Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has seen just about everything in college basketball, but he said he’s never seen this before.
St. John’s and UConn, two of the three Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament, were both placed in the loaded East Region that also features traditional powers Duke, Kansas and Michigan State.
“I found [it] hard to believe,” Coach K said on the Pat McAfee Show. “The Big East only got three teams in which is probably right, but their top two teams are in the same region, Connecticut and St John’s. That never happens. You know, like the Big 10 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 for the Big East.”
Like many observers, Coach K was also stunned to see Rick Pitino’s team get a 5 seed despite winning the Big East regular-season and tournament titles.
“And it’s a little bit surpris[ing] St John’s being a 5 seed with what they’ve done lately,” he said.
St. John’s -10.5 point spread is listed at -110 on DraftKings for their opening game of the NCAA Tournament versus Northern Iowa. Our complete DraftKings Sportsbook review shows you how to navigate through their platform.
Per ESPN, no 5 seed has ever won the NCAA Tournament. Only four No. 5 seeds have reached the title game: Florida (2000), Indiana (2002), Butler (2010), and San Diego State (2023),
St. John’s, which has a NET Ranking of16, only had five Quad-1 wins this year.
Pitino blamed the overall weakness of the Big East for his team’s seeding.
“I thought we’d be a 5th seed,” he told Jennifer Williams of Fox -5. “A couple of guys in my set thought it was possible to be a 4th seed, but they don’t take into account how you’re playing at the end of the year. The old days — like 8, 10 years ago — it counted the last 10 games of the season as what they really looked at. They don’t do that anymore …
“The Big East was really weak from a NET standpoint….So we gotta get the Big East stronger.”
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