March Madness: St. John's seeding a big miss for selection committee

"The NCAA Tournament selection committee got this one wrong, from St. John's placement in the field to giving it a cross-country trip for the subregional in San Diego. After the performance against the Huskies, who would have imagined they'd be the prognosticators' "dark horse" to make a deep run the following day?"

"The committee claims to care about how a team will perform in the tourney when it considers seeding. That's why we hear so much about player injuries and their impact. Key players have been out with injuries for No. 5 Texas Tech (JT Toppin), No. 6 North Carolina (Caleb Wilson) and No. 7 UCLA (Donovan Dent), and all of them had NCAA Tournament resumes that suggested a higher seeding."

"Once upon a time, the committee used to include how a team had played in their final 10 games before Selection Sunday as a seeding factor, but now it's a team's "body of work" for the entire season."

St. John's delivered an impressive performance by demolishing UConn in the Big East Tournament championship game before a national audience, yet received a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament while UConn earned No. 2. This seeding disparity raises questions about the selection committee's methodology. The committee claims to consider tournament performance and player injuries when determining seeds, as evidenced by lower seeds given to teams like Texas Tech, North Carolina, and UCLA due to key injuries. However, the committee currently evaluates teams based on their entire season's body of work rather than recent performance trends. St. John's finished 19-1 over their final 20 games, suggesting they deserved higher consideration based on momentum and current form.

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