Big East teams sending March Madness ‘message’ after snubs

One week later, the Big East has to feel much better about itself.

The conference could boast about going undefeated over the first four days of the NCAA Tournament instead of feeling disrespected over the Selection Sunday slights.

While only three teams from the Big East were selected for the dance despite being ranked as the second-best conference by KenPom.com, it has responded by sending all of them to the Sweet 16 on the strength of a perfect 6-0 record.

Overall No. 1 seed Connecticut put an exclamation mark on the start to the tournament with a 75-58 beatdown of ninth-seeded Northwestern at Barclays Center.

Creighton, the third seed in the Midwest Region, and Marquette, seeded second in the South, survived second-round scares to join the Huskies in the second weekend.

“I think the teams that are left are finding a way to send a bit of a message here: That the Big East is one of the elite basketball conferences in the country and we play at the highest level,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said, offering her first public remarks since the snubs of Seton Hall, St. John’s and Providence. “We’ve been in four Final Fours since 2016, we’ve got the overall No. 1 seed, we have a two-seed in Marquette and a three-seed in Creighton, and that says a lot about the strength of our league. Would it have been better to get a few more teams in? Yes, absolutely, but that’s not the way the cookie crumbled this year. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Connecticut coach Dan Hurley believes the Big East should’ve received at least five bids, and without naming them specifically, brought up other leagues that underperformed.

The Mountain West sent six teams to the tournament, and only fifth-seeded San Diego State was still alive late Sunday night.

The SEC went 5-6 in the first two rounds, with only two of its eight teams reaching the Sweet 16.

Even the powerhouse Big 12 only had two teams advance.

There is a group chat among the Big East coaches in which the three men still alive are being supported by the others.

“I know everyone is fired up to see us continue to push and rep the league at a high level,” Hurley said. “Obviously the mistake was made. It sucks.”

Ackerman declined to criticize the committee, saying several times the Big East respects the process it undergoes.

She was told that an abnormal amount of bid-stealers impacted the league’s bubble teams.

There were five of them, the most in several years.

Otherwise, Seton Hall would have been selected, and possibly one of St. John’s or Providence could’ve made it as well.

Selection Committee chair Charles McClelland has said that St. John’s Quad 1 record (4-10) precluded it from making the dance.

He found fault with Seton Hall’s win over Connecticut, since center Donovan Clingan suffered an injury in the game, and pointed to poor metrics when it came to Providence and its NET ranking of 58.

Virginia, the last team in, certainly didn’t look deserving with its First Four blowout loss to Colorado State.

But Ackerman opted against lashing out over the league having its fewest teams selected since 1993.

“Are we working behind the scenes to try to understand it better, to make our concerns known? Yes, that is happening. That will continue to happen in the coming months,” she said. “And that’s how we’re going to attack this. I don’t think standing on this table right here and screaming at the top of my lungs is going to get us more teams in the tournament this year.

“It might get me on the back page of the New York Post and they might write nicer things about the Big East and I wouldn’t have the emails that I’ve gotten in the last week from disgruntled Seton Hall fans and Providence fans and St. John’s fans. But that’s the job. I don’t want to make predictions here that don’t pan out, but I feel very confident you’re going to have more than three Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament next year.”

Ackerman said the Big East is working towards getting a better handle on what matters most to the committee, and she has been told to continue to schedule tough.

There may also be a review of the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool), one of the metrics the committee leans on. For the time being, she is excited about how Connecticut, Marquette and Creighton have performed.

“We’re going to hopefully get a couple of teams to the Final Four,” Ackerman said, “and hopefully win a national championship in a few weeks.”