Rick Pitino, Tom Crean Sound Off with Selection Sunday Rants

Selection Sunday giveth, and it taketh away. The NCAA Selection Committee burst bubbles across the country and the Big East coaches were not happy about it, particularly one Rick Pitino.

Back in high-major basketball for the first time since 2017, Pitino orchestrated a late-season turnaround at St. John’s. The Red Storm won six straight games before they were bounced by top-ranked UConn in the Big East Tournament.

St. John’s was firmly on the buddle with a 20-13 record, but they ranked No. 32 in the NET and No. 25 in KenPom. That should be good enough to get into the Big Dance, right? Wrong. St. John’s was the only Top-30 KenPom team that did not make the NCAA Tournament.

“I think the NET’s something that shouldn’t even be mentioned anymore,” Pitino said, calling the rankings fraudulent. “We had a good strength of schedule, KenPom, why mention him? We were [25] in KenPom. So I don’t know.”

Pitino complained about the NET, all while saying he’s not going to complain about getting left out of the NCAA Tournament. He continues to live his life as a walking contradiction.

“We tried to do things the right way and we didn’t get in,” Pitino said. “I never make excuses. I respect the committee for what they do, they give their time, they give their energy to it. They didn’t think that we measured up to their standards and we’ll take it very positively like men and move forward. 

“We’re not gonna gripe, we’re not gonna say we got screwed, none of that helps. Bitterness does not help. I’ve had enough bitterness in my life to last a lifetime.”

Pitino wasn’t the only Big East coach to gripe about the NET rankings. The conference, considered one of the best in college basketball by many, only got three teams into the NCAA Tournament: UConn, Marquette, and Creighton. Kim English was upset after Providence failed to reach the Tournament after his first season as the school’s head coach.

“I think the analytics are bullshit,” said English. “I think you can schedule bad teams in your non-league and beat the snot out of them, beat ’em by 50 and 60. Coaching for so long has been a gentleman’s agreement. If you have a large lead at the end of the game, for health reasons you take guys out to get some other guys an opportunity to play, you take guys out. But right now there might be a change in college basketball where beating teams by 40 and 50 might be a thing to do.

“When you get into this league, the analytics aren’t going to look very good in-league… I think there are some flaws in the system.”

Tom Crean Rails Teams for Opting Out of NIT

Not long after Rick Pitino called the NET Rankings fraudulent, he said St. John’s would not be participating in the NIT. Even though the NIT changed its policy to get more high-major teams in the postseason tournament, St. John’s was one of many schools that chose to end the season right away and begin building next year’s team.

In addition to St. John’s, Pitt, Ole Miss, Indiana, Memphis, and Oklahoma each announced they would forego the NIT. Instead, they’ll focus on recruiting in the transfer portal, which opens today. Tom Crean, now an ESPN analyst, railed against coaches for choosing to end their season prematurely.

“You’ve got bigger staffs than you’ve ever had. There’s plenty of time to for the portal, there’s plenty of time to talk to recruits, there’s plenty of time to negotiate NIL deals, there’s not plenty of time to play,” said Crean. “There’s not plenty of time to get your players on the floor to have a chance to get better.”

Tom Crean goes off about college basketball teams declining invitations to the NIT. 🏀🔥

(h/t: @Matt_Fortuna) pic.twitter.com/0O9SpdO1GT

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 18, 2024

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