Young St. John’s fan sends words of encouragement to RJ Luis Jr. in face of March Madness trolling

One young St. John’s fan wants RJ Luis Jr. to know that she has his back. 

The Red Storm star was inundated with messages of negativity after his rough performance in No. 2 seeded St. John’s 75-66 loss to No. 10 Arkansas in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, so much so that he had to delete his Instagram account. 

The reaction disappointed 12-year-old St. John’s fan Lily — better known as “Mini Fan” to the St. John’s social media community, according to her mom Brandy — and inspired her to show Luis some positivity. 

“Mini Fan” created a homemade sign with a hand-drawn photo of Luis with the Big East tournament trophy with a heartwarming message. 

“You’re Amazing RJ Luis,” the sign read. 

“You’re a great basketball player! Keep up the good work!” the message continued. 

Lily was sporting a St John’s Big East tournament champions hoodie in the pic that was posted to social media by her mom, who tagged the Big East Player of the Year in the post. 

“RJ is one of her favorite players and the idea that people would be so unkind to him [because] of one bad game … especially since he gave us so much to cheer for, was our mvp, player of the year, and led us to a [Big East] championship … was just really sad to her,” Brandy told The Post in a message on X. 

“She wanted RJ to know he is amazing and to hold his chin up.”

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“Mini Fan” and her family hail from Iowa and make the trip to New York when they can to catch St. John’s games in person at the Garden. 

During their last trip to MSG, Red Storm athletic director Ed Kull arranged for the family to be able to meet one of the players, Brandy said. 

Luis shot just 3-for-17 from the field in the season-ending loss to Arkansas and missed all three attempts from 3-point range.

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He scored just nine points and was benched by coach Rick Pitino in crunch time.  

The reaction Luis received since Saturday’s second-round loss has saddened other St. John’s fans as well and some have taken to social media to denounce the hate that the Red Storm guard received.

That included WFAN host Brandon Tierney, who lamented the “sad state of where we are/who we’ve become” regarding the messages to Luis. 

Following the loss, a heartbroken Luis told reporters, “I let my teammates down” 

Luis joined St. John’s in 2023 as a transfer from UMass and he does have one more year left of eligibility, leaving the possibility of him returning to Queens on the table.