU after he was recruited by Wade, but the NCAA resisted letting Luis regain his college eligibility since he had decided to turn pro and did not follow NCAA protocols for retaining his eligibility by withdrawing from the draft. 

The SEC has rules that prevent teams from adding players who had major professional experience. In September, it updated them to grant the commissioner the power to suspend coaches, fine schools up to half of their sport’s budget and restrict voting privileges on conference matters. 

A petition filed by Clayton and attorney Elliot Abrams called on the state judge to prevent the SEC and conference commissioner Greg Sankey from penalizing LSU if Luis was put on the Tigers roster. 

Clayton told The Advocate that it amended the lawsuit to include the SEC, Sankey and the LSU Board of Supervisors in order to take away any possible obstacle preventing Luis from playing for the Tigers. 

Clayton has referred to the SEC commissioner as “Kim Jong” Sankey in several media interviews and told the Louisiana publication that the filing was due to the “commissioner’s actions and the commissioner’s threat.” 

“The reason why we brought LSU into the suit is because LSU is being threatened by Mr. Sankey,” Clayton said. “LSU is a great institution. Coach Wade is a good guy, a good coach, but both of them need to be forced to allow RJ to play basketball since he’s obviously qualified. And not have the threat of the SEC, which is threatening LSU. In effect, stopping coach Will Wade from letting this kid exercise his fundamental right to play basketball.” 

Luis averaged 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game during his final season at St. John’s in 2024-25.