Rick Pitino reacts to St. John's getting No. 5 seed, trip to San Diego for NCAA Tournament

The St. John’s Red Storm entered the 2026 Big East Tournament as the conference's outright regular-season champions. St. John's then held serve at Madison Square Garden through this past Saturday's convincing 72-52 win over the rival Connecticut Huskies in the Big East Tournament final.

Nevertheless, the selection committee did the Johnnies no favors when it chose the Red Storm as the No. 5 seed for the East region of the upcoming NCAA Tournament. That region also features the No. 1 overall-seeded Duke Blue Devils, among other top contenders. 

On Sunday evening, legendary St. John's head coach Rick Pitino spoke with SNY's Niki Lattarulo about his program's Big Dance journey that will begin with a matchup versus the No. 12 Northern Iowa Panthers that will take place in San Diego this coming Friday evening (7:10 p.m. ET tipoff). 

What surprised Rick Pitino about how the selection committee treated St. John's

"Well, we were a little surprised where we're going," Pitino acknowledged. "I thought we'd be a five-seed. San Diego is a great city. I feel bad for our fans. You're not gonna be able to travel in the middle of the week to go to San Diego. If you get by the first round, lucky enough to get by a tough Northern Iowa team, (No. 4) Kansas will probably have 95 percent of the fans cause they travel, like Kentucky, great." 

Peter Sblendorio of the New York Daily News noted that St. John’s was the No. 15 team in the country according to NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings. That said, St. John’s went an unspectacular 5-5 in Quad 1 games this season. While the Red Storm have won six straight games, they suffered a brutal 72-40 loss at UConn on Feb. 25. 

Perhaps that defeat was on the minds of committee members before the bracket was finalized. 

"I don’t think they take into consideration, like the old days, how you’re playing at the end of the year," Pitino said about where St. John's landed in the field. "The metrics are [that] each game counts." 

What Rick Pitino told St. John's players about alleged snub

Pockets of St. John's fans and some analysts took to social media on Sunday evening to share their surprise that the selection committee viewed St. John's as the No. 18 overall seed. Pitino was asked about his message to the team regarding the alleged disrespect the committee showed to the reigning Big East champs. 

"It's a great opportunity," Pitino explained. "I said, 'Don't take it as a negative.' I've had teams go to a Final Four that first had to go to Portland and then Arizona from Louisville.  If you're a one or a two-seed, you're gonna get lucky, you're gonna be in a region where your fans can get to, but when you're four, five, and six, you may have to travel. And we have to travel."

As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had St. John's as a 10.5-point favorite over Northern Iowa.