Rick Pitino isn’t thrilled about St. John’s getting left out of the NCAA Tournament, but he’s especially peeved that Seton Hall got snubbed.
Seton Hall became the first team in the 45-year history of the Big East to get left out of March Madness after finishing five games above .500 in the conference, and had five Quad I wins, with defeats over Providence, Marquette, Butler, St. John’s and defending-champion UConn.
Writing on X on Monday, Pitino stuck up for his conference-mates.
“I believe in getting better not bitter,” Pitino tweeted.
“I totally believe that six teams from the Big East belonged in the field. I know our players along with Providence are totally disappointed with the decisions made. But not having Seton Hall at 13-7 in BE play with wins over the top teams is flat out wrong!”
Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway was beside himself on a Zoom call with reporters on Sunday night.
“Super-disappointed, super-shocked,” Holloway said.
“Can’t believe that a team that won 13 games in supposed to be the second-best conference in the country numbers-wise, I don’t think I ever been a part of seeing anything like that. The disrespect that the Big East got shown … it’s mind-boggling to me . … It’s hours later and I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe that only three teams got in from this conference. That’s a shame, and disrespectful, on every level.”
Meanwhile, Marquette head coach Shaka Smart theorized that DePaul’s historically futile team ended up costing other teams in the Big East a shot at the Big Dance.
“It was a perfect storm numbers-wise in our league,” Smart said on CBS Sports. “You had UConn having the best year ever of any Big East team. And then you had DePaul probably having the worst year ever.
“That affected those teams in the middle.”