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. Oklahoma and Pitt also said they didn't want to take part.

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.

  • @silverbaxEnglish
    4•2 months ago

    I dont understand Pitt’s pride on this. You make the NCAA based on your overall season, and for 95% of the season, they were mediocre. Conference tournament games barely factor into NCAA bids, despite what Joe Lunardi says. So Pitt didn’t have a good enough season to make it, then only beat one team in the ACC Tournament (a team that also wasn’t going to make the tournament).

    Was Pitt playing really well at the end of the season? Sure. But it’s the whole season that matters, not one or two games

    • @RedWeaselEnglish
      2•2 months ago

      “Conference tournament games barely factor into NCAA bids”

      I definitely agree. If it did matter the Big Ten wouldn’t finish up their championship game about a half hour before it is announced. If Michigan went on a run in the Big Ten Tourney and played in the Championship game, it wouldn’t make that much difference unless the won it and the committee can just have 2 versions for that situation for instance.