First-year St. John’s coach Rick Pitino told the NIT selection committee that the team didn’t want to play in the also-ran event after being omitted from the NCAA tournament field despite a 20-13 record.
Dreams die hard, particularly in March.
The Big East found that out Sunday as three 20-win teams — Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s — were all snubbed by the NCAA selection committee.
St. John’s arguably had the biggest gripe of the three. It finished 20-13 overall, winning six games in a row — four of them by at least 14 points — before a loss to overall No. 1 seed UConn in the Big East semifinals on Friday.
Coach Rick Pitino backed his team’s resume Sunday. It ranked 24th in the Basketball Power Index (BPI), best of any squad that did not make the NCAA tournament. It also had a NET ranking of 32nd, second-best among teams to miss the tournament behind Indiana State (28th).
« First off, I think we should all probably never mention that word (NET) again because I think it’s fraudulent, » Pitino told SNY. « I think the NET is something that shouldn’t even be mentioned anymore.
« I think that we had a good strength of schedule. KenPom, why mention him? We were 26th in KenPom. We tried to play a tough schedule. We tried to do things the right way, and we didn’t get in. But I never make excuses. I respect the committee for what they do. They give their time, they give their energy to it.
