ST. JOHN’S FALLS SHORT OF JOINING THE FIELD OF 68
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ST. JOHN’S FALLS SHORT OF JOINING THE FIELD OF 68
By
Ben Dickson
Rick Pitino’s first NCAA Tournament game with St. John’s will have to wait.
After a sweaty two days following Friday’s Big East Tournament semifinal loss to reigning national champion UConn, St. John’s (20-13) was not included in Sunday’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal.
The Red Storm also were not among the selection committee’s first four teams out, meaning they were firmly on the wrong side of the bubble. Pitino said the Red Storm would not accept an NIT bid. “I’m real proud of them,” Pitino said on a Zoom call Sunday night. “They were a great group to work with. Tremendous attitude. Couldn’t be prouder of a group than this group. They just gave me everything they had every single day.”
The Red Storm beat Seton Hall by 19 in a Big East Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday, a game that seemingly put them in the field no matter what happened against UConn. But chaos ensued in the hours between the Connecticut loss and Selection Sunday.
At-large bid-stealers arose in the Atlantic 10 (Duquesne), the Pac-12 (Oregon), the ACC (N.C. State) and the American (UAB), taking the spots of the first four out — Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Indiana State and Pittsburgh.
Selection committee chair Charles McClelland said on the selection show that Mountain West champion and 11th-seeded New Mexico, coached by Pitino’s son Richard, was a fifth bid-stealer despite being No. 22 in the NET.
“This is the first time since I’ve been on the committee that we’ve had five bids that have been stolen,” McClelland said. “The last two years combined, there’s only been three, so it makes it difficult for us to be able to go through that process.”
Only three Big East teams — No. 1 UConn, No. 2 Marquette and No. 3 Creighton — made the field of 68. Providence, which had six Quadrant One wins and zero bad losses, also was left out.
“About a week to 10 days ago, I think six of us [in the Big East] were all in,” Pitino said. “ . . . Every possible upset happened. The three of us really, really got hurt by that.”
St. John’s is No. 32 in Sunday’s NET rankings, the NCAA’s primary sorting tool for evaluating teams. Before this season, 2018-19 N.C. State (NET No. 33) was the highest-ranked NET team that was left out of the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA replaced the RPI with the NET before the 2018-19 season. Indiana State (NET No. 29) and St. John’s are the two highest-rated NET teams ever to not make the tournament.
“We all should probably never mention that word [the NET] again,’’ Pitino said, “because I think it’s fraudulent.”
St. John’s was 14-12 overall and 6-9 in the Big East with five regular-season games remaining, sitting firmly on the wrong side of the bubble.
But the Red Storm rattled off five straight wins to end the regular season, picking up a marquee home win over Creighton, a Quadrant One win at Butler, two wins over 10th-place Georgetown and a road win over last-place DePaul.
But as the committee decided Sunday, it was too little, too late.
