No need to watch selection show. It’s over.

NIT bracket on ESPNU @9:30.

By Zach Braziller

It’s a case of he said, he said.

Connecticut coach Dan Hurley insisted he didn’t try to get St. John’s fan Tom O’Grady ejected for allegedly cursing at him.

And O’Grady, a longtime Pitino friend, said he didn’t say anything to Hurley other than to inform the officials he was out of the coaching box.

In the end, it was much ado about nothing, other than a funny side story to the entertaining Big East Tournament semifinal between the two teams at the Garden.

Top-seeded UConn won the game, outlasting the No. 5 Johnnies, 95-90.

O’Grady returned to his courtside seats after halftime.

“Obviously, the place was in a frenzy when [Pitino] got his technical,” Hurley said. “And then there was a short [man] in a red blazer that was on the court yelling at the refs, and then he started yelling at me and moving in my direction.

“So I was just kind of pointing out to [official] James [Breeding] that he was behaving worse than Coach Pitino.”

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Hurley wound up getting a technical foul, too, and could be seen motioning for O’Grady to be ejected.

O’Grady left his seats but eventually returned.

Hurley said he spoke to Garden officials at halftime and wanted O’Grady to be allowed to return.

“Not because I thought he was a good guy,” he joked. “I thought it might be bad luck. Karma.”

O’Grady, a Floral Park native who has known Pitino dating back to his days at Louisville and resides there now, declined to say if Hurley attempted to get him ejected.

“I did not say a word to Dan. Not one word,” O’Grady said. “I said to the referee, ‘He’s out of the box,’ and he gave him a T. That was it. If someone was cursing at him, it wasn’t me.”

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Asked about O’Grady, Pitino said: “I told him, I’m going to give you these seats on one condition: You do not say anything to the officials. He’s a genius gas trader, and he’s got deep psychological problems with officials.”

“Dan Hurley is an amazing basketball coach. I got no problem with Dan Hurley.

All I know is it was a great game. St. John’s played great. UConn is an amazing basketball team. Dan Hurley is a hell of a basketball coach. He lost his temper. That’s it.”

Hurley has had issues with opposing fans this year in games against Creighton and Providence, and now he has added O’Grady to the list of contentious run-ins.

“I’m probably the boy who cried wolf because of [the other games],” the coach said. “But I promise you, if we play Marquette tomorrow night, there will be no incident because those people are incredibly classy fans, and we have incredible respect for them.”

Remember when the Big 10 was kicking them out?

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so their profile before BET was worse than ours. they were beneath the Hall on every tournament selection. So they beat shu AT HOME to salvage 1-2 record vs us. and then get NO MORE wins. thats supposed to pass SHU?? they beat creighton nova and providence. THATS IT. check the Q1 wins difference. we're talkin tourney selection, if they get in over us then we can definitively realize that NET does matter for selection. otherwise we should be firmly planted ahead of them. its about wins losses. who you beat.

there is no way in hell they should ever sniff higher than the Hall. they should be the hot seat , dayton at best team.

Great that Carino is passionate about his NJ schools he covers but the league collectively voted for final 4 top schools to do semis and final on last weekend

Politi in our corner:

Mike Walsh Bracketology:

Seton Hall at 42 (11 seed) Last Four In
SJU at 43 (11 seed) Last Four In

Bubble: (2 spots left)
- Villanova
- Pitt
- Utah
- Princeton

Potential Spoilers:
- NC State

Conference Bids:
Big 12 - 8
SEC - 7
Big Ten - 6
Mountain West - 5
Big East - 5
ACC - 4
PAC 12 - 4

Notes:
- The NCAA claims to weigh the entire season equally. Despite our loss to SJU in the BET, we swept them in season, we finished 2 games ahead of them in conference, we have 5 Q1 wins to their 4 Q1 wins. We should finish ahead of them, but we survive even if we're behind them.
- I have Michigan State at 40 (2 spots ahead of us). They finished 10-10 in conference, they are 3-9 in Q1 and 9-14 in Q2. There is a chance that we get a better placement as we finished 3 games above .500 and have 2 additional Q1 wins.

- I have Texas A&M at 36 (6 spots ahead of us). They finished 9-9 in conference. They have 13 Q1 and Q2 wins, however they have 5 Q3 losses. We each played 12 Q3 and Q4 games and we finished at 11-1 while they finished at 7-5.

- Could the NET be putting too much value on the Mountain West which has 4 teams at NET 155 or worse (Wyoming 155, Fresno 232, San Jose 242 and Air Force 269). We have DePaul 320 and Georgetown 204, our 9 remaining teams are 67 NET or higher. The Big East leaders got 4 automatic conference wins, while the Mountain West leaders got 8 automatic wins.

Conclusion:
No Big East team that finished 5 games above .500 ever missed the Dance. We are one of 30 teams with 5 Quad 1 wins or more. I think there's a chance that the Mountain West gets just 4 bids. There's a chance that we get picked ahead of Michigan State and/or Texas A&M. Despite Princeton's record of 24-3, they have ZERO Q1 wins, 2-3 in Q2, and the loss to Brown today (Q3) puts them on the bubble.

We will land between 39 and 43 on selection Sunday. A spot at 41, or better, and we don't have to play on Tuesday. GO PIRATES!!!

As of 10:30 this morning, he has us as the 1st team out. Now I'm worried!

Sha takes out Kadary first game vs st johns...doesnt have his fluke scenario.

More healthy vs Creighton a win, more healthy vs pc a win...shu 15-5 2 seed

Hall28 is to credit for this

These are all Championship Games:

*FAU over Temple, 5PM ESPN2
San Diego State over New Mexico, 6PM CBS
*UNC over NC State, 8PM ESPN

*Bid stealer alert.

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And he once ran for local office near San Diego as a democrat

Mediocre coach; anger issues.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...michigan-fires-coach-juwan-howard-8-24-season

Is it OK if I say that I can’t stand the sight of that man? They just showed him in the huddle during a time out and he was sitting in the chair with his legs crossed! I hate to admit it but I really want UConn to humiliate St John’s.

FINAL

• 
  Xavier
  76
• 
  Butler
  72

Box

With the NET and other predictive measures mattering as much as they do, how would you ideally go about scheduling?

My most important consideration is getting in the tournament with the best seed possible. So, maybe a MTE, Rutgers, bottom feeders outside of the BE season?

Top 3 teams will be a 1, 2 and 3

50 years strong!


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https://www.mcall.com/2024/03/15/nowhere-coffee-shutting-down-emmaus/

Bummer

Two weeks ago, if SHU beats Nova they are most likely in, if they beat Depaul they CLINCH the NCAA"s, and how conference tournaments dont really move the needle, now that we lost all of us suddenly changed?