It’s up to you, Connecticut, Marquette and Creighton. It’s now your job to carry the Big East flag.
To prove what we all know: that the NCAA Tournament selection committee got it completely wrong by taking just three teams from the conference, which is ranked second in the country by the analytic website KenPom.com, and was considered the second-best conference in the country by most observers.
The league’s higher-ups seem OK with what went down, waiting a full day to release a Charmin-soft statement after its teams were railroaded. The Big East seems fine with the tire marks across its back, accepting that leagues rated worse like the Mountain West (six), Big Ten (six) and ACC (five) somehow got rewarded instead.
Saturday night, after a memorable Big East Tournament full of sold-out crowds had concluded with Connecticut cutting down the nets at a raucous Madison Square Garden, I asked Huskies coach Dan Hurley about the prospect of the league receiving only three NCAA Tournament bids.
“Who the hell said that?” he responded incredulously. “Are they saying that?”
The bracketologists weren’t just saying it. It became a depressing reality Sunday night, when the pairings were released by a selection committee that was as inconsistent as chairman Charles McClelland was unprepared to explain some of the decisions.
The conference, with the favorite (No. 1 seed Connecticut) to win it all and two other Final Four contenders (No. 2 Marquette and No. 3 Creighton), which has won three of the last six national championships, somehow landed just three teams in the dance. It was its worst showing since 1993.
Had it not been for five bid-stealers, teams that wouldn’t have made the tournament if not for winning their respective conference tournaments, Seton Hall would’ve been a fourth. Instead it was the second team out. That St. John’s and Providence weren’t even among the first four teams out is further proof of the committee disregarding and discrediting this conference. It was treated like a mid-major, while the lower-ranked ACC, SEC and Big Ten were given the benefit of the doubt.
As Hurley has said a few times, it was disrespectful. Hurley has been joined by several Big East coaches in criticizing the committee, from St. John’s Rick Pitino and Seton Hall’s Shaheen Holloway to Butler’s Thad Matta and Providence’s Kim English, among others. The Big East’s higher-ups stayed quiet for 24 hours until basically patting the committee on the back.
“We have great respect for the NCAA men’s basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament,” the statement read. “It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee’s final bracket selections.
“Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.”
Not enough — not nearly enough. Where is the outrage? Where is the anger? Where is the frustration? Commissioner Val Ackerman has so far declined interview requests from The Post. It was the opposite approach taken by Florida State and the ACC when the undefeated Seminoles were left out of the College Football Playoff in December.
McClelland has made several curious statements since the reveal, saying that Michigan State was selected as a nine-seed because of its Quad 1 wins. The Spartans are 3-9 in Quad 1 games. Providence had double that many wins. Seton Hall (five) and St. John’s (four) had more. Virginia went 2-7 and was taken as the last team in.
He said St. John’s Quad 1 record (4-10) was a deterrent. He found fault with Seton Hall’s impressive victory over Connecticut, one of three losses by the powerhouse Huskies all season, because center Donovan Clingan got hurt in the second half. No mention that two of Seton Hall’s losses came without star guard Kadary Richmond. McClelland used metrics in explaining away Providence. The goalposts kept moving.
If you wanted to go by metrics, St. John’s would’ve been the choice with a NET ranking of 32. If you wanted high-end wins, Seton Hall beat Connecticut and Marquette. If the number of Quad 1 wins was important, then the pick is Providence. That none of the three were even given a chance to play their way into the main bracket in the First Four in Dayton remains mind-boggling. So is the Big East’s tepid response. It took this sharp slap sitting down.
So now it comes down to the big three of Connecticut, Creighton and Marquette, three teams that all can get to the Final Four in Phoenix. Three teams that now have to stand up for their league because the powers that be have opted not to.
It’s been a brutal couple of days for the Big East, on the heels of a terrific tournament. It desperately needs these teams to make a statement over the next few weeks with their play. Prove the conference deserved better. Show it on the court. Get all three teams to the second weekend and at least one to Phoenix. The league, with its television deal with Fox Sports up in a year, needs a huge March in the worst way.
