One of the more controversial decisions finalized by the NCAA Tournament selection committee this past Sunday involved the St. John’s Red Storm being chosen as the No. 5 seed for the East region, which also features the No. 1 overall-seeded Duke Blue Devils and the Connecticut Huskies being the No. 2 seed.
During a Monday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” former Duke head coach and college basketball legend Mike Krzyzewski suggested he agrees with those who think St. John’s deserved better from the committee.
Mike Krzyzewski “surprised” St. John’s is a No. 5 seed
“I was a little bit surprised St. John’s being a five seed with what they’ve done lately,” Krzyzewski explained. “They won the regular season Big East and also the tournament.”
As Krzyzewski referenced, St. John’s entered this year’s Big East Tournament as the conference’s outright regular-season champions. The Johnnies then improved to 28-6 overall (18-2 in conference play) by winning three straight tournament games at Madison Square Garden, the last of which was a dominant 72-52 Red Storm victory over UConn.
That said, Peter Sblendorio of the New York Daily News noted that selection committee chairman Keith Gill mentioned that the Red Storm’s “results in the non-conference did not have kind of the same depth and quality of some of the folks that are ahead of them.”
Specifically, St. John’s went 5-5 in Quad 1 games this season. However, the Johnnies also ended the weekend as the No. 16 team in the country according to NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.
Mike Krzyzewski: “Hard to believe” how selection committee treated the Big East
“Their top two teams are in the same region, Connecticut and St. John’s,” Krzyzewski added about the Big East. “That never happens. The Big Ten has five [teams], but they’re spread out. The Big 12 has four, one in each of the regions. So I thought that was a really, not a good thing to do for the Big East.”
St. John’s will face the No. 12 Northern Iowa Panthers in San Diego this coming Friday evening (7:10 p.m. ET tipoff). As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Red Storm as 10.5-point favorites for that matchup.
