Gio understands St. John’s fans having a major gripe with being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, but in the end, he believes their midseason swoon is what did them in from ending their five-year March Madness drought.
“You have to leave no doubt if you’re St. John’s,” Gio said. “Unfortunately, that stretch they went through before the press conference when Rick Pitino tore everybody down and said he was so unhappy, that stretch there is what cost them a bid into the tournament.”
Still, the fact that the Big East only had three teams make the tournament, just half of what the Mountain West sent dancing, is not a great look by the committee, even if conference final surprises led to automatic bids being stolen.
“The fact that the Big East - which is still the best conference out there, I don’t care what anybody says - only got three teams in there, and UConn got, on paper, the hardest route to the Final Four, that’s tough for the conference,” Gio said. “If I’m the Big East commissioner, I’m mad about that.
“Here you are, in the most competitive league, and you only have three representatives that were top 25 teams the entire time. They were beating each other up…you had Seton Hall, who beat UConn, you have St. John’s who took UConn to the brink twice, and those teams aren’t in.”