Hey, remember when y’all complained about being left out of the NCAA tournament last March? Yeah, y’all aren’t helping yourselves.

Do you guys remember last year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament? Particularly the part where the Big East got just three teams into the field of 68? Do you remember a whole hullabaloo about that at the time? Both fans shouting in general and coaches saying very silly nonsense about it and media members grousing about it when UConn, Creighton, and Marquette all made the Sweet 16?

With that out of the way: The Big East did not get screwed by the committee.

Seton Hall didn’t have a win worth mentioning to the committee when Big East play started, and after downing UConn and Marquette in their first four league games, they went 7-6 in their final 13 regular season contests and got ran over by St. John’s in the conference tournament quarterfinals. Second Team Out might have been a gift from the committee.

St. John’s took a home loss to Michigan that did them actual damage as the season got worse and worse for the Wolverines, then lost to a Boston College team everyone correctly presumed had no shot at the NCAA tournament, and then had a 2-8 stretch in league play that led to head coach Rick Pitino calling his players “laterally slow” in a press conference. Their five game winning streak to close the regular season involved a season sweep of an awful by major conference standards Georgetown team, a win over a historically awful DePaul team, and a win over a collapsing Butler team. No, that’s not a tournament team.

Villanova tied three millstones to their neck before St. Nicholas Day with loss to Penn, Saint Joseph’s, and Drexel……. and then they followed that up with a 4-6 start to Big East play and needed — hey, look at this — a season sweep of an awful by major conference standards Georgetown team to fight their way back to 10-10 in conference play. No, that’s not a tournament team.

Even if you give Providence a pass for their four game losing streak in the wake of the season ending injury to Bryce Hopkins, they went 10-7 against high major competition with the roster that was going to be available for the postseason…. except that includes sweeps of Georgetown and DePaul…… so actually they’re 6-7, and they came up short in their final three tests of the regular season, including an 11 point home loss to a Villanova team that wasn’t going to get in the field. No, that’s not a tournament team.

Let’s look at how those teams have started their 2024-25 seasons, shall we?

Seton Hall gave up an 11-1 run bridging halftime to Saint Peter’s, letting the Peacocks pull within one, 32-31. They were trailing 50-46 with seven minutes to go and almost wasted a 10-0 run to take a lead. SHU was up 56-50 with three minutes to go after that run and Saint Peter’s cut it to 56-53 with over a minute to go.

The unconvincing 57-53 win tumbled the Pirates from #91 in the KenPom rankings to the #101 spot that they hold as I type this on Wednesday night.

Did head coach Shaheen Holloway appreciate his team’s fight in this game? Probably not, as he might have broken his wrist at halftime.

Providence trailed KenPom #303 Central Connecticut 26-24 at the half. They trailed 42-38 with 10 minutes left. They trailed 53-52 with less than three minutes to go. Providence didn’t hit a field goal at all in the final two minutes, lucking into four free throws from Jayden Pierre in the final 70 seconds to escape with a 59-55 victory.

The Friars started the season at #60 in the KenPom rankings. They are now #74 as I type this on Wednesday night. Yes, Bryce Hopkins did not play after his knee exploded back in January. Call someone who cares, Friartown.

St. John’s……. actually, the Johnnies are fine. They uncorked a 17-3 run against KP #166 Fordham in the first half and never looked back on their way to a 92-60 win.

AND THAT BRINGS US TO VILLANOVA, the reason why I popped this doc open in the editing software.

I was kind of thinking about writing this anyway as Villanova was tied at 37 with KP #234 Lafayette after four minutes of action in the second half in their opener. They played five great minutes to open up a 13 point lead, let the Leopards back within six with just over five minutes to go and then got lucky that Lafayette’s luck ran out.

But, y’know, Eric Dixon was suspended for the opener, so maaaaaaybe we can handwave a bad opener without their star forward, even though the Wildcats dropped from #20 in KenPom to #31.

Cut to Wednesday night, when the Columbia Lions and their #217 KenPom ranking make their way to The Finn. Columbia never scored more than seven points in a row, doing that just twice, once in each half, but they also never gave up more than five straight to the Wildcats. The Lions just wouldn’t go away and wouldn’t go away and slowly they had a lead and then a five point lead and then they were up 10 with seven minutes left. Villanova had just four field goals in the final five minutes, and no scoring at all for a more than a two minute long stretch that led to Columbia taking a 13 point lead because Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa scored six straight for the visitors by himself.

Oh, but Dixon was….. wait. No. Dixon’s suspension was just one game. Eric Dixon was amazing in this game, putting up 33 points on 11-for-16 shooting and chipping in six rebounds, two assists, and three steals. None of it mattered as Columbia won, 90-80.

As I type this, KenPom hasn’t updated yet. Feel free to guess where they fall. HINT: BartTorvik.com dropped them from #49 to #59.

Guys. You are not beating the allegations that you should have been NCAA tournament teams last year. Yes, I know, I know, new season, blah blah blah, not the same thing. You know what is this season? The 2025 NCAA tournament, and all three of Seton Hall, Providence, and Villanova have done nothing so far this season other than shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to the computer rankings and thus their eventual at-large considerations. They struggled against what were, on paper, grossly overmatched opponents and now they’re stuck crossing their fingers and praying to the Allfather that these teams suddenly run wild in their leagues and make the narrow wins — OR IN THE CASE OF VILLANOVA, THE LOSS — look much better.

By the way, these three were not the only ones in the Big East to struggle already this year.

• Xavier was trailing #284 Texas Southern at the half and again with less than 13 minutes to go before pulling off a 78-69 win.
• Butler threw an early 29-17 lead against #206 Missouri State directly into the trash and trailed 56-54 with less than 10 minutes left. They ended up with a 72-65 win.
• Georgetown started their season on Wednesday night by trailing #295 Lehigh, 54-53, with 13 minutes left in the second half. The Hoyas led by as many as 13 in the final minute before letting the final margin land at 85-77.
• AND FINALLY, WE HAVE DEPAUL. The Chris Holtmann Era started by giving up an 11-0 run to #333 Southern Indiana in the first six-plus minutes and thus fighting with the Screaming Eagles the entire rest of the game, up to and including trailing 74-71 with six seconds left and needing an absolute prayer of a three-pointer from Jacob Meyer to force an extra five minutes. They were tied at 78 with less than 10 seconds left in overtime and only a foul that sent Meyer to the line gave the Blue Demons the win.

Is it just a case of a lot of teams having the Game #1 Blues? Shaking off a bit of rust and getting the gears properly aligned with transfers and so on? Maybe it’s all nothing to worry about…. or maybe everyone needs to start getting their act in gear, because shambling about aimlessly against allegedly inferior opponents like this is how you get only three teams into the NCAA tournament for a second straight season.