That was the sound of a bubble bursting at St. John’s.
The Red Storm did not make the NCAA Tournament.
A weekend of automatic-bid-stealing around the country bumped St. John’s to the wrong side of the at-large bubble, and hearts were broken Sunday night in a private setting in Queens when the 68-team bracket was revealed.
Plenty of its Big East brethren can relate to feeling robbed.
St. John’s (20-13, 11-9) won six straight games before losing in the Big East Tournament semifinals, scoring 90 points and pushing defending national champion UConn to the limit.
The late-season surge upped the Johnnies’ NET ranking (NCAA Evaluation Tool) to No. 32, which Pitino later torched after their snub.
“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.”
Since the advent of the all-important metric, the team with the highest NET ranking to miss the tournament was North Carolina State (33) in 2019 … until now.
Indiana State, who had a NET ranking of 29, was also left and now owns the record.
Ironically, North Carolina State played a part in bumping St. John’s by unexpectedly winning the ACC Tournament and subtracting one available at-large berth.
Oregon did the same in the Pac-12. Atlantic 10 winner Duquesne and American Athletic Conference winner UAB also crashed the party.
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.
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, without elevating the Red Storm past other bubble teams who fared just as well or better this week, such as Colorado and New Mexico.
Head coach Rick Pitino was trying to become the first coach to bring six different schools to the NCAA Tournament (Boston, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona).
St. John’s announced it asked not to be invited to the NIT.