The NCAA Tournament bubble didn’t burst Sunday for St. John’s because it turns out that it never really existed.
More than just being left out of the 68-team bracket, St. John’s was not even among the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament, the selection committee revealed, despite a late-season surge that included six straight wins and pushing defending national champion UConn to the limit in the Big East Tournament semifinals.
“If I could just give the players a hug and make the pain go away, I would wave my magic wand and do that,” head coach Rick Pitino said via Zoom after the team watched the selection show in private because of his sense that disappointment loomed. “But I unfortunately couldn’t do it.”
A weekend of automatic-bid-stealing around the country bumped St. John’s (20-13, 11-9) off the bubble completely, which is a surprise given its NET ranking (NCAA Evaluation Tool) of No. 32.
Since the advent of the supposedly all-important metric, the team with the highest NET ranking to miss the tournament was North Carolina State (33) in 2019 … until now.
“I think we all should probably never mention that word [NET] again because it’s fraudulent,” Pitino said. “I think the NET is something that shouldn’t even be mentioned anymore. I think we had a good strength of schedule [in] KenPom [rankings]. Why mention him? 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.”
The last four teams in were Virginia, Colorado State, Boise State and Colorado, setting up two of the early-week play-in matchups in Dayton, Ohio, for a pair of No. 10 seeds.
The first four teams out were Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Indiana State and Pittsburgh.
St. John’s was looking to get into the tournament for the first time since 2019, with hopes of riding its hot streak to its first win in the Big Dance since 2000.
Pitino was trying to become the first coach to bring six different schools to the NCAA Tournament.
“There is no consolation — whether you are last four in, first four out — the only thing about it is making it,” Pitino said. “Even though our players were all pumped up and very excited, the room got more somber with each round.”
St. John’s will decline a bid to the NIT, end its season and shift focus to the transfer portal because Pitino says that “seven or eight” new players need to be recruited.
Only 11 of 32 conference tournaments were won by the top seeds and the madness started early.
North Carolina State (ACC), Oregon (Pac-12), Duquesne (Atlantic 10) and UAB (American Athletic Conference) unexpectedly crashed the party by winning conference tournaments, and Richard Pitino Jr.-coached New Mexico climbed off the bubble by winning the Mountain West.
“Every possible upset happened and the three of us really got hurt by that,” Pitino said. “You have to say the committee did the best they could. We weren’t considered … and we move on.”
It looked like St. John’s punched its ticket Friday by avenging two regular-season losses with a blowout win of Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
Instead, the outcome bumped the Pirates out of the bracket, too, and the Big East was left with just three teams as Providence joined St. John’s and Seton Hall in disappointment.
Pitino said he knew that St. John’s “was going to have a very difficult time making it” after Colorado, Florida Atlantic and North Carolina lost in their tournaments. It’s the first time in his long coaching career that he has experienced a bubble burst — if there was one on.
“We’re not going to gripe, we’re not going to say we got screwed,” Pitino said. “Bitterness does not help. I’ve had enough bitterness in my life to last a lifetime.”
