Rick Pitino, St. John's Won't Participate in 2024 NIT After Missing NCAA Tournament

Rick Pitino and St. Johns will not be involved in the postseason collegiate basketball landscape.

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic reported that the Red Storm had asked the NIT "not to invite them to the tournament," which comes on the heels of an NCAA Tournament snub.

Pitino discussed the snub immediately after the brackets were released:

St. John's went 20-13 in 2023-24 and lost to UConn in the semi-finals of the Big East tournament. This was Pitino's first season as the program's head coach.

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St. John's last appeared in the NIT in 2014, when it fell to Robert Morris in the first round. The program has appeared in that postseason tournament 30 times in its history, winning it officially five times with a vacated tournament win in 2003.

The Red Storm last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019, when it fell to Arizona State in the first four. The program has not advanced past the second round of the tournament in the 21st century.

St. John's had a net ranking of 32 on Selection Sunday. Per Ben Stevens of SportsGrid, the highest ranked team by that metric to be left out of the NCAA Tournament was 33rd. St. John's and Indiana State, which was ranked 29, both fell short of the tournament this season.

This means that it will be another postseason without a St. John's presence, but the progress on the year is still worth noting. It was the first 20-win season for the program since that 2018-19 season, and the team should remain a contender in the Big East going forward.