Big East coaches react to NCAA Tournament snubs: ‘The analytics are bull—‘

Dreams die hard, particularly in March. The Big East Conference found that out Sunday as three 20-win teams — Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s — were all snubbed by the NCAA selection committee. And the news caused a firestorm of discussion as Big East coaches were vocal in sharing their disappointment.

[2024 NCAA Men’s Tournament bracket]

Shortly after the news, coach Rick Pitino told the National Invitation Tournament selection committee that St. John’s didn’t want to play in the also-ran event.

“After thorough consideration of all that goes into postseason participation, we believe at this time it is best for our team and basketball program to prepare for next season,” Pitino said in a statement. Had the Red Storm gotten it, Pitino would have led his sixth school into the NCAA Tournament.

Providence coach Kim English was much more blunt in his reaction to the situation.

“I think the analytics are bull—-,” English said. “I think you can schedule bad teams in your non-league and beat the snot out of them, and beat ’em by 50 and 60. 

“And I think coaching for so long has been a gentleman agreement,” he continued. “You have a large lead at the end of the game, you know for health reasons you take guys out to get some other guys opportunities to play. But right now might be a change in college basketball. … But when you get into this league, the analytics aren’t going to look very good in league, because you’re playing against some really really good coaches.”

The disappointment extended to the Big East coaches who did get into the NCAA Tournament, too.

Creighton coach Greg McDermott, whose Bluejays earned a 3-seed, said the snubs had “kind of taken some of the buzz off. Hard to believe, and I certainly recognize that the committee’s got a very difficult job … but we’re the second-best league in the country and we have three teams in the top three seed-lines. A team that went 13-7 is not worthy to get in? … If you win half your games in the Big East, you should be playing in the postseason.”

And Danny Hurley, coach of 1-seed UConn, which is also the defending national champion, called “the whole thing is kind of shell game. “In the end, it just comes down to what the committee values.”

All of this followed a Selection Sunday in which the committee tasked with picking the 68 teams made it clear that their task this time around was particularly hard. Unexpected, bid-stealing programs winning conference titles were blamed for most of the distress — and there were plenty of those.

Seton Hall was among the first four out of the tournament. Providence and St. John’s were even further down their lists as only three conference teams were picked. In addition to Creighton and league tourney champion UConn, Marquette made it in as a 2-seed.

The selection committee said Oklahoma, 28-win Indiana State, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh were the first four teams left out. NCAA selection committee chairman Charles McClelland, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, said five bids were stolen during the conference tournaments — and one of those was going to go to Indiana State, which fell in the final of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to Drake.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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