Larry Brown and SMU received the biggest snub from the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The Mustangs, who spent a large portion of February and March ranked in the AP Top 25 and beat Final Four entrant UConn, didn’t let their exclusion from the Big Dance get them too down.
They reached the NIT semifinals at the Garden, where Brown spent one disastrous season as Knicks coach.
“I know we had a hard time in our locker room building our kids up,” said Brown, who is in his second season at SMU. “But I look at this as a tremendous honor and privilege to be playing in this tournament. I grew up going to the NIT when I was a little boy. It was a phenomenal tournament.”
SMU is joined by fellow top seeds Florida State and Minnesota, and third-seeded Clemson. St. John’s, upset in the opening round by No. 8 Robert Morris, was the only No. 1 seed not to reach the Garden. Clemson meets SMU in the opener Tuesday night at 7 p.m., followed by Florida State-Minnesota.
The NIT won’t just be a homecoming for Brown — it will also serve as one for Minnesota first-year head coach Richard Pitino, the son of former Knicks coach and Louisville head man Rick Pitino. Richard Pitino is in his second year as a head coach — he left Florida International after one season — following seven years working as an assistant coach at Northeastern, Duquesne, Florida and Louisville.
“Obviously this is exciting for me personally,” Richard Pitino said. “I’m excited about what we’ve been able to accomplish and the direction we’re headed.”